So we haven’t been the most consistent bloggers. Bear with us! We’ll get better. Here’s what’s been going on with us recently…
A Break from the Nomadic Lifestyle.
Earlier this month, we moved into an apartment in Longwood. This is a huge blessing for us as we prepare for the coming of our baby boy. For the last 10 months, we have been living with family so that we could save money and work full-time at raising our financial support. We are so thankful for our family for being so supportive of us, and for helping us get to Italy as fast as possible. However, with our boy on the way, we felt the need and desire to have a place of our own once again. God has provided a place that more than meets our needs at an incredible price. He is so good to us.
28 weeks.
Nicole is now 28 weeks pregnant. Our boy is strong and healthy, and Nicole is the cutest mama that I have ever seen. Our boy has been kicking and punching like crazy. I like to think that he’s giving me high fives, and giving his legs a workout to prepare himself for soccer in Italy. It’s crazy to believe that we only have 12 more weeks, and then he’s here. We’re pumped!
Modifying the game plan.
When we started this journey to Italy back in January, we decided that I would work full-time at raising our financial team of partners in order to get to Italy as fast as possible. It has proven to be a good plan, giving me the opportunity to meet with potential investors during the day, as well as the freedom to travel outside of Orlando. However, we did not foresee our financial support slowing as much as it has these past few months. Therefore, we have decided to change up the game plan. We are right near 50% of our funding, and Nicole will stop working in late February due to the baby. I’m currently looking for a full-time job that will both provide and protect our family’s finances as well as offer the flexibility to allow me to continue to gather our team of ministry partners. Please pray that God provides a great opportunity!
Band of Brothers
Roughly two weeks ago, I participated in a weekend retreat with a few men from my church. Rob Farnsley hosted the retreat at his home in St. Cloud. The required materials were my Bible, the book ‘Wild at Heart’ by John Eldredge, the ‘Wild at Heart’ Field Manual, and the most elusive material of all…my heart. Wild at Heart played a significant role in my walk with God back in 2003, so I was excited to revisit Eldredge’s book, and go deep once again with a group of Godly men. Although I found myself disagreeing with Eldredge on a number of statements, his ideas once again had a profound impact on my heart, my passions, and my identity as a man made in the image of God. But the weekend was more than just a book study. It was fellowship. It was vulnerability. It was an opportunity to take off our masks, and talk about our fears, our wounds, and our failures. And it didn’t stop there either. It gave courage. It provided a group of men to fight along with in this battle for my heart.
Below are some pictures from the weekend. If anyone is interested in doing something like this with a group of men, contact me or Rob Farnsley (321-663-6947). It is most definitely worth it.
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt
