HE PASSED!!

We are giving thanks and praise tonight because Jim passed his oral ordination test! After almost 3 hours of questions he is so close to being ordained. On Saturday he will go before Presbytery to preach a sermon and then the floor will be opened for 10 minutes of questions. Thank you for your prayers!!! Please continue to lift him up.

Tough Day For Michelle

Michelle had her colonoscopy and endoscopy today. Add this day to the list of medical procedures gone bad. We infadicaly told her doctor that Michelle has a high tolerance to pain meds and sedation and that she needed extra. Well, to get to the point, Michelle was completely awake during both procedures. They had to restrain her during the endoscopy so she would not pull out the hose. It was horribly traumatic. To make thing worse, they did not find anything abnormal that is causing the chronic diarrhea. Thank you for your many prayers.

Mile One

We have made it to mile marker one. I must confess, I should be enjoying this first mile more, but my impending ordination exam has cast some scattered clouds over this season. I go before the committee next Wednesday (24th) in the afternoon. I am actually on a study break from the "Doctrine of the Church" to type this blog.

Well, how was the second service? Church planting math says you should divide the first week attendance by two, then you will have your starting congregation. Week one you get lots of well wishers who are already committed to other local churches but wanted to encourage us. We had around 85 week one, so with the above formula, we should be in the mid- 40's? Well, we had around 65! It must be the dynamic preaching, right!?

Funny Story: After the service, one of my good friends Mikey, came up to me to ask a question, "what is repentance?" Fare question right? Well, my sermon Sunday was on the Parable of the fig tree, on repentance from Luke 13. My three points of the sermon were 1) The Need for Repentance 2) What is Repentance and 3) What does Repentance Look Like Lived out? I just spent thirty minutes breaking down repentance with analogies, illustrations, and scriptural support and then he asks "what is repentance?" All this to say it must be something else than my preaching bringing people to Harbor Church. Actually, I know what that something else is. God's sweet Spirit has defiantly been visiting with us.

Michelle is still in the middle of the storm. I would not say she is any worse, but not much better either. She will have a colonoscopy on Wednesday morning. The preparation regiment for it is not going to be pretty. Please pray for her as she has to take the prep milk shake. uggg... My sister Cameron is holding her own and doing much better than she was a month ago. A couple weeks ago she was able to record her senior recital for her Masters in Harp Performance. They reviewed and accepted it and mailed her diploma last week! She is about half way through a 30 week cycle of chemo and radiation.

Well back to the confession... Blessings!!!

We Have Lift Off

What a day! What an adrenalin rush! What a good God! Our grand opening mailer went out on Tuesday to over 20,000 homes in the Ocean Beach community. All week I received calls from folks who received the mailer inquiring more information about our new congregation. Due to the calls I received, I was optimistic that we would have quit a few first time visitors. I was blown away by how many actually came. I would estimate that we had about 50 folks who came just because they received our mailer. All told we had around 85 for our first public worship. Everyone seemed to interact well and enjoy the worship and fellowship. The praise team knocked a home run. Their spirits ushered our new congregation right into a powerful time of worship. I had a strong sense of the Holy Spirit helping while I preached. There is nothing more fun than preaching the Word of God when you have been filled in an unusual way with His spirit. Courtney Hall, our good friend who has been living with us on and off since April, shared her testimony. It was soooo good. You can download my sermon and Courtney’s testimony online at http://www.harborob.org/.

Michelle was not able to make it to our service this morning. She had been up most of the night with multiple trips to the bathroom. By morning she was completely wiped out. She tried to shower and get ready but she was so weak. I am so thankful for Lois Swagerty, another Harbor pastor’s wife, who came and laid in bed with Michelle during our service. They cried and laughed together. Michelle needed some well timed encouragement. The Lord was so gracious to send Lois today.

Tomorrow starts a two week cram season for my ordination exam. Thankful, I was able to put off the exam a few weeks. Looks like I will go before the committee on the 24th or 25th. But for today, I will celebrate and this amazing new chapter of Harbor OB.

