Crazy Church Updates

Identity Crisis??? At my age???

2009-01-06T21:50:00.003-06:00

I feel like I'm having to figure out who I am....again.

It's hard. As we are working through planting this church I am feeling stretched in ways I didn't know I could be stretched. I am seeing places of me that I didn't know were there. I am having moments where I feel like I am back in Jr. High (those were DARK days for me!) and trying to figure out where I fit.

There are moments when I feel a little confident in something, then other moments where I feel like I'm trying to be like someone else - trying to fit into who they are, not who I am. I am figuring out who I am again!

I am in a new position and a new phase in life and I feel very small and lost sometimes.

This is a very messy time for me. But I'm not in despair about it. I am a little excited (sometimes) to see who God is going to form me into. I am wondering how God is going to mold me. It's not an easy place to be, and I pray that I stay moldable for Him. I want to be turned into something good!

I am listening to a podcast as I write this. The pastor is teaching and he said "You know what the difference is between a visionary and a daydreamer? The ability to see God's opportunity in your scarcity." (Steven Furtick, Elevation Church). I guess I'm a visionary!

Written by Vicky

As a follower of Jesus who should you be voting for?

2008-10-22T11:47:00.001-06:00

As a pastor I have been in some discussions over the past couple weeks about the upcoming election. I have heard from good people on both sides that think a follower of Jesus has a clear choice who to vote for. I have heard arguments surrounding the issues of abortion, the poor, same sex marriage, the economy, war, and a world perspective on the elections here in the US.

I think we as followers of Jesus go into an election booth and evaluate the candidates and vote according to which one we think is going to accomplish more biblical principles in our mind. Some people weigh heavier on certain issues and that leans them toward one candidate or the other. Lets all be honest at this point. There has never been or probably will be a candidate that fully lines up with biblical principles. Any vote a follower of Jesus cast is one of compromise.

I think though as followers of Jesus we trust in our government too much to accomplish the objectives of the kingdom of God. I believe God has put the church on this earth to be a lot of what we are looking to our government to be.

Abortion- I believe that God has brought together every sperm and every egg for all of existence to be someone who is beautiful, loved, and embraced by God. I believe that every life has value. I believe the act of abortion is one of the most barbaric sickening things that humans have ever come up with. It is straight from the mind of Satan. But if the church was taking care of widows and ORPHANS the way we should I believe abortion would be a non significant issue. Every person that votes based on a pro-life stance should be on a a waiting list for foster care or adoption. If we want this barbaric act to stop we need to be the church and open our homes and families to these children that are unwanted and provide for the care of their mothers who can’t afford it. One other item: Do you think we would have a social security crisis if we hadn’t killed hundred of thousands of Americans in the past 25 years who would be in the workforce right now feeding into the Social Security pool. Every decision has repercussions.

Same Sex Marriage- If we the church were doing our job and loving people no matter what issues they are dealing, allowed the Holy Spirit to work in their life and tried not to “fix” them I don’t think this would be an issue. If we as the church were the parents that we need to be I think this would be less of an issue. We don’t need the government to ban things we don’t agree with biblically. We need to be the church. Showing people the love of Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts.

Just a question for you to ponder: What would your reaction be to an unmarried cohabiting couple holding hands in your church? What would your reaction be if they were both men?

The Poor- Once again if the church was doing what God calls us to this wouldn’t be an issue. Relevant magazine had a news item in their magazine a while back that said if the Church in America gave 10% of their income that the church could eradicate extreme hunger within the course of one year. We could eliminate people dying because they are hungry from the face of the earth! If we as the church did that and paid for the resources to make that happen, the church as a whole would still have 50 BILLION left over for other stuff. I think a lot less people would have ground to stand on in criticizing the church if we used our resources to take care of things in our own house as well as doing something as historic as taking care of extreme poverty on the face of the earth. Do you think that God had something in mind for his people when he encouraged us to give of our finances?

War- If we could use only some of those resources mentioned in the previous section for bringing relief to impoverished areas instead of bombing them I think the perception of the USA would be vastly different that it is now. Also if we are pro-life for people before they are born why do we support a war that is killing innocent civilians after they are born everyday?

Economy- Once again if the church was teaching about simplicity and living within in your means and the people of God followed those biblical principles we wouldn’t be in this mess. People wouldn’t have bound themselves into horrible mortgages that they can’t pay now. Even if Washington deregulated and made it possible for these mortgages to happen we wouldn’t have gotten into them. We would have more resources to bail out people that did make poor choices. Our churches would also have resources to do things to help people through job assistance, mortgage counseling, and helping people get on their feet. This would in turn stimulate the economy.

I think it is time to stop putting our trust in any one candidate or party or the government as a whole to fix America. We need to as a people of God trust him with our time energy and resources so that we can be the church that God dreamed of.

Decade number three

2008-05-20T09:44:00.000-06:00

Today is May 20, 2008. Thirty years ago there was a screaming baby boy that came into this world named Timothy Bryce Wilson at 7:37 am.

The transition to thirty hasn’t been a big deal for me. I know there are a lot of people try to stay eternally 29. NOT ME. Dear Lord no. I have earned this age. I think those feelings also come from a verse from Timothy that talks about not letting anyone looking down on you because you are young. I am so sick of that verse. I feel like my whole life I have claimed that verse and still do. Come on people I AM THIRTY! I don’t feel young. My knees creek, my back hurts when I wake up, my hair is thinning by the day, and the sport I play the most is golf. I know I am thirty and will readily admit it. People in their twenties shouldn’t feel this way.

I guess thirty is still fairly young to be leading a new movement of God. It was around this time in Jesus’ life that he started his ministry. I can’t imagine being the Son of God and waiting this long to do what you were really here for. Maybe there is something about this age. I do feel like I am entering a distinctly different era. You know who you are. You know what you’re good at and what you’re not good at and you’re hopefully ok with that. You don’t need all the excitement and thrill of your twenties. I am most happy being with my wife and having my son climbing on me in our living room. I would be incredibly bummed if Veritas doesn’t work out but I know that isn’t what defines me. I would much rather have my wife feel fulfilled and have kids that know they are loved and important to me than a church that looks successful.

Also today I have thought of how much we don’t know about Jesus. A lot of things have happened in my life up to this point. I can’t imagine my story being told with a focus on the next three years of my life with only a smattering of information from my past to fill in the gaps. I guess it brings out some of the humanity in Jesus to me. We both were at a point of transition at this age and moving into what we were made for. I just hope there isn’t a mob from Bay View that wants to kill me three years from now.

