I sat down many times over the past two months with the hopeful intension to write down some recent story or lay out some recent thoughts. Each time walking away from the computer, either because I felt there was nothing to say or maybe because things have been so fast pace lately that I can hardly slow my head down enough to back track my thoughts. Its been crazy. I took on another class in pursuit of an education. Although I think the most education I am getting these days is coming from hands on experience and watching. Watching Jason lead this team in Tulsa is teaching me so much. Living with Shawna is teaching me a lot about determination and courage to not back down to the world. And as always, I am reading a lot.

             Today I and lately I have been thinking about home. The Appalachian mountains and many friends. If to many minutes go by I start to think I'm crazy for ever leaving such a wonderful place. But then I'm encouraged to continue on here in Tulsa. Our Grand Opening is this weekend, we are all so excited to get started. Keep us in your prayers. Pray that God would use us despite us and that many people who are hurting would find peace.

No doubt, there are seasons of our lives. For whatever reason there are just some times each year that we pull out the old vinyls and give 'em a spin. Ok, i can't speak for you, but I pull out my old vinyls and wear 'em out just one more time. This past week has been quite the collection of old music, reading and re-reading.

I just finished a book by K.P. Yohannan called Revolution In World Missions. You might recognize it's title because it was advertised as a Free Book in a add on Biblegateway.com for almost a year. Which is exactly how I got the book. Finally, I decided to go ahead and just get the book and stop being teased by the offer of a free book. After finishing Gene Edwards, A Tale Of Three Kings I had a reading craving that couldn't be quenched, staring at my long row of "books i want read" I thought I would give K.P. a chance. Am I ever glad I did and this book will be one that I put on the "re-read shelf". K.P. will convict you to live less for yourself and more for the Two-Thirds world that is in tremendous need, not merely that they should have food, water and shelter but that they should have the only thing that feeds a persons soul, give than eternal home and saves their lives, the gospel. 

I have been convicted and now... I'm not so sure what I want to do. I know there are tons of things I could do, but I do no what I don't want to do. I don't want to convince myself that what I'm doing is enough and in time surely, slowly drift back to a life that is self-serving. 

Shawna and I have this plant on our patio, its in the perfect location, just enough out of sight to slip my mind. About every 2 days I remember this plant and how desperately it needs water. This poor plant has been on the verge of death almost its entire life.

Today as I was about to walk out the door I remembered that I needed to go give the plant wanter. I thought to myself, how accurate a picture for most of our prayer lives?! We know we cant live without prayer, but we go days sometimes weeks until we feel so parched and almost dead. So we offer up enough prayer to make ourselves feel alive and then we start the process over again. Slowly drying up until we feel almost dead again.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don't give up." Galatians 6:9
Once I watered the plant, I decided to bring it inside and sit it in a place where I could see it and not forget  about it. How much better our prayers would be if we would take the time to care for for our prayer time and to protect it.

God is so incredibly good to us! Even though at times things can seem to difficult to handle, God comes through.

My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me

But what can be done
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew
With the wine of Your Blood


-K.G.

Shawna and I are here in Tyler, Texas visiting with Keturah and Shawn. We have had a very wonderful time. I continue to be challenged and encouraged by my older sister. Today was a particularly special day in my life because I got to visit the grave site of Keith Green. Although I never got the chance to meet Keith, I feel like I know him very well. To this day Keith encourages me to seek Jesus alone, to put nothing before simply loving Jesus. As I stood and stared at Keiths tombstone I felt like I had so much to say and thank him for. Inscribed on the stone was John 12:24 "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." . Even as I read I was convicted. God has been speaking to my heart, and today will be remembered. I am so thankful for the revelation of Gods love and the intimacy with God that is possible. I have not and will not till eternity know the full understanding of Gods love for us. But I do know the more I obey, the more he reveals it, the more I love Him and obey and so it continues.

This past weekend, Shawna and I packed our house and moved into a new apartment, went to 4 different church services with in a 24 hour period, enjoyed the holiday with some good friends, and we got a temporary new roommate named Gerry who is preparing to move out.

It has been a pretty awesome, pretty strange few days. Now we are preparing for our 3rd monthly service, June 6th. I'm beginning to get use to the fact the time goes by much quicker than you'd like it to. If I think long and hard it makes a little sense that we are already half way there to launching Freedom Valley Church - Tulsa. But this feeling of warped time and reminiscence still lingers.

We have had such an encouraging time with Gerry. Shawna and I both miss our families, and although we are very glad that we got to spend some much time with Gerry, it can't help but make you look forward to being together with people you love again, and that can be a little painful.

The next "together time" will be July 20-31. Forty-Nine days away. I am so looking forward to that time with family. But God help me to be satisfied, content and focused for your purposes here in Tulsa.

Faithfulness and obedience are the things that God wants from us. When we measure our closeness to God by the things we do for Him we will begin to drift away from Him in our hearts. The key to not drifting away is by measuring your closeness to God by time spent with Him. The greatest gift wen can ever get is the presence of God. Don't measure your relationship with God by what you do, live for the presence of God.

What is loving God? Not to mention loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. But I wonder if a person other than me were to examine my life, would they find I love some one or something more than God?

I spend more time with my wife, I spend more money on her, and I think about her many times throughout the day. If she and I spend much time apart at all I am constantly thinking about her, calling her or writing her emails. It is painful to be away from her.

Not at all to say a relationship with your wife should suffer, but I do wonder if I truly believe it's okay to merely read my bible for 20 min a day, pray on occasion when it feels right or necessarily, do my salaries worth of work for the church, put 10% of my paycheck back in the offering plate and sometimes go a day or so without any communication with God?

I don't want to put anything in my life above God and loving him. Instead of loving anyone less or doing less of something, how can we love God more?

