Our Christmas Letter

Katie wrote our Christmas letter this year that we send out to mostly far-off family and friends who don’t know what’s going on with us on a regular basis.  I thought it summed up this year very well, so I decided to post it here for those of you who live life with us every day.  Merry Christmas to all our friends and flock at Peachtree Church.  We love you all! 

 

For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
-  Isaiah 9:6

Dear Precious Friends and Family, 

We pray that this letter finds you surrounded by loved ones, blessed by the Lord’s daily presence and anticipating His Goodness in the New Year ahead.   We in the Reid household can only look back at 2008 with awe and gratitude for all that God has done.  It has been an exciting and full year for us. 

Abbie turned six years old in July and is a bubbly, happy, compassionate girl.  First grade has been fun and full of learning for her.  She has many friends and can read anything she sets her eyes on!   Ben will be four this February; he’s a silly, playful, and energetic little guy.   He loves Preschool, making friends, playing super-hero and creating decorations for our fridge.  Our kids are a GREAT blessing, and we’re excited about how God is growing our family.  We completed paperwork and got the all-important “log-in date” to adopt a little girl from China on October 21.  We expect an infant to be granted to us in about two years.  We appreciate your prayers during this process.  Abbie and Ben love to talk about “when our China baby comes”. 

Dave and I were both given some incredible ministry opportunities this year.  In January, we had the awesome privilege of traveling to Thailand to encourage and minister alongside a dear friend working in Christian ministry there.  We have always dreamed of going on a mission trip together and this was a great first experience. 

In April, Dave was able to spend a sabbatical in Israel for two weeks along with other pastors.  He applied for and received a ministry grant that allowed him to experience the Holy Land for only $300.   He enjoyed much rest and spiritual refreshment. 

Another highlight of this year was celebrating the 5^th Birthday of Peachtree Community Church!  It’s incredible to see how far God has brought us, the many lives He has touched, and how He has faithfully provided for every need.  We continue to be in awe over the building we now have and opportunities we have to reach our community with the love of Jesus Christ. 

Over the summer, God began to lead David into a couple of new adventures.  First, as a result of what God did in his heart while in Israel, he’s started writing a book about marriage and intimacy. Some of you already know about this faith step.  If you want to know more about it, feel free to contact us (The provocative title is LEADING to the Bedroom.)  The second exciting new adventure for Dave came as the result of a childhood dream, a response to rising gas prices and only after a work of God stretching my faith so that I could let go of fear. . .  Dave got a motorcycle!  He has had such a good time with this new hobby!  I even enjoy going with him.   We have been able to enjoy the West Georgia countryside in a whole new way together!

My year has been full, too!  In August, we made a bittersweet trip to Wyoming for my maternal grandmother’s funeral.  Dave had the privilege of performing the service, and we were all encouraged as we celebrated Grandma Miller’s full and influential life.  While in Wyoming my parents, older brother and I were able to reconnect with aunts, uncles, and cousins that we haven’t seen in years.  It was fun to see how our family has grown and where life has taken each of us. 

I have been leading the Women’s Ministry at our church for over two years now.  This includes leading Bible studies, planning events, and personally mentoring ladies in the church.  This is ONLY possible because God has given me a WONDERFUL team of ladies with a passion for the women in our church.  We recently hosted 45 ladies at a three-day Fall Retreat and 120 ladies for a Christmas Tea.  Dave was in charge of childcare for servers (25 men in our church!) and I emceed.  Leading WEM is definitely outside my comfort zone, but God’s grace has proven sufficient all year. 

The Tea was an exciting and exhausting way to begin the holiday season, so our personal goal for our family Christmas has been to “keep it simple!”  Dave’s preaching Isaiah 9:6 every Sunday in December, each week in turn focusing on a prophetic name for Jesus:  how He is our “Wonderful Counselor”, “Mighty God”, “Everlasting Father”, and “Prince of Peace.”  We pray that you know the Truth of these promises, and that Jesus is the Prince of Peace for you and your family in these uncertain times.  Merry Christmas!  We love you!

Grace and peace to you,

David, Katie, Abbie and Ben Reid

HP Giveaway Contest

Here's a contest I've entered to win 4 computers for the church. Posting a link to it on my blog increases our chances. Here it is:

Jake Ludington’s HP Magic Giveaway

Being Remolded

I'm having one of those times where God is stacking things together in my life to do something really big in me.

He's been orchestrating events lately to bring pressure on me as a leader and as a man, and I have this real feeling that He's trying to break through a stronghold in my life.

Everything I read right now, everything Katie and I talk about, circumstances going on around me, teaching I'm exposed to, conversations of people I've never met before, and the needs of the church are all bearing right on a particular area of my life that God wants to shine a light on and clean out something I've walked with since I was a kid.

It's really hard to feel the weight of change that is needed, but the pain of staying the same would be worse.