So as I enter this next decade of life I have a God that loves me, a wife I don’t deserve, a beautiful son, a goofy dog, good friends, loving family, and an opportunity to live out what I believe I was made for. So all in all I think I am in a good place. Here’s to the thirties. I think forty might be a little more traumatic, we’ll see.

Ending Well

2008-04-01T11:35:00.001-06:00

I have been thinking about endings a little lately. I know it sounds weird with being at the cusp of a new movement of God. But there were a couple things that have come about that have made me think about finishing well.

The first was someone saying that the true impact you will make in ministry and in life will be what you do from 35 to 55. It was a little frustrating because I still not even out of my twenties. But the one thing that I was encouraged by was that God is allowing us to start a church before we get to our prime. When you think about it what you do with your kids, career, marriage, and other relationships in that time is crucial to how things end up. What you do in this time period is crucial to how things are when your are in your 60’s and 70’s. Will you be estranged from your kids, or will they be bringing the the grandkids by often. Will you be happily spending your golden years next to the one you have loved for decades or spending it alone.

Another instance was reading through the end of Deuteronomy where Moses is coming to the end of his time leading the people of Israel. God shows him all that God had promised to the people of Israel. What Moses did in his prime was crucial to how he finished. He made a mistake in his prime and it drastically affected how he finished. He was not allowed to enter into the land that he had lead the people of Israel to for the better part of a third of his life.

Then the last thing that prompted these thoughts is from a guilty pleasure of mine. I grew up watching Hulk Hogan, The Hart Foundation, and Macho Man Randy Savage and the rest of the World Wresting Federation. I stepped away from it for quite a while but I have recently got pulled into the petty drama of the WWE. Over the weekend Rick Flair, who has been in wrestling for 35 years, had his last match at Wrestlemania. The stipulation for the match was that if he lost he would have to retire. He lost and therefore had to retire. As he left the ring at Wrestlemania the crowd was cheering and giving him a standing ovation. Then on Monday night he had his chance to say his final goodbye to the fans and the rest of wrestling. He gave his speech then one of the current stars came out and said he wanted to say thank you in person and that there were some others that wanted to say thank you as well. For the next ten minutes there were retired wrestlers that had battled against Flair, and present stars hugging him and saying thank you. By the end every single one of the people in the WWE were out by the ring clapping and saying thank you for everything he had done for their “sport”. Vicky was watching it with me and she was saying what a shame it was that he had to go out with a loss. But as I watched I don’t think there could be any better way to go out than to have your peers and family thank you for what you had done to lay the groundwork for where they are today.

I was writing some stuff down the other day about what I want to be known for by the time things are wrapped up in my life. The first was that I was good husband, second was that I would be a good dad. If I fail in ministry but those two are good I will be happy in the end. But as far as ministry. I want to be know as someone who multiplies. I dream of starting other churches from Veritas, helping other church planters through coaching them, empowering “normal” people to dream and execute what God is dreaming for them to do. I hope like Rick Flair that when I retire from full time ministry there will be a line up of people that can say thank you for doing what you did because it made it possible for me to do what God has called me to do. Don’t get me wrong I want to see God grow Veritas and I want through Jesus to make a lasting dent in this neighborhood. But I want my legacy to be how I helped others, whether they are another pastor or someone at Veritas, to have the courage to follow what God has dreamed for them.

History Makers

2008-03-16T20:34:00.002-06:00

Here they are...the beginning of Veritas! This is the Launch Team!

We don't know all that is to come.

We don't know exactly where this road will take us.

But, we know Who is leading us. We know that God has gone ahead of us and is at work in Bay View. We are looking to join Him in His work.

Two or Three

2008-02-26T10:59:00.001-06:00

I was reading in the old testament today and ran across something I think might be interesting. There are many places in the laws that says to convict someone of wrongdoing there must be two or three witnesses. There are many other places in scripture that keep to this principle of two or three people being witnesses to something to validate it.

Then in Matthew 18 Jesus says “where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Is Jesus saying that when two or three of us gather in his name there should be something to witness. There is this principle of the two or three people being witnesses to something. Maybe every time we gather in the name of Jesus there should be things happening that need validating. Jesus says that when two or three gather he is there. If Jesus is present with us as we gather maybe something should be happening. Jesus our redeemer is present with us. If Jesus shows up somewhere that is quite significant. Although I haven’t been to a lot of gatherings that need witnesses. Things are pretty run of the mill we sing, talk a little, teach some stuff, and then go home. I think most people would believe that kind of stuff happens when we gather. Lets intentionally invite Jesus to gather with us and maybe see what happens. Maybe if we truly invite the presence of Jesus or truly gather in his name we will need some witnesses of what is going on, otherwise who would believe it?

Why start a new church?

2007-12-26T13:03:00.001-06:00

I have heard the question “Why start a new church?” a couple times over the past couple months. Mostly the question has been asked by other pastors as a stock question for me to answer for their congregations. I haven’t heard that question from anyone else. No one has just asked me “So why are you doin this instead of just working at another church?” I don’t know if people are thinking it but not asking the question outright or if that question really isn’t there. Are we as entrepenuaers in the kingdom of God just coming up with excuses and creating the question? I hope the case is that people hear that Vicky and I are starting a church and it makes sense to them. I hope that people see that we are doing what we were designed before the foundations of the earth to do. So the question of “Why are you doing this?” doesn’t dawn on them. I hope asking us “Why are you starting a new church?” is like asking a bird why it flies? That is just what birds are supposed to do, and starting this new church is what we are supposed to do.

But if they do ask I have an answer in the form of a song by The Robbie Seay Band from their song “Go Outside” off their album “Give Yourself Away”.

Go Outside

Go outside
And praise the God who mapped the stars out in the sky
Gather ‘round with those who love and sing
He is our King

No one should be left out
No one should be left out
No one should be left out
No one should be left out
If you have air to breathe
Hear your call to sing

Written by Robbie Seay, Ryan Owens, Chase Jenkins, and Seth Woods © 2007 Birdwing Music (admin. by EMI CMG Publishing) / All songs used by permission. All rights reserved.

