Benicia

You know, we never planned to live in a sea side community in CA. We never even hoped for it. We never even contemplated it. But somehow, Benicia is what God has for us.

The weather is fabulous. We actually get all four seasons as there is a lot of foliage here in northern CA. But at the same time, the temperatures are so mild. We've had more days in the 60's here in December than not yet it still feels like Christmas and winter. How can that be? I don't understand it, but I'm enjoying it.

This is our street. I love trees.

The Lee family is back in CA. I'm curious to see what God has in store for us in 2014. 2013 was the craziest year ever.

I'm so thankful the sun is setting for 2013. And by His grace, I'm starting to look forward to reaping the fruit of what He grew in our character through the trials of 2013 and starting to anticipate how His all wise sovereignty will work itself out in 2014 by bringing us here. I think the healing has truly begun.

Carlsbad Caverns

The other part of our trip with White Sands was Carlsbad Caverns. If you haven't been, you really should. I highly recommend it.

Granted, I LOVE going into caves. And this one was HUGE! It really is a lost city in there. Pictures cannot begin to show what it looks like and feels like in person. Amazing place.

Monster huge stalagmites and stalactites were everywhere in ginormous caverns.

Even though it was hot and sunny outside, it was a cool 50 some degrees way down deep. We were thousands of feet underground.

Matt even got to be part of the tour with Ranger Foz.

The Lee family had a blast.

 We also stopped in Roswell on our way home. Aliens truly are welcome here.

We felt right at home...

It's beginning to look a lot like...

the desert?

But doesn't it look like snow? Life has been so crazy I never posted our pictures from our trip to White Sands National Park. It was very, very hot.

Miles and miles of pure white crystal sand. We brought some sleds and treated it like snow.

It was fun to go down the hills in shorts.

But sand has a bit more friction than snow so the sledding wasn't quite as good.

It was amazing to see and the boys and girl had fun as usual. We went camping nearby in the mountains too but I forgot to take pictures of our campsite.

This is the best we got. Emery was a great helper.

The Albuquerque Redemption

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Shawshank Redemption. I know just about everyone has seen it, but for my parents benefit, it is the story about a man named Andy Dufresne who was unjustly incarcerated for the murder of his wife. As you can imagine, he struggled to survive the miseries of prison life until a combination of providence, moxie and smart thinking, his life in the Shawshank Federal Penitentiary turned around. He was able to use his life in prison for much good to the benefit of many until he offended the powers that be and their grip on power and control. The prison commissioner tried to snuff out any possible independent thinking in Dufresne with tortuous power plays, but in a startling turn of events, Dufresne turned the tables completely, exposing the commissioner as the true criminal of the prison and at the same time, achieving freedom and deliverance for himself. I still remember watching this movie in the theater almost 20 years ago and being stunned by the turn of events. What a great movie!

My life is hardly at all like this movie. But any Shawshank reference is worth using! 2 years ago, I came to Albuquerque with great hopes of what God would do through the exaltation of His glorious greatness, the faithful preaching of His Word and the shepherding of His flock in love. It required some sacrifice just to get there, but in my mind, it was worth it. Unfortunately, things didn't work out so well. In the blink of an eye, I was unemployed with 3 little mouths to feed. Here I was, my hopes dashed; my dreams in dust and ashes; no job, no income and no future. What could I do? How were we going to survive?

I applied for every job I could imagine. Pastoral jobs, ministry related jobs and jobs related to my old secular career.  Whatever I could find, I applied for. I considered youth ministry, even though I am the furthest thing from a youth pastor. I considered church planting, even though I am the second furthest thing from a church planter. I considered everything because the pressure of providing was HUGE. My children were shaken by it all. My wife was broken. And I was a wreck. Nothing was working out, and we were preparing to all move into 1 BR and live with family and starting over - going back to school for me, taking out loans and trying to rebuild our lives.

But one of the paradox's of the Christian life is that in the darkest of nights, the light shines the brightest. Christ proved Himself sovereignly good and gracious and kind over and over again. First, God brought so many people to encourage us. So many old friends encouraged us specifically to stand firm in the faith and affirmed us in the love of Christ. But God also physically brought alongside of us people who truly became our family in Christ here in ABQ. They encouraged us, guided us, served us and provided for us in the kindest of ways for months and months in our greatest moment of need that we will forever remember and rejoice in.

Secondly, God delivered me from this precarious situation with a job (not in pastoral ministry). But God didn't just give me a job, He gave me a great job that has a great career path. Somehow I received the favor of men out of the blue from people I never met. And in a whirlwind of events, I got a job, got an offer on our house and moved to CA, all in about a month. It's been a crazy time - packing, starting a new job, finding a place to live, finding a new church, unpacking - so much hasn't settled in for me yet. I can't really fathom the gracious, yet startling turn of events. And while I am still haunted by cruel memories, I am hopeful that one day, I will be like Joseph and able to say that "God has caused me to forget my troubles" in this new start on life.

2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 John 2:15-16

Isn't this verse just amazing? Not only does Christ take our sin, but we become the righteousness of God in Christ. We become righteous, perfect, holy. There is no mention of being better, trying harder, doing good or anything about us. It's all Christ's righteousness.

It is my prayer and hope that the boys and girl see themselves as perfectly righteous, not pretty good, not better than him or her, not so bad, but perfectly righteous...in Christ and only in Christ.

Isn't this such the challenge? Do not love the world nor the things in the world. It is such a challenge to teach our children and even more of a challenge to be an example. Thank God we are righteous in Christ.

Day 2

So in just 2 days, the boys and girl have worn out Gabe. He is wiped out!

The peppy little puppy (or just older than a puppy, teenager?) is spent every night. I take him on 2 walks a day - morning and evening. We also run for some of that walking. But why is he so tired out? We've only worked on 1 command so far - Sit. It always works when I have a treat in my hands. He's just like a kid.

Gabe

Guess what the cat dragged in to the house yesterday? No, we don't have a cat. But now we have a dog.

After years of begging, we thought the boys and girl are now ready for a dog. They might be ready, but I don't think Sandy is! Poor mom is constantly worried about what the dog might do - does he need to go outside?! Is he going to make a mess?! What's he doing?!

We don't officially own him but are fostering him for now. If all goes well, we might decide to keep him or he might get adopted by someone else. Who knows? But for the first 28 hours together, he's the perfect dog for us.

He doesn't bark. He has small bursts of energy and then is very mellow. He doesn't shed much at all. He barely eats. And he takes care of his business outside. The boys and girl can't get enough of him! They want to play with him, walk him, feed him and just generally be with him all day long. When we left the house for just a little bit, Matt said, "I MISS Gabe!"