The Time Has Come

To say that I'm not scared would be like saying I love bees. I just so happen to dislike the flying stinging insect species. As of last Friday, Tiffany and I have an apartment. This will be the first time Te and I are going to be one our own. Although Tiffany won't be living there till November. This is one of the biggest steps in my life. Our own place! This isn't living with my girlfriends family house, or the church house, or some ladies from the church house or even mooching of my parents house. Our own place.

At first I was like no freaking way. But it was at the apartment complex I wanted to live in. Near the church, but far enough away from the kids that live in a nearby apartment complex. This place is fully loaded: gas stove, fridge, dish washer, 2 spacious bedrooms, a nice size living room and kitchen nook.

Like I mentioned I was a little hesitant towards the who thing. Thinking, "Is this a little soon?" and all the rest of that kind of crap that comes into my head. But if I've learned one thing from Te, it's that she incredibly in tune with God. Let me explain. When we first looked at the place, at first I was we are gonna live here. Then the crap in my head comes flooding in. Blaa blla this! blaa blaa that! Anyways you get the picture. Lots of Crap. Te and I sat down and we talked for a bit about the whole thing. And just talking with her made me feel at ease. Becasue she knows that God is not gonna give us this apartment and le us fail at it. He will provide. So I had to take this lesson from Te and apply it quick becasue I had to hand ove the money for the rent and the deposit. But something happened when I handed the money over. I felt good. At first I was, "paying that much money to live...that's lame" but know I can't wait to pay the lady her $810 each month becasue it's our home now. And most of all that's what I wanted. To share a home with Tiffany.

Now that is not to say that that feeling won't sneak up again. but this time I know that God won't have us fail. SUPER SIZE GOD! I need to remember that. So please keep Te and I in your prayers as we embarke on the start of our journey together. Thanks.

P.S. - If anyone needs to get rid of some stuff, Te and I could use it. Thanks

Wedding Update #1

Hello All. I was like, "what a better topic to blog about than the status of the wedding." Here is what we know so far is going to happen on November 15th.

1. Te and I are getting married (if all the following fall through we will get married at city hall...jk).
2. We are getting married at Northgate Community Church
3. Pastor Steven will marry us.
4. Lori is going to be taking our pictures

That is all really know for sure. I heard Tiffany got a wedding dress but I'm not supposed to see it. As for the cater, we want our favorite taqueria to cater La Playa. We know the owner and talked with him yesterday. He said that he will give us a deal of the food. We want to keep it simple: beans, rice, chicken, beef, torellas chips and salsa bar. I can't wait.

We've been having a hard time to find a place to have the wedding reception for 200 people. That was no typo. Most places we've looked at are way to much money for what they offer. Today we called Zion Church in Ripon and was told to come in on Tuesday and talk to the secretary. Then I called the Ripon Community Center contact and it was WAY TO MUCH MONEY. Then I called New Hope Church and I talked with my former youth paster, now the Senior Pastor Tim. I think it would be great if we can have it there. We seem to have a graps on everything except the reception. I want to be nice bu not havet give up my first born as payment. I would ask that everyone be in prayer for Te and I. That we can find the perfect place to have the reception. Te and I both belive in a SUPER SIZE GOD who is able to provide immensely more than we can imagine.

Circle of Life

A blog post so soon you ask? Yes. Today was kind of a day off for me, although I had to make some tough decisions about an account with my buisness. It was pretty chill. Since it was my "day off", I was looking for something to read. I'm currently read Andy Stanly's, The Next Generation Leader, a great book. But, I had my laptop and the book was in the car. So decide to read a blog. I ended up reading some of the posts on our pastors blog from 2006. The ones I found most interesting were the ones when he would write about interviewing for with church and submitting resumes. Just the mere journey of him finally coming to a small town in the middle of California. It boggles my mind. It was this time last year that we were like Steven who? I think it was June 18th when he first preached here. Crazy!

I guess the point of the post is really for me. I've seen the journey of someone and the journey of this church. Seeing how in God's timing there was a collimation of the two. And how out of the blue, when we were the most discouraged, that God stepped in and provided. Amen, Amen, Amen.

A Continuous Fire That Started On A Hill

I titled this blog, "A Continuous Fire That Started On A Hill". For me that's the feeling when you go to a conference or maybe a summer camp and you get really jazzed at what happened at that certain event. You are pumped! Now for all of us who have been in the Christian scene for a couple of years know this feeling. I can recall when I would go to summer camp when I was a wee lad. Old Oak Ranch is where I would go. And I remember when we would go and hear all these people speak and we would get pumped. And they would even warn us by saying things like, "when you get off the mountain, it will be hard..." and, "don't let the fire go out...".

Now we just got done with our Brethren District Conference. And for most of us, those ol' camp feeling come back. We get pumped! We had some really good people speak and we even had some AMEN shouts. It was really a good time. We talked about the future of the Brethren Church and talked about the new day. I love this stuff!!! Tonight Rickey was talking about if you can dream and not put God in a box, then God will respond. Super Size God. Again I love this stuff. I love to dream. I love to move foward! Now I know that I sit in the minority in this thinking, which is fine. But I feel that things are going to be different this time around. See before I felt like people were holding on to the past. Like Rickey said. But with the Brethren Church new mission, A New Day, I feel like this is a huge step foward. We need to engage and transform the people around us. It was so good.

One side note. I have never meet more sincere and honestly real followers of Christ. I've been around the christian block for...well my whole life. I think that a lot of churchs are getting stuck in some kind of bog. Again what I mentiond above. Unchanging. I feel so honored that to be apart of such a open minded body of christ. And the people who run the show in the background are so cool.

Now back to the original post. So, here we are. The conference is over and people are pumped. Aside from some of the meida fallouts. We are ready to move foward. How do we keep the fire blazing? How do we stay on the hill? It's one of those things that needs to on our minds at all time. We need to dream! And not small dreams. SUPER SIZE DREAMS. We get stuck with the mundaine and loss that connection thru all the hussel and bussel.

We need that continuous fire.

-Jesse