I just bought this album with some I tunes gift cards from Christmas. (thanks Kossows) I was listening to that song this morning in a busy coffee shop in Bay View. I was tucked into the corner just watching people as I listened to it. The overwhelming sense that many of these people were being left out of the joy of following Jesus brought tears to my eyes and renewed my hope that God is at work and we are following his plan for us.  

Vicky and I believe there are people who live in and around Bay View that are being left out of an opportunity to fall in love with Jesus. So that is why we do this to show people who Jesus is and why following Jesus is what we as humans were created to do. As long as we have air to breathe that is the song we will sing.   Join with us in singing the song of hope to the hopeless, the song of joy to the joyless, the song of redemption to those that need to be redeemed.

Focus

2007-12-18T11:27:00.000-06:00

I have had two experiences lately that have led me to a conclusion. One experience was reading through the book of Numbers. I originally wanted to read Numbers to read around the passages that talk about Caleb. I wanted to get the full context for those stories. Then the other experience was reading the journal of my Great Grandfather. It was from the time when he was starting a church in Berkley Michigan. The journal was from the first couple years of the church. It started as a Sunday School in 1919 and then became an official church a couple years later.   The conclusion I came to is there is something holy about recording the events of our life.

Numbers has a few stories here and there of the Israelites but for the most part it is history and the “boring” things that most people skip over. There are all the instructions about sacrifices, what to do if this certain thing happens, how many men there were in each tribe who were over 20 years of age, and other things that make for incredible teaching series.

The journal included many mundane details to some. But for me it was a rich experience. It was so enriching to see that a lot of the same things I am doing to build this new church he was doing nearly a century ago. There are details about the weather for a given day, what people he visited in a day, what items they received from people, and records of what was talked about at a given service. These were all mundane details that meant so much to me. I saw how he relied on God and his love for Jesus and people. His relationships seemed so deep. I have heard from many people about his life and his incredibly large impact on their life.

I think there is something holy in the things we see as mundane. Those mundane things are part of history they are part of God’s plan. When we focus on these details of life we are bringing into focus part of God’s plan for human history be it a very small part of that plan.

Names

2007-10-24T10:46:00.000-06:00

I thought once we had Caleb the stress of naming an entity for eternity was passed. WRONG! Now we have the church. With naming a church, you might not even be there forever. The name of our old student ministry at Harvest has already been renamed. 212 student ministries is no more.:(

So we are stuck on a couple of different names. They have pros and cons but we really need to nail one down.

Possiblities:
Veritas-Its latin for truth and it has a good vibe to it but may not be readilly pronounceable
The Well-many biblical references,Concept in farming of building a water source to keep cattle carraled instead of fences-so you make Jesus the source instead of defining who is in and who is out, also there is actually a public well in Bay View. One con though would be that there is a denomination based in WI that are the wels, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church,

There are a couple others that have been thrown around: Crazy Church, The Pulse,

Any Thoughts from anyone reading this would be appreciated

Butterfly truth

2007-09-04T11:44:00.001-06:00

So we had this really cool experience last Sunday. I had taught in the morning at church about finding God in the ordinary and had shared a previous post I had on here about the playground. We had good discussion in church around that story.

So we were home in the afternoon and I was outside hitting wiffle golf balls in the back yard in hopes of maybe improving my pathetic golf game. I had hit my six balls into the yard and so was using my pitching wedge to hit them back to my tee area, which consists of an old piece of carpet so I don’t make to many divots in the grass. The carpet step came from me making too many divots in our yard and trying to cover them up. I figured I would just stop putting divots in our yard instead of covering them up.

While I was hitting the balls around the yard Vicky came out on the deck with Caleb. I love just having them around when I am doing something I enjoy. So anyway, I went over to one of the balls and right by it was a butterfly. I started to lean down to look at it expecting it to take off when I got too close. But it didn’t. As I got closer I noticed it had a broken wing. I was able to put it on my finger and eventually on Caleb’s head to take some pictures. How often do you get a picture of a butterfly on your child’s head? So after I was done admiring God’s workmanship and having fun with the butterfly being on my son’s head I put it back where I found it.

After I had been teaching about finding God in the ordinary in the morning I figured God was going to speak to me about something with this butterfly experience. So I was thinking about it all week. Thinking maybe there was something about brokenness and coming to God involved in this experience. But for the whole week nothing really solidified for me. Then this week in church we had an extended time where we had the people gathered share times they had seen God in the ordinary in the past couple weeks. I was mediating this time and was thinking about the butterfly during a song we were singing. It came to me. God finally showed me what the butterfly was there to teach me. I was hoping it would be something encouraging or uplifting but instead it pointed out sin in my life. We only got to enjoy that butterfly because it was wounded. I saw that sometimes I can exploit people’s weaknesses for selfish reasons. I can manipulate situations that exploit people. These occurrences aren’t drastic or overt. Most people probably wouldn’t even notice what is going on. The sin is subtle and almost unnoticeable to the naked eye. But in my heart I know that it is there.

I thank God that he showed me something incredibly ugly about me in such a beautiful way. He is so gracious and tender.

Word of the Day

2007-08-27T13:53:00.000-06:00

The word of the day is Gargler. Gargler-N. garg-ler. One who gargles.

life could be ANYWHERE

2007-07-30T13:09:00.000-06:00

tim and i had to stop by Metrobrook's van today to get something out of it. it is parked near a dumpster for a vegetable company. he told me about a nook in the dumpster that has a tomato plant GROWING out of it! i did not see it for myself, but i can imagine it. there's just this little nook on the dumpster where a tomoato seed must have fallen when they were throwing out their trash. this little seed found enough sustinence to actually grow!! he said there is just one lone little tomato shoot growing there!

it just amazed me! it reminded me that God can create life ANYWHERE! we are about to do a series at Metrobrook called "God is Closer Than You Think" all about slowing down and seeing God in the ORDINARY.

do i look for God in the ordinary - probably not so much. do i believe that He can put a seed ANYWHERE and nurture it into life? i hope so. i need to remember that more. God can plant a seed in ANYONE and nurture it, feed it, and grow life in the least likey of people! look at each of us! is he calling me to feed, water, nurture a seed He's deposited in someone? i think so!

is He calling you to do that? do you need to look for that little bit of life in the most unusual of places?

