January Summary

An update on life.  January has been a busy month for my family and me.  After all the holiday hustle and bustle there is some natural downtime that is needed to return to the routine.  The most significant event of the new year, however, relates to my dad.  He was diagnosed in December with prostate cancer.  It was a very small spot but after some discussion and research, my parents decided for surgery. He had his surgery mid-January and has been recouping since then.  His pathology report came back clean and we are very thankful for that report. So as January transitions into February Dad continues to heal.

In addition, my job has changed with the coming of 2008 and I’ve been focusing a lot of time on the transition. I have pick up the responsibilities at the church in the area of missions, evangelism, and strategic planning (in addition to student ministry.)  It has added a lot of excitement and energy to my ministry.  For quite some time I have been passionate about missional living – especially developing our community ministries.  Without knowing this door would open, I was searching for outlets for this new passion.  God has brought the passion and the opportunity together.  It is good to have some new areas of ministry to develop and implement.

I head this week to the New Baptist Covenant gathering in Atantla. It is a tremendous opportunity to attend  and to gather with so many like-minded Baptists as we journey forward to a new, cooperative day in the history of the Baptist faith.  There are some amazing speakers that I’m excited about hearing like Jimmy Carter and Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell.  In addition, the breakout session look fantastic and I do believe I will have a very difficult time choosing from the selections.  I’ll plan to post some sharings while there in Atlanta for the last part of this week.