It's Coming Together

We are two days away from our fist public worship service! We had a preview service last Sunday morning, to do a test run of setting up and breaking down the OB Elementary auditorium. For the most part it was smooth. Of course there are a few minor things that go wrong like the projector screen not being left down for us or not being able to turn on hall lights. But overall, it was a great service and Lord meet with us all. The worship team has come together and did an excellent job in leading worship. The children’s team was zipping around and the children loved our new children’s church.

This week our “Grand Opening” mailer went out and I have received a dozen or so calls, most of them positive and encouraging. Of course living in a place like OB, you are also going to get some creative and highly descriptive calls to remind you why God has called us to OB. I’ve clapped my hands and rubbed them together numerous times today. I get so exciting thinking about our opportunity. I’ll give a complete run down Sunday evening.

Michelle is doing a little bit better. She is no longer having to go to the bathroom 20 plus times a day, but has slimmed her visits down to 3 or 4 times. This does allow her to retain some fluids and food. Earlier in the week she picked up a UTI infection and started breaking out in boils. I told her that she is starting to look like Job? In the midst of feeling rotten, Michelle’s spirits have been joyful. She has been singing and worshiping more in the past few weeks than I can ever remember. Having her good friend Katrina from back in SC visit this week has been such a blessing for our entire family. It is hard but there is a joy that only comes from being close to God in the midst of suffering. We are actually incredible blessed!

Faith and Isaac are both back in school and loving it. Well, Isaac loves his new class and friends but misses his sister and wants to go to her class. Thanks to grandma Lees, they have been dressed in the best of back to school fashion. I have some good looking kids.

Surf Camp

Will you pray and fast with me? Scripture tells us that these two spiritual disciplines should be practiced when seeking divine guidance, intervention, protection, and to break through spiritual strong holds. I am looking for prayer partners who will pray and fast for the spiritual strong holds here in Ocean Beach and for our impending launch. Isaiah 58, which I call the OB chapter, challenges me, "Is it not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" Isaiah 58:6

Our goal is not to manipulate God (See Acts 23:12,14) or to impress people but to be drawn deeper into the presence of our Abba Father. Fasting reveals the things that control us and actively demonstrates repentance, grief, humility, and wholeheartedness. These attributes are rare attributes for me. Please join me in the season of seeing God's kingdom advancing and captives being set free.


Update on Michelle – Michelle came home Saturday evening and is still feeling cruddy. Today she is a little stronger, so I do believe there is some progress being made. Tonight (Tuesday), I am going to have a dedicated time of worship and prayer over Michelle. I would like to invite all who are able to join me. I am going to start around 9 pm, after I get my kids to bed. Call if you need directions
(619) 221-0034.

Well, we are just a few days away from our first Sunday morning worship. I was so encouraged today meeting with OB Elem. Principle Margaret Johnson. I could not have dreamed for a better partnership. She is rolling out the red carpet for us.

Twists and Turns

I wanted to let our good friends and ministry partners know about Michelle's health. Michelle started having a IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) fare up about five weeks ago. Some of you may remember that Michelle suffered for almost at year with these kinds of symptoms back in 2002-3. Over the past five weeks her tummy issues have progressively deteriorated. She went to her internist three weeks ago and he ran a few test and referred her to a GI specialist. Unfortunately the fist available appointment was not until the 28th of August. Mean while, Michelle got weaker and weaker. On Tuesday of this week, Michelle blacked out and I took her to the ER. She was severely dehydrated and they gave her IV fluids and where able to get her GI appointment moved up to this afternoon.

We went this afternoon and her GI and he decided to admit Michelle into Green Hospital. He felt that she has suffered enough and they need to get to the bottom of things immediately (GLORY). The thought is that when Michelle was healed back in March from her pituitary disease, she stopped taking corteff (a steroid). It was most likely this steroid which she has been taking for her pituitary disease, was also suppressing her IBS.

It has been frustration for Michelle to be sideline with so much happening with the church plant. In the midst of Michelle's health struggles, things with the plant are taking off. We are less than three weeks away from our "grand opening" service. Our leadership team has taken shape and we will have a "launch 101" meeting this Saturday. I will post pictures of a water safety and surf clinic we did for neighborhood kids last Saturday in the next day. Please continue to pray for Michelle health and God's grace for our Church plant. Oh, by the way I and to sit for my Ordination exam in the next two weeks. Gulp!