February 11, 2012
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Love Fest Valentine’s Day Parade
It has been a busy week. The last I posted, we were in Georgia and heading toward Kansas City, Missouri. We arrived in Kansas City on Wednesday of last week. For the week in Kansas City, we stayed with Tim and Marci Anzalone, some of our closest friends while we attended NTS in 1998-2001. They now have two kids, Keelin and Kai, who are wonderful kids and provided JUST what Bekah and Sarah needed… some kid time! We had a blast with their family… playing, visiting the KC Zoo, laughing, and watching the Superbowl. What a blessing from God the Anzalones are to us!
In Kansas City, I was able to attend the Men’s Prayer Breakfast on Friday morning. These weekly meetings with the men of the church were very forming for me through the years. We also were re-introduced to KC BBQ. After living in Texas for the past nine years, I must admit that KC BBQ is not as good as we remember
. We will miss that good ol’ Texas BBQ!On Sunday, Jenni and I both shared with the Disciple’s Sunday School class at KC First Church of the Nazarene. We love the great people of that class! Then, I shared our journey with KC First Church of the Nazarene. What a great morning!
Monday and Tuesday were spent at the Global Ministry Center (GMC, or the Nazarene Headquarters). The two days of meetings were very helpful and very challenging. We discovered tons of things we still need to do to be ready for the field. The GMC team was so helpful and encouraging to us. Most, if not all of them, are former missionaries. While we were in the meetings, Bekah and Sarah spent two full days with Paige Hooker. Paige is a 20 year old nurse in KC whose family attending Houston Spring Branch Nazarene years ago before they moved to KC. The girls LOVED Paige and had a great time.
After two days of traveling south, we are once again in south Texas. We are staying with the Goin family at their lake house in Trinity, Texas. We have stayed here a number of times during our years as pastor of Spring Branch/Living Word. We have a wonderful full-house (Buddy/Marty Goin; Jackie Welch; Jason/Robin Goin and two kids, Ashley and Zach, with Ashley’s friend, Karli McDaniel; and Doug/Niki Conner with son, Grayson). Bekah and Sarah are once again lovin’ all “their friends”.
Thursday night, we had a great service with Huntsville Nazarene and Pastor Bill Richardson. This wonderful church came out in great love and support of our ministry to the CIS.
Today, we joined the Goin family at the “Love Fest Valentine’s Day Parade” in Lovelady, Texas. The theme for the parade was “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You”. We road on a float created by the Goin family with help from Niki’s school kids and threw candy to everyone along the path. Great time!
Tomorrow, we will join Pastor Harley Patterson at Nacogdoches First Nazarene in the morning. Pastor Harley has a great, evangelistic heart and has been a friend of mine on the South Texas District. This is also the home church of South Texas District Superintendent, Dr. Duane and Linda Srader. In the evening we will be with Dr. Wayne Stallings and Lufkin First Nazarene. We are excited to see what God is going to do tomorrow. We have loved being with all of these churches and meeting God’s people around the country!
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We don’t know how you guys are keeping up this hectic schedule, but we sure enjoyed having a few last special days with you! BIG BONUS: Jenni had not had an opportunity to bake in a while and needed a “baking fix”. We were the lucky beneficiaries of her efforts!
We love all of you so much and will continue to pray. The Lord is about to really bless Kiev!