Happy New Year!

 1Sam. 13:14 - "...the LORD has sought a man after his own heart....."  

    As we begin a new year and and I look back at our first few months here I am humbled by how God continues to show me His love and character through those I have come to share his love with. One experience that stands out in my mind most recently was on Tuesday night. It was a pretty regular start to Tuesday Night Bible Study for this time of year. I was in my usual spot, corralling the kids as they came into the Longhouse from the vans and headed to the back tables for coloring and games before dinner. Though it happens each week, I was still surprised as Joshua (one of our 7 yr old boys from Totus Park) gave me his usual greeting by leaping from one of the benches onto my back with an excited "HEY!" At dinner, in between eating like there is no tomorrow (mostly because there may not be a decent meal tomorrow), he couldn't stop looking for every opportunity to serve me! After dinner he promptly claimed his spot on my lap and grabbed my arms and wrapped them around him tightly as we prepared to sing praises to the Lord. As he heard mention of the birth of Christ he quickly proceeded to give me, as Paul Harvey put it so well, "the rest of the story". As he recalled a visual lesson from Thanksgiving using pumpkins he proclaims, "Yeah, then he grew up and died on the cross and then rose from the dead so he could take all of our yucky stuff away!"

      As the Granberrys have returned and we prepare for the first official Sunday Worship Service with Hope Fellowship (our church plant) on Easter Sunday, Chris has begun to challenge us to consider the life of David, and what it looks like to be a man or woman (and church) after God's own heart. It seems somewhat ironic that I find part of this answer in a child. I hope you will join me this year as I ask the Lord daily to make me a man after His own heart no matter what it takes. As this thought may be overwhelming, may we take comfort in the finished work of Christ and his promise to complete the good work begun in us.

2 Cor 9:8-9  

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written,

              "He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;

                 his righteousness endures forever."   

Joshua (center) with some of his family