Right now, I'm meditating on

2 Corinthians 9:8 and 2 Corinthians 12:9

All prayers are welcomed!

State of the Church, September 30, 2008

Talking points from my report to the Elders last night.

Basically, my message was that God has done something AWESOME in each area of C4 or we’re poised to make significant progress just around the corner.

To God be the Glory!

C1 Gold Rush / House of Blues Success

311 people (100 kids!)

284 people (82 kids)

Great Response to series

C2 11 Connect Groups

111 People Connected (More than ever before!)

Discover this Sunday

C3 Greeters, Guest Services, full

Need to Fill Jobs in CM, FIT, SM needs a guy D-Team leader

Pray for Discover to produce some of these

Tracy, Donevan – specific people I think are next

C4 3 salvations this series

Probably need to schedule a baptism after Discover

Blues - Most successful felt-need series

Using Money series as a felt need series in Heroes

Ideas: “Fireproof” series in Feb.

“You Asked For It” series

C5 Gearing Up for 2009 Planning

Financial Planning for 2009

David registered CP Coaching Network at MLC

Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf

Love this quote from Mark Batterson:

Here's one of my favorite phrases in Scripture. I Samuel 14:6 says, "Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf." I love that modus operandi. But I honestly think many if not most Christians take the opposite approach. Perhaps the Lord WON'T act in our behalf. We let fear dictate our decisions. We have a better-safe-than-sorry mentality. We live as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.

Maybe it's time for a paradigm shift. When did we start believing that God wants to take us to safe places to do easy things? Here's a thought: the will of God is not an insurance plan. It's a daring plan.

I think we've made a false assumption that the will of God gets easier as we grow spiritually. Some dimensions do get easier with the consistent practice of spiritual disciplines. But I also think God will give us more difficult, dangerous, and daring things to do!

I love this phrase. It's so hopeful. It's so optimistic. And it's the key to living with holy anticipation. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. May God give us the spirit of Jonathan!

End of Summer Mind Dump

Wow, except for yesterday, I haven't posted since June 11.


It's been a full summer.


One of the New Year's Resolutions I've made was to blog for me, not for anyone else. (Not always the right answer, but got me over the hump of feeling like I needed to say something spiritual in every post, which made me approach blogging like preparing a message, which made me hesitant to post.)

Here I'll catch up with what's been going on:

1. I love motorcycle riding! Since I got my motorcycle in June, I now ride it to work almost every day. Yesterday, Katie rode 30 miles with me.

2. Adoption paperwork! It takes a LONG time. But we finished all our paperwork yesterday!!! (We celebrated with a motorcycle ride.)

3. Preaching through Romans - this has been awesome for me. I love getting a handle on the message of a whole book, and I understand Romans so much better than I have before, and it has really clarified lots about our walk with Christ. Romans 6:13 and Romans 12:1-2 were the best for me.

4. Getting ahead on Message Prep and Service Planning -- Peachtree is officially four weeks out on service planning (sermon AND music and creative elements). This is a first! Clinton, Sheila, and I have worked really hard all summer to get ourselves ahead. We've also got series mapped out through the end of the year.

5. Writing a book - I'll save this one for a post by itself.

Adoption Progress and How it All Began

Today Katie and I turned in the very last of the paperwork for our adoption from China. Praise God! It is now in China's hands (and the Lord's). We should get our LID (log-in date) sometime next week.


This process began May 2007. We were bike riding at the Silver Comet trail and actually were talking about dream travel plans we had (it you don't make a regular habit of dreaming with your spouse, you're missing out; it's so fun to share your biggest, boldest thoughts with someone, and it's amazing how many dreams we share with each other that God ends us bringing about) I changed subjects and mentioned that I had thought about adopting from overseas as a dream, and Katie promptly told me she'd been thinking the same thing recently.


We both confessed that we'd thought the other one wouldn't be interested and that it would be a hard sell to the other. (I thought she'd prefer biological children, she thought the cost of adoption would turn me off to it).


We agreed to pray about it and look into it further.


The next month we had the privilege of going with our youth to SuperWow and David Platt preached a message on theological adoption (God adopted us into His family) and ended it with a slideshow about the the number of orphans around the world (145 million!) and challenged Christians to consider adoption.

God was speaking right to us. We skipped the next session and walked around for an hour on the beach processing what we'd heard. We decided that the only reasons we could come up with not to adopt were selfish, that it felt like every call from God (to seminary, to church planting) we've had, and that as we've always decided with God's calls: we'd be crazy not to do it.

We spent the next weekend praying and researching on the internet. Two documentaries really go to us: The Dying Rooms and China's Lost Girls (National Geographic).

I'll write the rest of the story in another post.

Romans 1

Preaching through Romans this summer.

