Proud Father

One of the songs that means the world to us is Matt Redman’s “ Blessed be the name of Lord” I have to tell you that it is not an easy song to read. The tune is great but when you are thinking about the words it really touches your conscience about meaning what you are singing.
About a year and half ago, Eric was speaking and he gave me the opportunity to share Samuel’s story to our church. It was such an opportunity because I always wanted to give hope to people or just like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:5 that the trials in our lives should bring comfort to others. That evening we showed Samuels life through the slide show and I gave a testimony on how God had been so faithful through this hardship. In one of the services was a family, which had struggled to get pregnant, and after many years they had gotten the opportunity, and became parents. Through out the service He heard Samuels story and in the end Manny realized where he was in His relationship with God and received Christ that evening. Manny wanted to tell us that night, what had happened, but he never got the chance. He also did not realize that I was on staff at the church, so he just thought I was a member of the church, and that there was no way he would be able to find out who we were.
Fast forward two weekends ago. The Lord put it in Sammy’s heart to ask Jessica to share a little testimony before we sang that song. So she shared a short story on how meaningful that song was. This clip was shown through out all our campuses and in Homestead, Manny was serving, being our cameraman, He then realized who we were and in that instance began to shake at the realization of How beautiful our God is.
I was told that Manny wanted to talk to me, so I went and as he began to tell me His story I began to weep. I began to just say thank you, Thank You!
There is another valuable lesson God has given me; it is a privilege to see Samuel’s impact. I know that there are people that go through worst things and don’t ever see God’s reason for that mishap. I don’t know if it is because they refuse to see His hand or God does not show it to them, but I am a true believer that all things work together for good. I am very grateful that He has led me to SEE HIS good hand in my family’s life especially in the short life of my son.

I know I am not supposed to be proud but I cannot help it.

If you have not seen my son’s life you can go to www.frank.nu/samuel.html

Happy New Year

We had a huge blast for new years. We had about thirty people in our house and thanks to Corey Spencer and Hal Slayden we had enough fireworks to continuously pop them from 8 to midnight! We had a lot.

The most exciting time of the night, other than the midnight kiss that is, was seeing Luke Isaacs in a refrigerator box. He put the box as a barrier and ran around as people shot roman candles at him. It was so funny!

I also got to speak this past weekend at Palmetto and Homestead. It was really exciting and also it was an eye opener. I cannot imagine doing this every week. Hats off to Rick and Eric you guys rock! ( They are also my bosses)

There is a new resolution that I have brought into my life. The first is I am not going to buy anything over ten dollars other than the necessities (Gas, car parts, date night, and medical things) I just don’t NEED anything! I just have this habit of buying random things, just ask anybody! I just thank God I only spend $2.41 at starbucks for my misto with three splenda!

Conflict Resolution

I grew up bringing the New Year with firecrackers and staying up all night long! So the other night Jess and I were talking about our plans for the holidays and I shared with her that I could not wait for new years so that all of us could pop fireworks! She replied that we were not going to do that. She believed fireworks should only be popped once a year… you know that celebration in July! So here was a little conflict and I had no idea how to resolve it.

Then Paper, Rocks, scissors came to mind… yep this is what was on the line: If I lost, we would only pop fireworks once a year but if Jess lost we would pop them twice a year. I knew my wife was a risk taker just because she married me, but she wanted this to be done through one round… not best out three! (The norm)

So the pressure was on!

Of course you can guess the outcome since I am blogging about! And yes, she will tell you that I psyched her out! That some how I confused her in this wonderful and easy game!

So if you want to come over to my house on the December 31 we will bring in the New Year with a huge BANG! So come and be a part! just bring your own fireworks!

His Grace is sufficient

I don’t think I have ever talked about my family, but I can’t stop thinking about family during the Christmas season. Today I heard a retired marine talk about his marriage of 40 years. I started thinking of when I am going to celebrate my fortieth; it’s going to be in 2041. That’s in 34 years! This man broke down in the middle of his speech to his bride and said the most meaningful thing… He said it was by the Grace of God that he was where he was. He just was so grateful that God still deemed it fit to use him! Then it hit me… everything that God gives us is by His kindness. When I am experiencing challenges in life, I may be focused on or feel God’s kindness, but I know it is always there. My prayer is that God may open the eyes of my heart to continually be able to see His kindness. The other lesson I learned was to never feel complacent with my attitude towards my Christian maturity. Just like this 60 year old, I don’t want to stop learning! So after hearing him talk about his family, it made me appreciate my family. When Jessica and I were awaiting the birth of our daughter, Gabriela, we were overwhelmed with gratefulness to God for giving us the opportunity of being parents. We realized that our marriage and family was a perfect example of His wonderful GRACE. We wanted to always be reminded of this, and that is why we gave our daughter the middle name of Grace. That is what Jess and I can hold on to, and Gabriela Grace is a constant reminder of His kindness.