Miss Independence

2007-07-26T15:23:00.000-06:00

this pregnancy is showing me that i tend to be an independent person. i REALLY never thought i was that much!

my mom and i were looking through my Baby Book to fill in info for junior's Baby Book and it turns out my first 2 word sentence was "Vicky do!" so, tim has been rubbing that in ever since he heard that!

anyway, i find it hard to ask for help. this giant basketball in my belly (which causes more pain than expected too) really restricts me! and, the thought of the 2 weeks or so of recovery after a c-section has me a bit panicked! that will be asking for LOTS of help!!! i just want to be able to take care of my baby on my own and all the guests who will be visiting!

this made me think about my dependence on God. yikes! i'm thinking i'm not doing too well in that area at the moment. if i can't even ask family here for help, how am i doing at asking my Heavenly Father, who i can't see, for help and being dependent on Him for EVERYTHING! "Vicky do!"

i think this time is going to teach me a lot about that. that and seeing this helpless baby being dependent on us for everything. i'm sure it will be very eye opening. i really want to learn this lesson, but i have a feeling it's going to be a bit painful (in more ways than one!)! i really want to learn though. i need to keep growing, i need to keep learning, i need to let God make me more ready to plant His church. i need to depend on my Heavenly Father for everything!

here's to the potentially bumpy road ahead! let's see how it goes.... :)

Baby Update

2007-07-26T11:23:00.000-06:00

Well we are facing our last weekend alone as a couple. The thought of that is both a little sad but also incredibly exciting. We have a C section scheduled for August 4th but we are praying God decides to prompt our son to come before that so we can at least have the "going to the hospital" experience. So your prayers are coveted at this point.

Thanks to everyone who is part of our tribe.

Life Revolving Around a Uterus

2007-07-12T13:01:00.001-06:00

So lately some people have asked me how life is going right now. I assume there are asking this in light of starting a new church and welcoming a new life into our family. Lately, because I like to be funny, I have said, “life right now is pretty much revolving around Vicky’s uterus.” I usually get a giggle. I hope maybe it made you giggle a little. Maybe just on the inside.

But anyway.

I was sitting here reading an article and the author stated, “…every encounter we have is one of the more important things happening in the world. Why? Because Jesus is at the very core of reality and creation. All life revolves around him.” This made me think of my little comment about Vicky’s uterus. That made me thing of Mary’s uterus with Jesus in it kicking and wiggling around and how all of life DID really revolve around Mary’s uterus.

That also made me think of something else really cool. What do doctors tell women to do to hurry along a baby? Among other things they say to try to go for walks. So what did God do before Jesus was born? He made Joe and Mary go for a long walk to Bethlehem. How cool is that? Jesus was supposed to be born in Bethlehem so God made a very pregnant Mary either walk or ride a donkey for a day or so and that likely hurried along the process of Jesus showing up on the scene. God is so cool.

10 Things I Learned at Summerfest

2007-07-09T14:31:00.000-06:00

1. B.B. King is old (81) He had his Great Grandkids on stage!
2. Old black men can play the blues.
3. Every band should have a Hammond B3 Organ.
4. Milwaukeeans LOVE beer.
5. Don’t stand at the edge of the bench seating at Summerfest because for the concert everybody stands on the benches and they block your view.
6. Go to Summerfest before 4pm and get in for $8 then get your wrist band and then come back in after dinner when everyone else is paying $15.
7. Volunteer to drive the Van at Metrobrook so you can park behind the Van for free near where everybody else is charging $15 to park.
8. An instrument can be an extension of your soul.
9. Some hippies would prefer to hear BB King over Rusted Root.
10. Naming inanimate objects is cool. Case in point: Lucille.

My cousin had her baby!

2007-07-03T09:14:00.000-06:00

My cousin, jessica, had her baby yesterday!! Carter Christopher was 7 lbs., 19 inches long and mom, baby, and dad are doing well!!

i can't believe he's here and my little cousin is a mama! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I'M NEXT!!!! my emotions are all over the place lately! between physical demands (just being sore and stuff), taking care of my diabetes, emotional roller coasters, mentally trying to plan, and all the decisions that need to be made, i'm pooped all the time!! there are moments when i can't wait to see him, what he looks like, what his personality will be, getting to see tim hold him, sharing him with the rest of my family and the world. and then there are other moments when i am paralyzed with fear at the thought of being a MOM and being responsible for a whole LIFE! my sleep is filled with so many dreams lately - i hear that is what happens at the end of pregnancy.

tim is gonna be a GREAT dad!! he's been SO good to me these past months and is SO excited to meet his little guy! i know he'll be such a big help! now, if i could just get past my "miss independence" (as tim has been calling me) and ask for help more when i need it.... :)

The Playground

2007-06-28T14:12:00.001-06:00

I love going to South Shore Park in Milwaukee. It is in the Bay View neighborhood right on Lake Michigan. There is always a nice breeze coming off the lake and lots of sail boats to look at. I love most of all to sit by the playground and see all the little kids running around and playing. I just picture myself sitting there watching my boy running around and getting sand everywhere and into everywhere.

As I sit here I notice something interesting. There are no adults on the playground. Sure they are some dads pushing their kids on the swings but when the kids stop swinging they go sit down. It almost seems like an unwritten rule that only kids are allowed within the boundaries of the playground.

There are benches all around the playground but none right in the middle, because it seems the playground is not a place for adults. Adults are about working and making money and only venturing close enough to the playground to push a child on the swing.

On the playground there are different rules. Kids run, they climb, and they play hide and seek. The sneak and lurk and run around the corner and yell “I found you, I found you!” They dig in the sand and become the captain of their own ship or the fairest princess in the whole wide world awaiting rescue or maybe both. On the playground anything is possible. On the playground you talk to each other and make new friends just because it’s more fun at the playground when you don’t play alone.

The playground is made for kids. There is room to run and there is just enough sand to cushion you when you fall, except for the one spot over at the bottom of the slide. But when you fall you can always get back up, shake off the sand, and run some more. On the playground you only run. There is no walking on the playground. There are smiles and laughter but there are also tears and crying. But these never last long. You don’t wear shoes at the playground you take them off before you play on the playground. If you wore them you would only get sand in them and have to take them off anyway. At the playground it doesn’t matter how much money you have, whether you get a nickel or quarter from your mom, that all changes though when the ice cream man comes by playing his song of seduction. On the playground it also doesn’t matter where your clothes come from, although it seems to matter to some of the mommies. It doesn’t matter what color your skin is, we don’t even notice that. It doesn’t matter what language you speak because we can barely understand each other anyway. Everyone is someone at the playground.