Key verse of Romans 1 and Paul's reason for writing to explain the gospel:

Romans 1:16-17

(mouse over to see the Scripture passage)

Insight of the week: Paul

The Shadow

Here's my bike. Ventured on the main road today for the first time. Got up to 60 mph.

Yeah, it's true!

Yes, it's true...Pastor Dave got a motorcycle.

It's also true I've never ridden one (alone) until yesterday.

$4.00+ gasoline finally pushed me over the edge from interest to action.

I spent my first hour learning to ride in my neighborhood, and I love it!

I'll try to post a pic of my 1983 Honda Shadow (I was twelve when it was made!) soon.

Thanks for all of you who are praying for me.

Day 4 - April 6

So much to tell about and only one computer which is often occupied. I hope to come back later and add some detail.

Incredible morning devotion by a guy from my group who dramatically performs MLK, Jr's sermons. He quoted the last fifteen minutes of MLK's last speech the day before he was assassinated. It was VERY moving.

Saw Church of St. Gabriel (Mary's Well) - alternate traditional location of where the Annunication happened

Toured Megiddo - a city that was inhabitated for 7,000 years and was used as a military lookout because of its perfect overlook over the Plain of Jezreel in the crossroads of all armies moving through the area...Since it was destroyed 25 (get that, twenty-five) times over the years, it became a symbol of good vs. evil -- Revelation tells us that the last battle (ultimate good vs. ultimate evil) will be fought in this valley (Revelation 16:16-19).

Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21:1ff) was also in the Plain of Jezreel.

A few other Megiddo Scriptures:
2 Kings 23:29ff
1 Chronicles 25:20-24



Visited Caesarea (Maritime near Joppa. Herod the Great built a theatre and palace there in honor of Augustus Caesar (why he called it Caesarea). It's a signficant place for our faith because here Cornelius had a vision to send for Peter, and Peter, having had a vision of God telling Peter to eat animals considered unclean by the law, was able to tell Cornelius the good news of Jesus was for Gentiles, too! (Acts 10:1ff)

Paul was kept a prisoner here also where he talked to Festus and Felix, and then appealed to be tried before Caesar.

The most profound thing about this site for me was the theatre there was built in the first century around the exact time the New Testament books were written. The theatre is in ruins. The New Testament is still with us, proclaiming the great news about Jesus. What do I want to put my life into, was the question I heard God saying to me...

Spent the night (and will the next several) in Tiberias right on the Sea of Galilee.

Got to run now, people waiting for the computer.

Love you all!

Day 2 - Nazareth

Had a great breakfast and worship time this morning (I definitely lack rhythm compared to my group).

Got on the bus at 9am.

We went to the Church of the Annunciation, which commemorates where tradition says that Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be having Jesus. There have been five churches on the site (destroyed and rebuilt thorugh the tumultous history) and it is built on an excavated site of a house in the first century (supposedly Mary's parents' home). Very cool to see the first century excavation.

Then across the way to Church of St. Joseph (commemorating the location of Jesus growing up in Nazareth after the return from Egypt). Awesome excavations under it as well, including carpenter's shop.

From there, we went to "Nazareth Village" a re-creation of what life was like in Nazareth in Jesus' day including a stone house, winepress, shepherding (with live sheep), watchtower, synagogue (with teaching on Jesus reading from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at Nazareth and being rejected (Luke 4)

Then finally, a first century Nazareth lunch with pita bread to be dipped in hyssop, olives grown on the property, lentil soup, and chicken cooked the OLD fashioned way.

Last stop of the day was Mount Carmel where Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal to a contest to decide who the true God was (1 Kings 18:20ff). After they lost and were slaughtered, Elijah prayed for rain (which he'd prayed to stop years earlier) looked toward the Mediterranean Sea and saw a cloud as big a man's hand and soon rain came.

Now back at the hotel, about to read for a while.

Tomorrow, on to Galilee...

Israel - Day 1 (Travel) and Day 2 (Nazareth)

Had great flights. Two were late, but that just meant less time on the plane. They made up the time on one.

It is now 7am here on Sat morning. We are in Nazareth. Wanted to email you last night as soon as our travelling was over, but there areonly two internet kiosks here, and they were quite popular.

Going to the Church of the Annunciation this morning (commemorating Gabriel telling Mary she would have Jesus), Sepphoris (Roman/Jewish city in Jesus' day), and a village set to look like Nazareth in Jesus' day complete with a chicken lunch prepared as Jesus would have eaten.

They have switched April 3 and 4 days on my itinerary so that we are at the church sites (I think there's one other church site for today) on Saturday and not on Sunday.

Took a walk in Nazareth last night. Our hotel is at the top of the highest peak in Nazareth, so you can walk around outside and look over the whole city.

Slept great on the plane (actually on both flights), and decent night's sleep last night. My roommate is great, and there is a great grateful spirit among all our group.
Not able to post a photo at this kiosk, but will try to at the next place.

