Ramping up for Easter

I’m TRYING to get back into the swing of blogging regularly (Ok, Ok – I’m trying to START getting into the swing of blogging regularly!!!)

Ramping up for Easter – pray with me for literally HUNDREDS of our folks to bring unchurched friends to Easter services. BTW – are YOU planning already to invite people you know? Use the “invite cards” we received this past Sunday – get more this coming Sunday. Lots of folks need Jesus. Duh!!!

Please pray for my dad and his wife. She has lung cancer and it may have spread – they are running tests, and she is having chemo and radiation. Tough road ahead. My dad is so in need of a miracle. His mind simply will not allow him to understand or remember all that is happening around him. Dad has only come here a few times and none recently. I wish the man I was describing to you I could introduce to you.

I love him so much. Yet, I’m afraid you will never know him as I know him. No eulogy here, just admiration for a man who sacrificed so much for me – for me to have so much that he never had – for me to have so many things that most kids who grew up “the way I grew up” never had. He so “rose above” his upbringing, and for that I’m really proud of my dad. No education, no “breaks” in life – just hard work, pure and simple.

He has the wrinkles to prove it – and I have the blessings to verify it. My parental heritage is strange. Mom was an educated debutante with a Master’s from seminary. Dad was a middle school drop-out. Mother wore a Sunday dress to my little league baseball games. Dad wore over-alls most of his life. He got a new pair as a kid at Christmas every year – that was ALL he got for Christmas every year. Mom was from a rich family, dad from a very poor family. Sometimes I think I understand both because of that.

I digress..

Moral of this moment – let’s love on our parents. They put up with us. What a blessing.

Sacrifice for the Kingdom

OK, I admit it. I’m a total emotional wreck.

Beyond just learning that my dad’s wife has lung cancer (thanks for your prayers).

Beyond the fact that it’s REALLY beginning to hit me that my baby girl is getting married in only months.

No, it’s none of that.

I just left a meeting of the IMB (our missionary sending agency of the Southern Baptist Convention) where I met some of the finest young couples in the whole country who are leaving EVERYTHING to go around the world to tell people about Jesus.

THEN, on top of that, I just left a session where we had a memorial service for the IMB missionaries who passed away serving the Lord. 32 missionaries (retired and active) who have served a total of over 1100 years – YEARS, not days or months. Unbelievable.

I heard their names called, and just broke down and wept because of their faithfulness and ministry for Jesus. I was literally moved to my bones with gratitude for their sacrifice for the Kingdom.

Then, I thought of these young couples we are appointing this week. I have met them, talked to them, prayed with them – they are incredible. The finest of the finest.

PLEASE, PRAY FOR THEM.

• Pray for Michael and Crystal – a young couple with four little kids heading to Peru.
• Pray for Greg and Kim – a couple with four kids (two recently adopted) heading to Mexico.
• Pray for a couple from Rockwall, Texas – David Miller’s home town.
• Pray for a couple from Spartanburg, coming out of a church pastored by one of my closest friends from seminary.
• Can’t remember all their names – but God knows. And, they are incredible folks.

I am called to pastor a church – McGregor Baptist Church, and I love it. I am NOT called to be a missionary; I couldn’t do it. Too tough. I’m a wimp.

My hat’s off to these folks. My heart is with these folks. My soul rejoices for these folks.

My tears keep coming.