Daddy will you go down the slide with me? Will you push me on the swing? This is my new friend Obadiah. That is such a cool name. Daddy look I can make it across the monkey bars! I even skipped some! Daddy, look at me dance! Come here and see the castle I made! Isn’t it stupendous? Look how high I am Daddy! I can run so fast, like lighting!

Daddy, do we have to go home? The sun hasn’t gone to sleep yet. I want to go down the slide one more time. Can you push me on the swing a little more? I got sand in my shoes daddy. Can I take them off? Can I take off my shoes?

There are some who leave the playground early and go home. The friends you make leave the playground. But you stay because you know that the best place to be in the whole wide world is at the playground. Once you’ve fastened the Velcro straps on your shoes you’re done for the day.

The playground is a place of wonder. Where slides turn into mountains and sand is set on fire and turns to lava. A place you take your shovel in the summer and your sled in the winter. You go there and catch the fireflies at dusk and you only leave when your eyes are shutting on their own. Mostly you go to the playground to play. To throw yourself into anything beyond what you could ever ask for or even imagine.

You go there for what is there. No where else is there quite the collection of monkey bars, giant slides, swings, or horseies with big springs holding them up. You can’t find those horsies anywhere else! This is a place designed. Designed for children and designed for play. Sure there are teenagers who sneak out to the playground under the cover of darkness. They don’t want to be seen at the playground because they are all grown up. But mostly it is a place just for kids.

I wish they had a playground for us big people. With really giant slides and lots of sand, big swings that let you go really high, and really big horseies with really big springs. The problem is no one would go because adults don’t play on playgrounds. The adult world doesn’t operate like the world at the playground. We have deadlines and responsibilities. We don’t have anytime for something as frivolous as a playground. We only go there to push children on the swing.

June Update

2007-06-26T14:25:00.000-06:00

Well it has been a while since a legitimate update. So here it is.

Vicky survived the conference. She had a great time and learned some good stuff. She also learned that even though it was a good experience she will never do something similar at 32 weeks pregnant again.

Things at Metrobrook are going well. I will be teaching this week and I also got to teach two weeks ago. I don’t have to teach again till after the baby comes. Next time I teach I will be a daddy. That is so weird.

As far as the church plant situation goes we have settled on an area of focus. We are going to be focusing on a neighborhood in Milwaukee called Bay View. It is a very established neighborhood and is experiencing an influx of younger families. There is a lot of diversity as far as age, economic status, and ideas. There is a great art scene and an incredibly strong sense of community. We are presently trying to just gather a sense of Bay View. We have met with a couple people formally and also are talking to people in parks and about town about what they love about living in Bay View. We want to get a strong sense of the community so that we can start a church that is Jesus in that specific community. If Jesus would show up in Bay View how would he engage these people?

So we are trying to spend more time in Bay View just relaxing in a park or going out to dinner. We are also taking cooper to a new groomer in Bay View so that is another contact into that neighborhood.

Prayer:
-Vicky and Junior’s continued health. Only about a month left.
-That we would take hold of every opportunity to share the reason for the hope that we have and to do it with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15-16
-That God would gather together people with a heart for the city and for Jesus to be a part of changing the face of this community.

Confession

2007-06-18T15:22:00.000-06:00

i went to the Willow Creek Arts Conference last week and here is something i wrote after the last session:

i have a confession. i have made my god too small. i use the lower case "g" here for a reason. that's what i've done to Him. i am ashamed. i have taken over and made God small enough to "fit" into the tiny pieces of my life i deem necessary for Him. i have tried to be in control. i have tried to make sense of this life, this journey. i have taken all mystery out of God, out of His Plans, out of our relationship. i look for God only in the big, not in the ordinary. not in the people i meet or pass everyday. not in the mundane. i wait for these giant moments, and because i don't see the ones i expect. i'm missing the moments HE'S providing.
i want to be different. i want to embrace the mystery, enjoy the "ordinary", not have all the answers.

Thoughts from a soon to be dad

2007-05-08T12:41:00.000-06:00

I am less than three months away from being a dad. There is a very delicate balance between wanting him here tomorrow and wanting him to hold off as long as possible.

I look forward to sitting down on the couch with my 3 month old son and watch a Michigan Football game. I will be in my Jersey, my son in one of his Michigan outfits, and my dog in his Michigan sweater. Longing for a utopia I know.

I also know that my ideas of manhood were vastly shaped by my father. What it meant to be a husband, father, and man. I know what I will tell my son and teach him with my lips. I wonder though what will be engrained in him by what I do. I know that I will teach him so much more with what I do than what I say. I hope that he learns to laugh and laugh hard. I hope he sees Jesus in me. I hope that what he sees of Jesus in me will create a hunger in him for Jesus that is greater than my own.

I also wonder what Joseph was thinking when Jesus was less than 3 months away. He had already been visited by an angel. He knew that his boy was special and was meant for something way beyond what he could imagine. He also knew that this Jesus wasn’t technically his. We know that Jesus had brothers and sisters so he at least stuck around for a little while. I wonder if he doubted himself. I think at some point every dad doubts themselves. But Joseph was the father of Jesus. He had to have doubts about being a father to this child that was bursting with destiny. I also wonder about Joseph taking joy in teaching Jesus about his trade. Showing a young Jesus how to use a hammer or a saw or showing him how to make that joint as strong as it could be. Was there something that Joseph taught Jesus that leaked into Jesus’ teaching? Did Jesus tell the story of the debtor come out of a memory of his father releasing a debt that was owed to him for his skills? We think we know so little about Joseph because we don’t see him very much in scripture, but maybe we know more about him than we think. Maybe by knowing Jesus we know a little more about Joe than we think.

I can’t wait to see my son.

good blog from a Kiwi

2007-05-08T12:39:00.000-06:00

This is a great blog, especially for Milwaukee. Milwaukee is the second most blue collar city in America behind San Jose. Would have never guessed San Jose.

It's a quick read nice and short.

http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2007/04/god_loves_blue_.html#comments

2007-04-10T10:43:00.000-06:00

These are a couple videos from a warehouse that we looked at. It could be a potential place for us to meet and have our office space.

Bi Curious?

2007-03-22T09:34:00.000-06:00

I did some training a couple weeks back with an organization that is attempting some very cool things in the Milwaukee area along the lines of social justice. Through that training I met a woman who works with a holistic healing center which partners with a free clinic to help people without insurance. She was saying that about 80% of their cliental is Spanish speaking. They do lots of things with massage, acupuncture, and exercise programs.