Will check out of this hotel in Nazareth tomorrow and spend the day at Megiddo (saw it yesterday from the bus; I'd say a 200 million army would fit there...it's a HUGE plain) and Mt. Carmel where Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal.

Also saw Mt. Tabor, traditionally thought to be the Mount of Transfiguration.

I miss Katie, Abbie, and Ben!

I've written out a set of questions I am seeking God about. Personal and church direction type of things. Please pray that I will be agood listener this trip.

Love you all and Thank you all!

Love,
Dave

I love Easter Sunday!

We’ve been preparing for Easter since January 1 this year, and we’re in great shape.  The body has been serving like never before, and I’m excited about this Sunday.

If you’ve received one of our postcards this week, come and check us out.

I’ve being studying spiritual warfare for about a month now in preparation for our series starting this week, and I also have to say, I’ve been practicing it as well.

I believe this series has the potential to change the way you look at your spiritual life, whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or are yet to met Him yet.

We have two identical services: 9:30 and 11:00.  We’ll be having an egg hunt for kids through fifth grade immediately after both services.

Come celebrate Jesus’ resurrection with us! 

I'm grateful for... My Upcoming Trip to Israel

Three years ago, our elders graciously instituted a sabbatical policy allowing a sabbatical for ministerial staff. This policy allows me a sabbatical time off after five years of service, and 2008 is my sixth year as pastor of Peachtree Church.

I've been thinking of what to do with my time for, let's see, I'd say...three years.

About three months ago, I got an email inviting me to apply for a grant for a "Holy Land Pastoral Renewal Pilgrimage."

I applied, and now I'm going to Israel for two weeks in April.

I love to travel, I love history, and I love God's Word.

I also love hearing from Jesus, being challenged in my walk, receiving direction, and getting away from the busy-ness of ministry (thought I often need an external force to make me do that).

The intersection of these various loves of my life would be a trip to the Holy Land.

The more I hear about this trip, the more I realize it is going to be life-changing for me. Though I am at one of the healthiest places personally I have been over the last five years of church planting, I really believe the Lord is providing this trip at this time to renew me.

Peachtree, I thank you so much for giving me the freedom to be a regular person. I never feel that you put unrealistic expectations on me, Katie, or the kids. All the freedom you give me to care for myself and my family just makes me love you guys more and want to pour my whole (refreshed) heart into you, my church family.

Elders, I thank you for being open to new ideas and always supporting where I believe the Lord wants to take us. I know this sabbatical idea was new for some of you, but I can assure you, I will come back with more of me to give for the long haul.

Katie, you are too good for me. To let me go to Israel twice since we've been married while you haven't gone once...and to be loving and supporting through it, you are very unselfish. (For all of you reading this, I received a scholarship to go to Israel for a three-week study trip in 2001, and because of funds, Katie stayed home (and by the way had to move us out of one apartment into another while I was gone), and this trip is a grant for pastors only (not spouses).

Katie, I promise the next time I go to the Holy Land, you are going!

Proverbs 3

Pr 3:2 – Wisdom prolongs your life “many years” and brings you prosperity.

Pr 3:3 – New subject: Love and loyalty as part of your life will win you favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.

Pr 3:5–6 – One of the most incredible Truths of life in a tiny, poetic sentence. Andy Stanley unpacked this verse so incredibly and took it out of my Sunday School understanding into a major theme for life direction. Here’s a few emphases:

Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart (not half-heartedly, but with your whole heart; I’ll do WHATEVER you say, God)
Don’t trust your own understanding (just because I think it doesn’t make it right)
In all your ways ACKNOWLEDGE Him (not give Him a nod, but pursue hard after His will in all your ways (arenas of life))
and, (as a result) He will make your paths straight (plain or smooth) — it will be obvious what you should do…The Lord is not trying to hide his will from us.
But He’s not going to give it to you if you’re not serious about following Him. Very encouraging and convicting at the same time.

Pr 3:7 – Wisdom equated with fear of the Lord and shunning evil.
Pr 3:8 - Wisdom leads to good physical health.

Pr 3:9–10 – One of my favorites to teach giving. This wisdom proverb teaches the same thing as Malachi 3 (OT Tithing for Israel) and 2 Cor 9 (NT Sowing and Reaping)…at is essence, it is wise to honor God (who allows you to prosper). Those who do, he prospers more. “Overflowing” and “brim over” speak to the abundance of God blessing those who honor him with the firstfruits.

Pr 3:11–12 – When I feel God’s discipline, it’s a sign that loves and delights in me. Whenever I’m strongly convicted about something, I often feel joy that God has not given up on me.

Pr 3:13–15 – Wisdom is more valuable than money.

Pr 3:16 – Wisdom offers long life and riches and honor.

