Emmaus Road Church Remodel Photos

Some of you have asked how the Emmaus Road Church building is coming and if I would post some new pics, so here goes.

Things are progressing well, although they've slowed a bit since I've started substitute teaching with Toledo Public Schools full time. We've finally gotten to the point where a lot of the major work is finished--a lot of the stuff you don't really see or realize how much work has gone into it. So far, between our own work and the work of volunteers, we have close to 400 hours into the building.

Today, we just started priming and painting and that's when you really begin to see things coming together. I want to mention briefly the people and churches God has used to do His work at ERC: John and Kathy from ERC, Dan from the Alliance Church, 5 work teams from Lima Community Nazarene, and 3 work teams from Bedford (MI) Nazarene. We would never have been this far without all of you.

Below are a few photos of the not-yet-finished product.

Francis Chan on the Church

I hope these words from Francis Chan challenge you and make you think as they have me this week:

"Is there any logic in believing that God started His Church as a Spirit-filled, loving body with the intention that it would evolve into entertaining, hour-long services? Was he hoping that one day people would be attracted to the Church not because they care for one another, not because they are devoted to Him, not because the supernatural occurs in their midst, but because of good music and entertainment?"

If you'd like to read the rest you can find it here.

A Gift Not Ours

For four months now, we've been expecting our fourth child this July. However, two days ago, we miscarried the baby. Although it was very painful emotionally, we are very happy and blessed to have been able to bury the tiny, 13 week old baby on top of my dad's grave in Lima, Ohio.

Miscarriages are always hard, but for us, I think this one is even harder than the previous two which happened before we had kids, because now that we have other children, we know how precious kids are and what we're losing by losing a baby.

We chose not to name him (he was a boy) because we feel like he was never really given to us. Ultimately he's God's and God's to name, so we gave him back to God to care for and to name.

Finally, we've known God's peace through all of this. We know He cares, that He suffers as we do (probably more), and that He's with us though it all.