So I was sitting with her yesterday and I was having trouble describing what we want to do with this church plant and what we don’t want to do. I was saying we didn’t just want to plop a church down in the neighborhood and say “ok we are here now come and check us out”. We wanted to build relationships in the community and have the church grow from those relationships. We wanted the church to be a reflection of the neighborhood. I felt like we were not quite to a full understanding about what I was trying to describe. Which was ok.

So later she was talking about how some of the second generation immigrants are starting to feel regret about losing some of their ethnic culture. Many of them have lost the language, customs, and traditions. There was a study done by someone at Marquette University in Milwaukee that the most successful immigrants and immigrant families are the ones that have adapted to the American culture but have kept much of their native traditions. They have kept both cultures alive within them. They live well in both worlds. She described them as bi-cultural.

It clicked. That was a perfect parallel to what we were trying to do. I told her that is what we wanted to do with our church. We wanted to take the culture of living in the way of Jesus and fuse that culture with the culture of the neighborhood to make this church. We didn’t want to just plop a church down and have people have to just adapt to our culture. We want the culture of our church to reflect the music, art, and life of the neighborhood that we are a part of. So we essentially would be a bi-cultural church. A church that on one side is faithful and true to the person and gospel of Jesus and on the other side a reflection of the people, art, and flavor of the neighborhood we are a part of.

If ya haven't heard

2007-03-15T16:00:00.000-06:00

Well it is about 99% official that we are going to inviting a new baby BOY into our home around the end of July. I feel an immense joy and responsibility having a boy. Their is an huge responsibility and pressure thinking that I am his example of what it means to be a man. My prayer continues to be that he will follow Jesus. That he will touch the people Jesus would touch, he would speak the words of the kingdom, he would see people with the eyes of Jesus, that his feet would take him where Jesus would go.

Belief

2007-03-01T17:19:00.001-06:00

I am doing something I don’t think many people do. I am working on a statement of faith. It is for the church plant but it is pretty much what I believe. I have been looking at many churches belief statements. I find it interesting what different churches put emphasis on.

There are some that are just straight up generic and don’t have much life to them at all. It’s like they went on some website that says what evangelicals should believe and just copied and pasted what was there.

I felt challenged by some sites I visited that didn’t take the normal approach. I am a fan of Mars Hill Bible Church. I loved the way there beliefs were organized and presented. It took more of a narrative form. (www.marshill.org) I took this approach with the one I was working on. I really enjoyed the process. Then I did a bullet point one for the constitution document for the church. Figured we didn’t have to get all artsy for the constitution.

Something I find interesting is how empty most of the belief statements were. I felt like trying to use words to describe God and his kingdom was futile in and of itself. I feel like this kind of thing should be taken very seriously and then with great attention, craft, skill, and word choice attempt to capture the divine in black and white.

There are always going to be lots of points of belief we will argue about till we all are walking on streets of Gold or suffering in hell. I think the practice of sitting down and writing out and saying what you really believe in respect to some key issues about God and his kingdom is a very therapeutic process. The process helps you to work out your faith with fear and trembling because you realize more clearly who you serve and why you are here.

Great article

2007-02-28T12:56:00.000-06:00

This is an article I stumbled across that describes a lot of what we are going to be doing with this new church.

http://www.the-next-wave-ezine.info/issue82/index.cfm?id=5&ref=COVERSTORY

Update and Prayer needs

2007-02-19T15:30:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone,

We want to thank you for your continued support of us. There is no way we could do this without you all.

Timeline
I wanted to tell you all about the big reveal. I have talked with Brian Sonderman, who is the lead pastor at Metrobrook Church, and we have settled on some sort of timeline.

Spring/summer of ’07- Start to gather some people from the community together. These might be groups that serve the community, people asking questions about Jesus, or people interested in what we are going to be doing with this church.

For the rest of ’07 we will continue to follow God’s leading into the community through people that have influence in the community, and are spiritually open.

In the fall and winter of ’07-’08 we will be working with Metrobrook Church to build passion and vision for the plant within the church.

Winter and spring of ’08 we will be gathering in a core group to start building community and cohesive vision for what God’s church looks like where we are focusing.

Then in the spring of ‘08 we will be doing a “soft launch”. This means if you came to where we were gathering as a church it would look like what we will be doing for services.

Then we would “go public” in fall of ’08. This means that we would start to be more vocal about the fact that we are meeting. That might look like advertising, or starting to bring in the people from our community that we have built relationships with.

So we are hopefully about a year and half out from actually meeting as a community. That may seem like a long ways out, but really it is not. We are going to need time to build credibility and relationships in the community we are bringing Jesus to. Also we are having our child sometime around the beginning of August so Brian, the pastor at Metrobrook Church, wanted to make sure we had time to adjust to being parents and had time to enjoy that as well.

Prayer needs

1. Pray for our contacts with people of influence in the area we are focusing on.
2. Pray that God will lead us to people that are spiritually hungry and ready to experience Jesus in their lives.
3. Vicky and I have some decisions we are wrestling through right now in respect to the church. Please pray that God will give us clear answers to our questions.
4. Health of our child that is on the way. Also Vicky’s health as she continues in the pregnancy.

I thank God every time I think of all of you that are supporting us. We really want God to lead this church and we thank you for helping us to rely on him for everything.

We thank you all,

Tim, Vicky, and Baby Wilson

PS we only have 2 and half weeks till we hopefully find out whether the wolverine onesies need to be pink or blue.

Video I did for Metrobrook

2007-01-18T16:11:00.000-06:00

I put this together for Metrobrook. Its just a Windows Movie Maker Video to promote our Blocs (small groups). We gave everyone that came into service a lego and then had them lock it into others at the end to make something more amazing than just their little lego alone.

Less is more!

2007-01-16T11:44:00.000-06:00

I'm realizing that I can dream big, but shouldn't always start there!

I can usually visualize things that I believe can and should and want to see happen. I wish sometimes that I could hook up an S-Video cable to my brain somewhere and download all that I see in my head. That would make things SO much easier! There seems to be a major breakdown between my brain and mouth and it never gets out the way I see it!

However, in all this thinking and talking about church planting and how I see it "looking" and what I see it doing, all that God has put in my head, I begin to realize that I would need an army of people and LOTS of budget sometimes to pull some of it off.