Pr 3:18 – Wisdom is a “tree of life”; a reference to the right choice for Adam & Eve back in Eden

Pr 3:21–25 – More benefits of wisdom: life, prestige, safety, security, courage, rest,

Pr 3:26 – If you live wisely, “the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.” (wow!)

Pr 3:27–32 – The Golden Rule is wisdom.

Pr 3:33–35 – God curses the wicked, but blesses the righteous

Wise/Foolish Choice #3
Respond quickly to the Lord’s discipline. If you are being convicted about something, don’t look for reasons to continue. I find I generally know what wisdom is in a given situation, but sometimes I want to pretend I don’t know. Do the wise thing!

Proverbs 2

BTW, on this Proverbs journey, I’m reading from the NLT (my Daily Walk Bible): I like the word choice:

Pr 2:1 – “Tune your ears to wisdom” – you can choose what you want to pick up “concentrate on understanding” – you need to focus if you want to grow in wisdom

Pr 2:4 – “Seek [wisdom] as you would for money or hidden treasure” – it has value

Pr 2:6 – “The Lord grants wisdom” – Reminds me of James 1:5.

Pr 2:7 – “He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest…” — very interesting, it says God gives wisdom to those who are honest…it very much is true to life (honest people I know tend to be wise); Honesty, as I see it, is part of biblical wisdom (skillful living with the viewpoint that there is a God in Heaven we are accountable to)…thus, if you apply wisdom, He gives you more…neat.

Pr 2:7b – “He is a shield to those who walk with integrity” I’d much rather God be my shield instead of me try to shield myself with lack of integrity

Pr 2:8 – He guards the path of the just and protects those who are faithful to Him — I’ve so seen this to be true.

Pr 2:11–12 – LOVE these verses:

“Wise choices will watch over you
Understanding will keep you safe
Wisdom will save you from evil people.”

And another great one!
Pr 2:16 – “Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman”

Pr 2:21 – only the godly will live in the land (the Promised Land being a primary symbol of blessing for Israel)

Wise/Foolish Choice #2
Katie and I have a great life. Things seem very often to go smoothly for us. We feel overwhelmingly blessed. I believe much of the stability and blessing of our life comes from from striving to make wise choices in our money, marriage, relationships, etc. according to wisdom found in God’s principles in His Word. Take the Lord at His Word!

Proverbs 1

Proverbs Intro
Chapters 1-29 Written by Solomon
(Ch. 30 by Agur, Ch. 31 by Lemuel)

Pr 1:2 - Purpose of Proverbs is to teach people wisdom and discipline (I need both!)
Pr 1:3 - Purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair

Pr 1:5 - let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance—

Pr 1:8 - Wisdom comes from parents' instructions to us

Pr 1:10-19 - Stay far away from sinners' influence

Pr 1:20-33 - Wisdom is personified as an announcer in the streets

She calls to the crowds, freely offering herself (point: it is not hard to get wisdom)
But
Pr 1:22 - "simpletons" (naive)
"mockers" (defiant toward true wisdom)
and "fools" (morally numb)
pay no attention to wisdom

Pr 1:26-27 - Consequences of Ignoring Wisdom:
"in trouble"
"disaster overtakes you"
"calamity"
"anguish and distress overwhelm you"

Pr 1:31 - If you ignore wisdom, you "must eat the bitter fruit of living your own way" (what a line!)

Pr 1:32-33 - Summary of this purpose chapter:

32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm."

Finally, each day, I'm going to write one wise or foolish decision I've made in life (usually related to that day's reading).

Wise/foolish decision #1:
By far, the wisest decision I've EVER made (see definition of wisdom above) is to surrender my life to Jesus in June 1981.

My Proverbs Journey - Introduction

I’ve always wanted to do a careful study of Proverbs. This “Book of Wisdom” has so much meat in it that reveals God’s perspectives on so many things. Since “His Ways are higher than our ways,” some of the Proverbs are counterintuitive; others bear witness with our spirit immediately.

Proverbs covers an incredible range of subjects (Daily Walk Bible quotes “folly and wisdom, pride and humility, vengeance and justice, laziness and initiative, poverty and wealth, enemies and friends, lust and love, anger and anxiety, masters and servants, life and death.”

Most of them are sayings from the wisest man ever lived, King Solomon (see 1 Kings 3 (1 Ki 3:1) and 2 Chronicles 1 (2 Ch 1:1) for the source of his wisdom.

Wisdom, biblically speaking, means “skillful living”, not just being smart, but knowing how to apply good sense to your life. Also, in Scripture, to be truly wise has a spiritual aspect to it as well. Chapter 1 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” This means that as you live your life, you recognize that there is a God in Heaven we are accountable to, and you recognize your place under Him, and therefore it informs how you live. A life lived in light of that truth reflects wisdom, skillful living in the fear of God.

Join with me for the next 31 days as I seek to apply God’s 3,000 years-young wisdom to my life in 2008.

