I wanted to take just a second during this hectic holiday season to wish all of my family, friends, and followers a Merry Christmas!! I also want to thank everyone who has supported my family in our transition to church planting. It has been really intimidating, but we are excited about what God has in store for our life and for North Lake Church.
Please be praying for my family as we adventure on one of the most hectic 12 day journeys of our lives.
I have really been struggling with this idea over the past few weeks,
“At what age do you tell your children the truth about Santa?”
I posted this thought on Facebook and Twitter the other day, and I received dozens of responses. Of course there were those who live in fairy tale land, and still believe in the mythical version of Santa at 45 years old. I bet they live in their parents basement. j/k 
And there were those who were dogmatic about it, and said you shouldn’t have started to begin with. All these answers left me feeling like there has to be some balance. I want my child to have an imagination; I want him to challenge the norm and experience the extraordinary. I don’t want him to grow up closed minded, and so distant from reality that he is unable to function in society.
I asked myself “if I had it to do over again, would we have even started with Santa?” My answer is not of great importance because either way he believes. My biggest thing concerning the issue with the mythical version of Santa is Continue reading
I finally decided to break away from family events to set behind the ol’ PC, and do a little blogging and surfing. I had to get away. All the social interacting was getting to me. When I got on here I discovered that for the first time I felt alone on the net. It didn’t seem like anyone was out there. There were a couple people twittering, but other than that there were no new incoming blogs, no new emails, and no new newsletters. It was kind of peaceful, and to my amazement refreshing; knowing that people were off their computers for a change spending time with people. Many people will waste their lives away sitting behind a monitor. Christmas is a day where people can step back into reality and the way life is suppose to be. We should spend more time with family, give to those in need, and provide services to those less fortunate. My hope and New Years resolution is to carry over this mind frame into the New Year. Won’t you join me on this life changing challenge? Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the Lord be with you.
Katie, and I have been looking at having another child for over a year now, and for some reason something has always came up which interfered with this possibility. Katie would have to undergo a minor procedure in order to have a child; which insurance would not cover.
We have for the majority of our marriage been financially stabile, so it has not been a problem providing for our family; however at the same time anytime we wanted to take on a large financial endeavor such as this procedure we had to strategically manage our finances to put back large sums of money. We have successfully done this in many ways and purchases. (Motorcycles, Cars, house, education, and so on.)
We had just saved up money to buy our entire family Christmas presents, and we had planned to have Katie’s procedure done in January. Once again something came up.
We had to pay $500 to have the car fixed, pay $200 for medication for Kaleb’s sicknesses, and we had another financial loss of around $800. This wiped out all of our plans. I am just glad this was all money we had set back for other things.
It is amazing how quickly things can change, and at the same time it is awesome how God provides when we are faithful. I became a little frustrated with the situation, but God had other plans in store. Once again we were able to strategically manage our finances, and we were able to purchase Christmas gifts. Now we had to decide whether or not to pursue Katie’s procedure. It was allot to think about, and it wasn’t so much that we wanted to have a baby, but we wanted to increase our family. We have a large home with plenty of love to share.
Some friends of ours have been talking to us about adopting for years, and we always said we would do it when we were older, but for some reason God continues to press upon our hearts to adopt. As stated in Steven Curtis Chapman’s video (above) there are over 50 million orphans in need of a family. We went to the web site www.adoptuskids.org, and we fell in love with this 5 year old girl and this 10 year old girl immediately. This process can cost over a $1,000 for the home study alone not to mention everything else, however we came across an organization that has federal grant money specifically designed for adoption. So far we sent in our application, and we are just waiting to hear back from them. I haven’t felt this sure about anything since the day of my salvation, and my call to ministry. God is leading us to adopt, and I ask that you be praying for us.
Once again we just desire to share the love of our family with a child in need. The warmth of our home, and bond established amongst our family would provide an excellent atmosphere for the future child of our “forever family”
If you have ever even considered adopting I would encourage you to watch the video above, check out the AdoptUsKids website, and grab you a copy of the book “Fields of the Fatherless” by C. Thomas Davis which gives scriptural truth which will challenge and empower you to adopt. “Christ said, …whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”
”Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” – James 1:27 (NLT)
All I really want for Christmas is to add a child to our family. Please, once again be praying for us so that our Christmas wish might come true. We realize it will be after Christmas before we hear anything, but better late than never.
May God bless you and your family richly this Christmas season.
- The Williams Family
It is amazing how quickly your attitude can change with just a little Christmas Spirit. My family got some really bad financial news yesterday, and I must admit my initial reaction was “what do we do, what do we do, what do we do!!” I began to panic, and my heart just sank. Then a light bulb turned on, and God comforted me by reminding me that He will provide. I stopped, and told myself…”Man, God has provided for you every step of the way, why in the world are you getting all frantic and allowing doubt to set in.” I was like Peter walking on water, doing God’s ministry, focusing on Him, and then I took my eyes away just for a second to look at the storm (finances) around me, and I began to sink. I actually feel kind of ashamed, but fortunately I serve a merciful God.
I was feeling pretty discouraged about our financial situation, and my lack of faith as I headed off to church yesterday. I wasn’t sure what God had in store for us, and I really wasn’t sure how I was going to get through the night. This was the night we were going Christmas caroling at one of our local nursing homes, and I had absolutely no desire to celebrate anything. Christmas was just a week away, and I wasn’t even going to be able to put presents under our tree. God never ceases to amaze me. Every emotion, every thought, and every gene of Mr. Grinch left my heart. I was blessed upon amazement. No, God didn’t do some miracle and provide a million dollars, what He did was worth so much more. He provided friends and a loving Church family to comfort me in my turmoil. My youth group, not knowing my situation just poured out their love, appreciation, and support for me. We headed off to the nursing home, and we had a wonderful night. We sang Christmas carols, rejoiced in the Lord, and uplifted the hearts of the elderly. The Christmas Spirit has just overwhelmed me with joy in such a hard time.
Maybe you are in a really tough situation right now, and you don’t think you are going to be able to provide any presents for your children; I want you to know I have felt that same burden. I may have nothing to give to my child as far as materialism, but I have something to give that is worth way much more and that is LOVE and QUALITY TIME. If you can’t go all out for Christmas don’t let it get you down. Just love on your kids, show them some affection, spend time with them, play games, do crafts, sing together, and go do something for someone else in need. You will be amazed at how the Christmas Spirit will fill your family with joy and laughter. That is the best present we can give our children. Let us be thankful that even though we have nothing, we have everything in Jesus Christ. Luke 2:1-20
Today our church did a free Christmas gift wrapping at Pinnacle Hills Promenade (Mall) as an outreach ministry, and we probably wrapped over 100 gifts. It was really neat to give back to the community in this way. Multiple people asked where are donation bucket was, and they were surprised when we told them that it was actually free, and we weren’ttrying to raise money. Our culture today is so convinced that everyone is trying to profit in one way or another. I even had one man who wanted to argue with me. He couldn’t believe we were doing it for free. So I said fine “We are convicted felons, and we are having to do community service.” My wife wanted to kill me for that one. The gentleman laughed, and proceeded to have us wrap his gifts. Many people asked what organization we were with, and we had an excellent opportunity to share information about our church. I was only there for about 3 hours, but it was time well spent.
Christmas is a time of giving. Be sure to give this Holiday Season.
My prayer is that you have a blessed Christmas.