So, I'm learning that it's more important to start small and make those things REALLY good before adding to it. When we try to do too many good things at once without the resources (people, time, budget, etc.) then none of it turns out excellent(ly?).

I am trying to remind myself that they will never be PERFECT (darn my first born, overachiever, perfectionist-ness!), but I have a responsibility to make them as good as they can possibly be if I'm going to put God's name on them! And that means that we are going to have to start small and make sure that God has provided all that we need to make those "things" excellent before we add more "things". Otherwise, what's the point? Why do a bunch of stuff half-way instead of a few things God has called us to excellently, THEN add on as God calls and provides.

I don't think we will ever be content with "too few things", but the few have be to excellent before we add more.

I know this has been in my head before and in many different situations, but I'm realizing the extreme importance of it now and seeing how that will affect real life in a big way soon with a new church!

So, that's just some thoughts that have been rolling around in my head.

What do you think? Where and when have you seen this play out - good or bad? Let us learn from you too!! :)

Blessings!
Vicky :)

Video of Vicky's Mom and sister

2007-01-09T14:30:00.000-06:00

Our baby is SO cute already!!

2007-01-05T22:55:00.000-06:00

O my goodness!! We had our first ultrasound today and that was SO cool!! Tim was SO awesome and so excited and just thought it was SO neat!!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the screen for what seemed like an eternity! While she was taking all the measurements and showing TIM all the cool stuff, I was laying there and couldn't see ANYTHING!! UGH!! But then I finally got to see too and it was SO neat! We saw the heart beating, the brain, the fingers and hands, arms, legs, feet, and spine! He/She even flipped around while we were watching! It was SO neat!

The creation and beginning of life has always amazed me, but it's just so much more amazing now! I'm looking at the WHOLE tiny person (only around an inch long!) with fingers and a brain and feet, and I am just SO amazed at this little life. I can't believe the intricacy, the detail of this creation.

So, everything was normal and good today. Good heartbeat and everything. HOWEVER, they bumped up my due date! Now I'm 10 weeks along and my due date is August 1! I freaked out a little bit losing one week of prep - just poof, gone - but we'll deal with it! :)

We are going to put the ultrasound pics on here as soon as we can get to a scanner (thanks Emily!), so keep checking back! :)

I have to go now, baby makes me really tired and it's time for us to get some rest! :)

I know it's hard to see, but this is the baby's head, body, and 2 little hands with tiny fingers!

This is the baby's little feet, legs and butt! :)

Some ground work

2007-01-02T12:31:00.000-06:00

Vicky and I worked on some ground work for the church recently. These are some statements we put together of ideas that will be at the core of what we are partnering with God to build.

Let us know what you think. Use the comment box at the end of the post, we really want some feedback. This is a work in progress.

Church Mission, Vision, and Values

MISSION: What our purpose for existence is.

To make the world a better place, starting with (insert neighborhood name here), by helping people love God and love people.

VISION: What it looks like if the mission is fulfilled.

A community where God changes lives, transforms relationships, builds his church, and impacts the world.

VALUES: The ideals that drive our movement.

People, no matter what background1 or lifestyle2, are loved by God and us.
Relationships drive the ministry. Our goal is to have more and more people engaging the lives of others through relationship, ministry, and service.
Creating an environment where questions can be asked, where people can struggle through faith and life, and get guidance and prayer to help them be open to God’s leading and direction.
Obsessively3 loving and serving our global community, local community, and church community.
Telling the ancient, historic, present, and future4 story of God in a way that engages people’s mind, body, soul, and spirit.

1 Background-what you don’t have control over
2 Lifestyle- what you do have control over
3 Obsess- to haunt or excessively preoccupy the mind
4 ancient-the bible, historic-church history, present- what God is doing now, future- where we are going.

Michigan # 2. Guess not.

2007-01-02T12:20:00.000-06:00

OK this has nothing to do with the church plant. But Wow Michigan really blew chunks in the Rose Bowl. They were in it up till the interception on the first drive of the second half. Henne threw it right at one of the USC linemen. What a stupid throw. That was the game in my opinion.

I did catch the end of the Fiesta Bowl with Oklahoma and Boise State. That was an awesome game. I love the gutsy choice to go for two to win in the first overtime. Then to bust out the Statue of Liberty play. AWESOME. That is why I love college football.

Well here's to next season only 12 more games to go in 07. Maybe Hart and Henne can win thieir last game against Ohio State or a maybe even a bowl game.

BIG News!!!

2006-12-27T19:09:00.000-06:00

Well, it can FINALLY come out! Tim and I are going to have a baby!!! Yes, you heard correctly, we are actually going to be parents!!

We found out December 10 but had to keep it a secret for 2 weeks because we wanted to tell our families on Christmas. It was TORTURE to keep that a secret for so long!! But now we can tell everyone! :)

The baby is due August 7. So, UGH, I will be very pregnant in the summer!! :( But, things could be worse, right?!?!

So, we are now trying to keep the freaking out and worrying to a minimum! We know that God has this all in His plan and knows exactly how everything will work out. We are a great mixture of emotions - happy, terrified, excited, overwhelmed, in awe, worried... I think that's pretty normal tho!

So far everything's going well. My health is good, my blood sugars are good, no complications yet. I've been taking my Reliv (my nutrition supplement) which has been helping my blood sugars and keeping away morning sickness for the most part and giving me some energy. The doctors have been happy with everything so far! PRAISE GOD!!! :)

We would love your prayers over us and this baby these next months. We are praying for SO many things, but one of my big prayers is that he/she is healthy and never develops diabetes. That is obviously one of my big concerns! But there is so much that we are praying for right now! :)

I think I'm going to go for now. We just wanted to share that with you all! Thanks for sharing in our big news!

Blessings!
Vicky

Assessment Pictures

2006-12-18T14:17:00.000-06:00

These are some pics from the assessment. The group photo is our blue team. The whole assessment was divided into two teams. The other pics are from when a group of us from the blue team went into Ripon, WI to a coffee shop and sat around talking church over a nice cup of java.

Well, we survived...

