This short little novel wraps a story around three unlikely characters that find their way.  It is a really easy read, but has a hundred life lessons in hardly that many pages.  It is definitely worth the read.

My favorite part is about this scale.  Where everything that is wrong with the world is heaped up on one side.  And the little bit of good can never outweigh the bad.  However, since each person that does the little bit of good that they can do, it starts to move the scale.  And eventually, there will be ‘the one’.  Now, this ‘one’ isn’t like Neo in the Matrix.  This is just another person that is doing their little bit of good, just like all the rest.  And you would never even know it when it happened, but that little bit of good is the little bit that tips the scale so that the good is outweighing the bad.

We can’t do everything, but together, we can do more than we ever imagined.

We flew in to Tampa on Wednesday night, and Bella did great on the planes.  We were able to go to the beach on Thursday and hang out with he Neves and Archer families.  On Friday, we explored Tampa and decided that we like Hyde Park.  We also accidentally drove past a dog track, so we went to see some races, but they weren’t going to happen for hours.  We took a picture at the track though. Friday night we got to hang out at Pier 60 and swing on swings and watch some street performers that breathe fire and break dance.  We came home last night to a gecko in our kitchen.  Rhonda was not ok with that.  We’re about to go to the rehearsal dinner.  Bella is having a ton of fun.  She loves the ocean and is holding up considering the time change and the UV rays.  We hope you all enjoy the pictures.

I have to say that I have fallen in love with God.  I can’t imagine my life without Him.  He has changed me in ways I didn’t know were possible.

Now, that being said, I am excited about where God is leading me.  Where God is leading this congregation that I’ve taken up with.  I heard Reggie McNeal say that the Church doesn’t have a mission, the mission has a Church.  I couldn’t agree more.  But one of the things that has taken ahold of my heart is how willing OroNaz, and the people here take that seriously.  We are currently looking at taking up an initiative called C3, which includes campus, community and compassion.

I have to say that I am not the first guy to get behind capital stewardship campaigns.  I am probably too critical of them, but either way, I didn’t take to the idea well when I first heard about it.  That was until I started to see how thorough the scope was and how many possibilities it had for moving the Church forward.  I believe that we should be on the move.  That the kingdom of God comes in our lives first, and from there we move outward, spreading the good news.  The most compelling thing about this C3 initiative to me is that Church isn’t one of the C’s.  Campus is about expanding the current OroNaz campus.  Building for the community and borrowing it on Sundays.  Community is about resourcing and helping frontline ministries in the community that are meeting real needs.  And Compassion is about finding some place in the world where we invest for years at a time.  Find a local church and help them.  Make them the hero.  So that when we’re gone, there is a sustainable system.  And doing it in one area for a long time means that not only are we meeting their needs, but we are emotionally and physically tied to them.  Their lives affect ours as much as we affect theirs.  We were made for relationship.

And the fact that Church isn’t one of those C’s makes my heart start to skip beats.  Because Church is all those things.  It’s going to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth with the good news that God is putting everything back together by and through the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I really can’t wait to see where this takes us.  It’s putting action to what I’ve felt and seen but couldn’t put my finger on.  It is the most excited I’ve been about serving God since He saved me.

Matthew 16:18

Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means `rock’),s and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hells will not conquer it.