Re-Cap and Recapture

An insight into what life for me has been since Thanksgiving Day--

Our church opened a tree lot Friday after Thanksgiving, ok allow me to clarify, I opened a Tree Lot Friday after Thanksgiving. The only major fundraiser the church has done in the past and student ministry just so happens to lead it.

It makes a decent amount of cash, but when you calculate the man hours I am seriously wondering if it is worth it. This is my first night home since that Friday and though we have volunteers helping out, they tend to not show up when they said they would or we just don't have enough people around. Seriously moving a 13' Noble Fir tree takes 3 dudes and a 6 year old boy (aka my kid). At our last church we did a major fundraiser selling fireworks. We were only open 5 days and it made as much cash as a tree lot that is open for 3 weeks....yes you can say i have already been evaluating if this will be done again next year or not.
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Our ministry is going through some growing pains right now. It is actually fun to watch and experience. This is our first full year at this church and transitioning a ministry from un-healthy to healthy and these are expected. The fun part is watching our leaders that have come on board and seeing how they will respond.

I see our ministry doing some good things, but nothing great. I see us praying, but not yet dependent on God to move. Even myself i have seen get caught up in the 'business' of doing ministry, task lists, etc and not 'being engulfed by the presence of God'
I know after the New Year we have a new bar we are setting and a lot of it is based on dependency on God to move.
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We have had some great students open up their lives to God. In the last 2 weeks i have had 5 students make a verbal commitment to actually opening up their lives to listening to God. All of these students (mix of new followers of Jesus and also been walking with Him a while) have willing said i wanna live up to the life Christ has for me.

Very cool to see that & it encourages me to know that God is moving in spite of some 'glitches' I am seeing in the ministry!
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My kids are way to cool to have me as their dad & my wife is way to amazing!

Both of my boys and my wife have been amazing me at who they are becoming, how God is speaking to them as well as what they add to my life!
I have been captivated by my time with them and want a lot more of it.....glad I have 2 weeks off starting December 23rd!!!