2006-12-07T11:33:00.000-06:00

We are all packed up and about ready to leave the Church Planters Assesment Center. We are waiting for some friends to have lunch with before we hit the road, and I found internet, so I thought I'd write a quick blog to y'all. (We met some people from Tennessee and I guess their accent rubbed off on my a little! :)

It has been an INTENSE, EXHAUSTING week!! I feel like we've packed at least 2 weeks into our time here! God has shown us a lot, taught us things about ourselves and ministry, and stretched our thinking! I think the sleep deprivation helped some of that! ;)

We are looking forward to sharing some of those lessons in the coming days as we continue to process (and after we've had some rest so we can think straight! :)

Just to remind you, at the end of these 4 days the Assesors tell us what our "recommendation" is. They spend this time analyzing everything we say and do - literally, EVERYTHING! They can say "Yes, we recommend you, go out and start your church tomorrow", "We recommend you but with some conditions. You need to spend some time getting things in order before planting" or "We do not recommend you for church planting. We see you are called to ministry, but not as a church planter."

We were recommended with some conditions. We expected that! That is what this situation is set up for. We are already planning on spending time (12 -18 months or so) with Metrobrook to work on lots of stuff to be ready to plant a successful church. So, that is the outcome we were expecting.

We want to thank you all SOOOOOOOOO much for your prayers!! We really felt them and saw some answers to them as well! We'll update you with more specifics when we're home and have some time. Until then, we are SO thankful for each of you and for you partnering with God and with us in this journey! We hope you are learning and be stretched by God and feeling his love!

Talk to ya again soon!!
Vicky and Tim :)

Epicos Guy

2006-11-29T16:40:00.000-06:00

Well, we had our first "networking" coffee today. We met with Danny from Epicos Church which meets on the East Side of Milwaukee. They will be celebrating their 2nd birthday in January.

He did a lot of asking questions about our backgrounds and stuff like that. It was fun talking to him, he's very easy to talk to.

It was kinda fun getting to talk through some of our thoughts and dreams for what this church could be. It makes it a little more real that this is going to happen one day!

As soon as we get a chance we are going to go to his church and see what they do which will be GREAT! They meet on Sunday nights, so that is convenient since Metrobrook meets on Sunday mornings!

Tim will be speaking at Metrobrook Sunday, December 17, and Danny would like to come hear Tim teach that day. Plus, anyone in the area is welcome to come hear Tim that day as well. Metrobrook meets at 10:00am at MATC's downtown campus in the Cooley Auditorium at 6th and State. If you want any other details, let us know!

Danny also helps with the Church Planting Assesment that we are going to next week, so he was able to give us a little insight for that. We ask for your prayers for that next week Monday through Thursday. He said it is very grueling. It is 3 days of intense questioning and assessing. The end is encouraging (I hear), but it is an intense week. Also, one thing we are a little concerned about is that it sounds like it's all about Tim as the pastor and that I am just "the wife". For any of you who know us, that is not really how we operate! Tim is the head for sure, but we are doing this TOGETHER! I'm a little scared that I will be dismissed and I don't want that to happen. I want to be a part of the assesment also. As nerve-wracking as that can be, I don't want to be just seen as the quiet little wife. I don't play that role very well! :) So, I'm really trying to not think about that too much. I don't want that to cloud what God has in store for us to learn.

So, anyway, that's my little update about our coffee time today. We're looking forward to what God has in store for our relationship with Danny! We'll keep you posted.

We hope you all are doing well and look forward to hearing your comments! :)

Blessings!
Vicky and Tim

Our First One!

2006-11-29T11:54:00.000-06:00

Hello All~~

First of all, we are SO thankful that you are willing to partner with us during the journey that God has put us on. Your prayers mean SO much!

Just to get everyone up to speed, I'll do a quick recap.

In June (2006) Don (the Pastor at Harvest) recommended to Tim to get a mentor. This would be someone who was further along in ministry than he was and who could give him advice, wisdom, and be a sounding board for his frustrations and questions.

So, Tim found Brian Sonderman, the pastor of Metrobrook - a church that meets in downtown Milwaukee. They met for lunch in July and August. After their August meeting Brian mentioned that they had a position open for a Church Planter Residency and asked if Tim would be interested. He called me and told me about it and we were both shocked. We immediately said no because we weren't looking to leave Harvest. We were happy there, God was doing some amazing things in the student ministries and we were REALLY excited to see what was going to happen there this year! However, Tim felt really honored to have been asked! It gave him some great confidence that someone saw that in him.

We went to Michigan for the Willow Creek Leadership Conference in August. We talked with friends who have known us for many years about the offer. They all said, "Why are you not taking this? This is something you both have talked about for so long? Why pass this up?" We looked at different things that God had brought inot the student ministries and into our lives to make this happen. So, we prayed aobut it, talked about it, and finally decided to throw our hat in the ring.

When we told Brian about this he said that there were 2 other people also "in the running" for the position. To be honest, I was doing this out of obedience to God, but never expecting to get the job!

We met with the staff once, they checked our references, and within ONE MONTH offered TIm the job! The offer was made September 11, just 1 day before the Jr. High Kick-Off and 2 days before the Sr. High Kick-Off.

Telling Harvest went miraculously well!! No one heard the news before they were supposed to. It ws so God!

Leaving those kids is one of the hardest things I've had to do! Not THE hardest, but right up there! There was so much pain! I realized that I had really adopted them as my kids and the adults had become my family and so I was losing a big part of my family. It's been a hard transition. I've questioned God on a lot of things, I've been doing some soul searching (which isn't always fun!), and just been feeling very lost.

Tim's been easing into his job. Things have started out a little slow, and very different for him. He's got some great people to work with at Metrobrook though. He's got a big office with a WINDOW!!! (there were NO windows at Harvest! :) He's just taken over the MetroCrew team - they do the set up and tear down for the church since Metrobrook is portable. He'll be working with Brian to take on some other areas of ministry.

Oh yeah, I forgot to explain his job! He is on staff at Metrobrook as they will be planting us. He will be filling holes for them (they are only a year old themselves! :) as well as learning and researching for our church plant. As time goes on he will do less and less for Metrobrook and more for our church plant.

So, today we have a meeting with a pastor who planted a church in Milwaukee about a year ago. We are meeting with him to gain wisdom from him, learn more about the different areas of Milwaukee, and basically just network.

OK, this blog is WAY too long, so i'm gonna cut it off now. They won't all be this long, I just wanted to get everyone up to speed on what's going on. :)

Maybe we'll write a little later about our meeting this afternoon.

Again, thank you SO much for your prayers!!! Feel free to comment on any of our blogs! We'd LOVE to hear from YOU!! :)

Blessings!
Vicky (and TIm)