Never Gets Old

I don’t think it can ever get old hearing how impacting our children’s ministry is to our community. There are two things that happened this weekend that made my day. Three weeks ago a gentleman came by our church. His regular Sunday would unfold by dropping off the nanny and his children at a church. He would then go and just hangout at random places like Best buy or stores like that. Two Sundays ago, he stopped to see what we were about because of the signs and asked us about our ministries. He told us that he would come back the next week with his children and hopefully his wife. Last Sunday He was there with his two children and he went to our video service, his wife could not make it because she was working. When he picked up his children and asked them if they liked it, they never hesitated to answer YES! He then decided to call his wife, he told her that she needed to take her lunch break and that he would come and pick her up. He wanted to show her the church. He came back 15 minutes later and as a great potential Guest service volunteer, was showing her the campus. As they left he told us they would be back next week! He came this week with the whole family!
Last Sunday night we had connection 101. This is a class to join Christ Fellowship. We had a couple there who had two children in our ministry. We always begin by introducing ourselves and saying how we came to church. When we got to her, she began to cry over how grateful she was that her children loved the Waystation and how it meant the world to her!
Both of this stories are awesome, the Waystation (1st grade through 5th) and Anchor Harbor (Pre School) but the best part about this is that we would never be able to pull this off without the volunteers and THEIR passionate desire to see children come to Christ! This is not the first time this has happened and I know it wont be the last. But I cannot think It will get old hearing about the impact our children’s ministry has!
Thank You God for giving us AWESOME LEADERS!

Do you Care?

This week has been really exciting. When you care not just about the people but about our ministry people can really see it. I received an email from Tony Isaacs. Here is what it said:

Dear Homestead Campus Team,

I am writing you as a team to tell you how much I appreciate your passion
And care for our Christ Fellowship Homestead Campus. Everything I've
experienced in my visit last week visit was over the top. I had 2 guests
with me who visited both our campuses. This it what they said, "We were
overwhelmed with the Palmetto Bay Campus and all that is going on there, but
we were more impressed with the Homestead campus. The spirit and unity of
the workers, the appearance of the campus and the execution of the set up
and tear down were phenomenal. We expected the Palmetto Bay Campus to be
like it was but the Homestead Campus blew us away."

WOW, I am so proud of all of you! Great Job!!
- Tony

This is so refreshing to hear. Each person that is involved makes a huge effort to be consistent. Being a part of a fun environment is….FUN!

This week I talked to a member on Sunday who was going through some tough times. She has been a member of our church since 2005 but really never been committed. She came off and on but a few weeks a go decided to start serving in our guest service team in Homestead. After she began serving she also found out about possible tumor. She shared it in our leaders meeting prior to our services and ask for us to keep her in prayer. I prayed with her that day and asked her to keep us updated. She called me a few days ago and told me it was not a malignant tumor but that she would still have to have surgery. She also told me that other leaders had called her and she finally felt that she belongs! WOW! That is awesome to hear! The fact that people cared made the difference! Seeing individual leaders step in the role of ministering to each other is so neat to see. Great job leaders for making going the extra mile ad truly caring! This is what is contagious! My prayer is that each week we may continually grow to be more like His church! I Thank God that HE has given me the privilege to serve in this church!

The value in investing

This weekend was unbelievable! A local plant nursery donated 260 plants to our church; each of these plants would normally be sold for about 5-7 dollars a piece. We decided to attach invest and invite cards to the plants and hand them out following each of our services. We asked our members to think of a friend or neighbor that they might give this plant to. I did not know what to expect. It was the first time we had ever done anything like this. The plan was to put out 50 plants per service. We have four services in Palmetto, and we would take 60 to our Homestead campus.
The result: Well, on Saturday we were mobbed… people rushed to pick up plants, and in less than 5 minutes all of the plants were gone! It was a beautiful, but at the same time flustering. If I could have given all 200 plants that night, they would have all been gone! On Sunday we ran into the same problem following our 10:30 service. We even gave away our cardettes (the plastic stakes that go into the plant with an invest and invite card) without plants. The members were excited just to take the stake and planned to buy a plant to accompany it.
There were a few lessons that I learned from this. First, never say no to someone’s gift. Second, never underestimate the power of a free gift. The neighbors and friends that receive this gift do not know that the plant bearer received it for free. Anything that is valuable and pretty will be accepted with gratitude. The third lesson is a little harder to think through. For a long time we have instilled in our members the importance of investing in their neighbors’ lives so that they will get an opportunity to invite them to one of our services. Did our members feel more confident to reach out to their neighbors with this plant than they do with just a card? I think they did! So maybe its through little things like this that will make a big impact in the lives of our community. The last lesson is that you never know when you will learn a new word…like cardette!