Sunday Night Reflections

Where did January go?

Oh yeah, we got ready to go to Thailand, went to Thailand for two weeks and then had a week of jet lag recovery and reconnecting with our kids and each other after a big trip.

Was back in the pulpit today (after 3 weeks out including the snow day!), and loved it. There's a great feeling at church right now, and even though I preached too long today (always do after missing a Sunday, sorry!), I believe the message was just what God wanted me to deliver today.

I'm so excited about 2008; the staff is efficiently working on our 100 tasks for 2008.

My time with God has been incredible lately. God sent two Michael Card songs from his album Poemia directly to me. Check out the lyrics of Sunshine of Your Smile:

Reject the worldly lie that says,
That life lies always up ahead,
Let power go before control becomes a crust around your soul,
Escape the hunger to possess,
And soul-diminishing success,
This world is full of narrow lives,
I pray by grace your smile survives.

Chorus- For I would wander weary miles,
Would welcome ridicule, my child,
To simply see the sunrise of your smile,
To see the light behind your eyes,
The happy thought that makes you fly,
Yes, I would wander weary miles,
To simply see the sunrise of your smile.

Now close your eyes so you can see,
Your own unfinished memories,
Now open them, for time is brief,
And you'll be blest beyond belief,
Now glance above you at the sky,
There's beauty there to blind the eye,
I ask all this then wait awhile,
To see the dawning of your smile.

Michael Card is by far my favorite Christian artist. His music soothes my soul and challenges my walk. I'd love to meet him someday.

Jet Lag is a Downer

I jumped back in to going to the office right after returning home and today it has caught up with me big-time.

I've been melancholy today and very tired.

I'm very thankful Brian is preaching this weekend, so I can bounce back. I'm excited about preaching next week, though. I'm fired up about the last American Idols message.

Post Trip Mind Dump

Not having a laptop for 15 days (perhaps the longest I’ve been without a computer since 1986) AND having ongoing insights and leadings from the Holy Spirit caused me to write pages of lists (usually in the end pages of the books I read while away).

I’m going to get them down here for myself; they may not be relevant to anyone but me.

1. 1. Finalize 2008 Reading List
2. Post Daily Checklist
3. Get staff bdays on calendar
4. Summarize and put in front of me:
5. 7 Practices points
6. Comm. for a Change points
7. Leadership Challenge points
8. Good to Great points
9. Chase the Lion points
10. C4 points
11. Making Vision Stick points
12. OK to be boss points
13. Get missionary bdays on calendar
14. Review 100 Tasks
15. Call GO Team Meeting
16. Write a book on sending (start in Fall)
17. Read/research Pirolo (2 day getaway) 1 day to pray, 1 day to map out ch.
18. Finalize 100 Life Goals
19. Mission Trip Follow-up
20. Contact Jim Akins
21. Write sermon
22. Map out Paradise Found series
23. Set goals for Lead Pastor Role
24. Hear from God
25. Pray
26. Bible
27. Read
28. Lead the Staff
29. Read
30. Manage every day. (15–5s)
31. Preach the Word
32. Listen to my sermons
33. Listen to iPod sermons
34. Get ahead
35. Cast C4 Vision
36. Get 4Runner back
37. Have Katie make hang-up quotes for office

Partial 2008 Reading List

1. Seven Practices of Effective Ministry
2. Communicating for a Change
3. The Leadership Challenge
4. It’s Okay to be the Boss
5. In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day
6. Puritan Books
7. Sex & the Supremacy of Christ
8. Magnify Your Vision for the Small Church
9. Go Big
10. Grace Walk

Books I Read in 2007 (Partial)

1. Making Vision Stick
2. Simple Church

Days 8-11

We are home now, just still suffering from a little jet lag. Our days feel like nights and nights feel like days.

I apologize for not giving daily updates for the last few days of our trip; once the conference started, we were up at 6:00am and going till 11:30pm, with every minute filled with preparations for the day, prayer, serving, or encouraging workers, and there was NO time for posting.

Katie and I had the privilege of serving about 20 field workers who came to consider the needs and potential for going into the country we were praying for.

It was during this three days that the value of all of our preparation and our purpose for coming became very evident.

I’ll unpack these more as my jetlag goes away, but here are the major lessions I believe God wanted to teach me through this trip and to share with our body:
prayer,
sending,
the sovereignty of God,
the urgency of our Mission (here and abroad),
and
willingness to surrender our dreams to those of our Lord’s (including patiently waiting for His timing not ours).

I want to thank all of you who prayed for us every day, sent comments to my blog (I treasured any word from you guys!), and followed our journey.

Peachtree, I’m also so grateful you guys gave me time away and the church supported our trip. We were able to greatly encourage our friend our church supports, and I am so eager to share with you guys how I believe God wants us to step up our role in missions.

Katie and I will plan a night for debriefing with all of you as soon as we get back to normal.

Thank you so much for praying for us!

Day 7

Heard we missed a great snow! Wow, that's hard to believe with the way the weather is over here.
conference starts 24 hrs from right now and we have up today all split up to work on a million (actually about 30) last minute tasks.

It takes forever to get simple things done because of the language barrier and because of the lack of resources we take for granted.

After what we've gone through to get some color handouts printers, I will not complain again about our copier at church.

We have had some incredible prayer times for the conference and much of the conference is going to be prayer for a country so we are expecting great things from God to raise up workers.

Katie and I have really started missing our little ones -- we've been looking at the photos we brought a lot.

Abbie and Ben, if you're reading this, we miss you and hope you had fun in the snow!

We'll be home soon!

P. S. Please pray ewith us for the conference togive attendeesdirection for their next step

Love, D

Day 6

sitting in a hotel lobby in Asia posting to you from my iPod

Flew from north Thailand today to the south . Took 2hr taxi ride to conference location
have been preparing conference handouts all day
I know we have been a huge help to our friend because she says so repeatedly.
will write more later when I have a bigger keyboard

Love to all,
D

Day 5

We're on the run today so I don't have much time to write. We're packing up (it's 8pm now) to fly back down south first thing in the morning to get ready for the conference. We've done lots of errand running, letter writing, and logistic planning today.

Also, we've had a GREAT time catching up with our friend.

BTW, we also squeezed in an elephant ride today for my birthday!

50/50

Peachtree will be five years old this April. From day one, 10% of our congregational giving has been designated for missions.

While I was in seminary, Robertson McQuilkin (author of The Great Omission, former president of Columbia International University, and champion for overseas missions) challenged us future pastors to shoot for as a life goal 50% of our church's budgets to go to missions.

Certainly the needs of the unreached in the 10/40 Window are great, and it has been my experience that one of the greatest obstacles to the Gospel advancing is the support needed for missionaries who desire to Go.

Why not? We are the most blessed Christians on earth. What if we sacrificed our niceties so that the called may go.

Now, I am not against us investing in ministry here (I am called to be a church planter in North America!)

And as our student pastor, Brian Bolden, says, "Doesn't matter if your lost in China or Villa Rica...you're still lost"

I guess there's two ways to look at it...We can send more money for the Mission overseas by:
1) spending less here and/or
2) giving more

What if, in Year 6-10, we asked the Lord to allow us to increase our missions giving by 1% of the budget every year (or 2% or more?)

Year Percent toward Overseas Missions
6 11
7 12
8 13
9 14
10 15

I like it!

Day 4

3:00pm here in Thailand. 3:00am Monday morning to most of you.

We've had a great day today praying for a country and for the conference. Katie and I have been privileged to help our friend prepare for conference, and I'm working alone right now to get my session down on paper.

Last night, we went to the "Sunday Walking Market" and saw tons of crafts and other things for sale by Thai people. It was a blast to see all the night life.

We ate several exotic foods including "mangoes and sticky rice", and several other things our friend would buy samples of and feed to us. My stomach is holding up well, though my lips are still burning from lunch today. I kept drinking up all the water on the table and my face was flushed.

I have a missionary heart, but not a stomach to match.

I've been having lots of time alone with the Lord, and Katie and I are both having our passion for Peachtree being a strategic sending church rekindled.

Hope all is wonderful there. Miss all of you!

2008 Praises/Highlights/Blessings

Katie and I have had a tradition that started in our second year of marriage of consciously tracking the blessings of each year.

They can be small or huge things, whatever we want to thank God for. When we're conscientious about it, we usually fill up about two pages on the fridge of things we are thankful for that happened during the year.

This year, I'm going to track them on my electronic fridge (right here on my blog). If you want to see them all, I'm labeling these posts Praise.

First, here's a few from the end of 2007:

1. 5 day cruise Mobile to Mexico in December
2. Our GG leaders James & Bryony Hite and all our GG friends
3. $25,000 Jesus' Bday offering! Able to bless some missionaries we support, set aside money for a baptistry, and bank 2 months of salary for new staff member Andy Whitworth!
4. Andy Whitworth on staff!
5. Great time with family over Christmas
6. iPod Touch - love listening to sermon podcasts and the Bible while walking
7. Peachtree at Blackstock - building is completed and 2008 will be all about ministry! Yeah God!

Now, things I'm grateful so far in 2008:

1. Abbie Reid - 93 sight words out of 100! Smart girl!
2. One month completed of my new health habit. - I walk 45 minutes about five mornings a week: Goal: 10,000 steps a day!
3. Privilege of going (with Katie!) to Thailand to encourage a missionary friend and share at a conference
4. Mom & Dad keeping Abbie and Ben so we can go to Thailand
5. Inspired by...The Bible Experience: Complete Bible - bought this with Christmas money, and it is Really good!
6. Peachtree Staff - competent to handle everything while I'm away
7. Peachtree Church - I am so grateful for my family at Peachtree. It is my privilege to be your pastor. We are a blessed people!
8. Jesus! - The more I get to know Him, the more I see His wisdom and beauty and power to accomplish just what He wants. Lord, I surrender to you!
9. Katie - my life would not be near as sweet without my precious life Partner
10. Ben Reid - can't leave him out...my best buddy. His fourth year (2008) is going to be FUN for daddy!

Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights...

Thank you, Lord, for all your perfect gifts!

Day 3

Today is Sunday, actually Sunday night here. We got to go to our friend's church and heard a great message on Grace and the righteousness of God being given to us by Christ.

After church, we went out for Thai food, and drove around some more.

We met with some of our friend's team to pray for the upcoming conference.

We may go out to a night market tonight.

The people are all very friendly, and there are people everywhere!

Our friend's apartment is really nice, and Katie and I have both been surprised at how modern everything is. The grocery/department store last night rivalled Wal-Mart in its diversity of products.

Tomorrow we get going in earnest on conference preparations.

Pray for us! We're missing Abbie & Ben.

Prayer Request

Since we announced this trip last Sunday, Katie and I have been asked to lead a session for potential missionaries on how to relate to sending churches. I'm very excited about that. This is an area of passion me (sending well); would you pray that we would have something very meaningful to share?

One Night in Bangkok

After arriving in Bangkok at 8:30 pm Thai time, we very smoothly went through customs, got our luggage and caught a taxi to our hotel. I told Katie it seemed easier than doing the same thing in Dallas, TX.

The taxi ride has been our biggest adventure so far; since the price is regulated by the government, you make more profit by doing more runs, so we had a SPEEDY ride, and let's just say if you think I'm a side-seat driver in West GA, you wouldn't believe how many times I put on the brakes in the back seat.

Motor scooters and riding in the back of a truck are very popular here. We even saw an entire family (mother, father, kid) on scooter.

We checked in about 10pm, slept through the night, and I woke up about 4:30am.

We've had a great breakfast and spent a lot of time talking this morning about missions, including what we think the Lord has planned for us here and what He wants to do at Peachtree in 2008.

It is 11:30 am Sat now here (I think it's 11:30pm Fri night in Atlanta), and we're getting ready to go to the airport to fly on to meet our friend. It will be so great to see her after two years. We are bringing greetings from all of you.

I'm writing this from the business center in the hotel, and hope to post some pictures at our next stop.

Thank you, Peachtree, for all your prayers this week. Hope you guys have a GREAT Sunday, and we are praying for you!

P.S. What does that song "One Night in Bangkok" mean?

Arrived Safely

Flight to Tokyo was fine. 14 hours is a long time, but the Boeing 777 we were on had cool TV screens in front of each seat which had movies, TV shows, video games, and tracked on our flight on a map of the world. We were over Wisconsin, Minnesota, Canada, Alaska, the Bering Sea, the Pacific Ocean, and Philippines, on our way to Japan. Cloud cover the whole way, but we could see the ground as we were landing in Japan. I was surprised by how rural it looked. I thought it would be very densely populated everywhere.

Also, we were VERY blessed by God in that only Katie and I were assigned to the three seats in our row, so she had a window, I had an aisle, and we had a seat between us to stretch out a little more.

The Lord really does provide in the smallest detail, becasue we were both dreading the long flight, and it turned out to be fine.

For those of you who were wondering, I didn't make Katie talk about 2008 goals the whole trip...only half of it ;>)

2 hour layover (2:30 pm Tokyo time) in Tokyo was just the right amount of time to get over to connecting flight.

We both slept five of the six hours of the second flight from Tokyo to Bangkok. That was a BLESSING as well.

Jesus at the Center

God has been doing some awesome things in mine and Katie's heart (it's cool how often He brings us to the same focus independently). We've both been dwelling on REALLY having Jesus at the center of our lives, and I am preached on it this Sunday and it resonated with many people.

I'm excited to see what Jesus wants to do this year at Peachtree.

The Asia Connection

Katie and I are leaving for Thailand this Thursday for 10 days to encourage a missionary friend Peachtree sends. We will be helping prepare for and conduct a conference for potential long-term workers in the 10/40 Window. I will be keeping our church posted through my blog. Please pray for our prayer requests below. We will be gone Thu, Jan 10 – Mon, Jan 21.

How to Pray:

Please pray for:

- Safety during our travel

- Abbie & Ben while we’re away

- Practical ways to support and encourage workers in Thailand

- Victory in spiritual warfare

- Conference we are assisting with for prospective workers

- Unreached people groups in Central Asia

- Opportunities to share the Gospel

- Clear direction from God for friends of ours regarding their next assignment

- Jesus will be made known among the nations