I hate being late! And today I completely missed a meeting that was very important to me. Normally in this situation I would think of how I can work harder and become a better manager of time to ensure this doesn't happen again and to also somehow make up for my fault. But right now, I kind of think it was good that I missed a meeting.

God spoke to me, and I believe He was telling me that His love is better than my best. Nothing I do or don't do can change His incredible love. I can get so hung up on myself, my meetings, and my agenda (even though its for God) that I forget to enjoy Him.

My word is, Its easy to shut the door on God when we are upset with our outcome. But don't let your mistakes get in the way of enjoying God and being with Him.

Today was my 3rd day on the job as a Nurse Tech in Surgery at Saint Francis. I have been seeing some pretty crazy stuff, some of which is a little more than emotional. I am glad to say that God is giving me a new level of compassion. I can feel it growing in my heart. If you are feeling a little cold inside, go out and take a look at some hurting people. They are all over the place and they wont be around forever.

God knows our needs. And sometimes we think we know our own needs, but God knows them so much better than we do. I believe this is why it can be so hard and at times even painful to obey Gods direction when he speaks it to us. We can either follow His leading or our own.

It will always be a better decision to seek His direction first.

I love my life and my wife. Even more I love the direction and the adventure that we are in together. This morning as Shawna and I sipped coffee we talked and dreamed about the future. I love dreaming about the future. It inspires me to be better at everything I'm doing, right now. Dreaming also makes me slightly irritated with the condition of certain things that need to be better. But all in all, I love dreaming and even better I love dreaming Gods plan for our lives. Shawna and I will always do our very best to find Gods plan before our own. Because If we would ever decide to follow our own plan before Gods we would no longer be on an adventure.

I don't usually check my email first thing in the morning, but this one morning in particular I awoke from my slumber and felt the nudge to get online and see what might be waiting for me in my inbox. As I logged in my gmail preview gave me a peak at the one piece of junkmail (or so i thought) that found its way to me. I decided to give the letter one chance since I did make it this far from the pillow. I followed the link that was inside and to my delight I arrived at the webpage of Double Shot Coffee Company of Tulsa. This day happened to be their 6th year anniversary and If I could drop by on this particular day I could get a free cupcake with my cup of coffee. I will just say it already... Double Shot has the best coffee I have ever tasted in my entire life! You owe to yourself and your grandchildren to get over and check out Double Shot! Its located on Boston just south of 13street. There is so much to be discovered at this place, you wont regret it.

One thing that made ARC's boot camp in Ft Myers worth the trip (other than the beautiful palm trees and 80 degree weather in the middle of winter) was this little statement that has not left my head: "a good staff member will give the church his (or her) first and best thoughts." I have to be honest, for a couple of weeks prior to our trip I was not giving Freedom Valley Church my first and best thoughts. I was working so much and relaxing in my free time that I was giving the church my 3rd and invaluable thoughts.

That is about to change, I am going back to work this week demanding my part time position. I plan to work for the church Sunday-Tuesday and work for pay Thursday-Saturday. I am believing that God will provide more and better as I follow Him wholeheartedly.

We have only been here in Ft Myers training with ARC for 30 hours, yet we are learning years of experience, wisdom and insight. I feel so privileged to have this type of training available to me. Tomorrow morning we are meeting at the South Ft Myers High School to watch Next Level Church (mobile) unpack there truck in 5 min and set up in 30 min. I am so excited to learn from these guys how to do church mobile without forsaking quality and passion. This all makes me so curious of the church that God is going to have me lead some day.

I'm so glad that I get to spend some time with my family on this trip. I have to say, the more men I meet in this life the more thankful I am to have Roger Lewis as my father. I know of no other person who has experienced life the way he has and still approach's life with integrity, complete honesty and commitment as he. Today, when 50% are lucky if they will have their dad as a father and we have more excuses than ever to compromise, I'm so thankful for my father to be a constant source of encouragement and living proof to me that to be a man of courage and conviction is not such an impossible thing. It's actually a much better option.


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We are a culture of entertained people. We watch more TV, listen to more music, see more media and advertisements than any generation before us, by far. We load our iPod's so full of music that we don't even know half of whats on it. We watch so many movies that we cant remember half the titles. If any generation can sniff out an act, its this one.

I wonder what it is going to take for Church's to start gaining ground in America. I think that it will take all kinds of Church's reaching all kinds of people. But the thing that scares me is that we may start following models, books and the main stream so much that we forget to completely rely on God and follow His word in our hearts for His Church.

For the last 2 years I have had the amazing privilege to receive my pay check from the church. I love working in full time ministry, but the truth is that I can be in full time ministry and be ministering less than if I would work at a grocery store. Today I began work at a grocery store, not to say working for the church isn't work, IT IS!, but today was eye opening to me. As I looked around at my fellow coworkers I realized that I may be the only witness for Christ in this workplace. I don't have to leave my desk or do an outreach to find somebody to share Jesus with. They are right around me and I could miss the opportunity to share Jesus if I don't begin to view my life as ministry. I think that we allow what we do to dictate who we are all to often.

God, make me into a full time minister in my workplace. Help me to view my job as the work you have called me to right now, for the people I work with.

Today I completed my new hire paper work at Akin's, a natural food store right next to our home. I am still waiting to hear from Bank Of Oklahoma, I should know by Tuesday if they will hire me. But I am so thankful to have this job at Akin's. I actually had 4 other job offers, 1 of which I was able to give to Derek. God has provided more than enough. I was concerned at first if I would find a job by February and since then I have had the wonderful opportunity to choose between jobs. God is good and I am grateful that He cares so much for us. He knows our needs and is eager to meet them. Even when things don't happen the way we anticipate, if we are searching for His will we will find it.

"It's time to quit playing church and start being the Church (Matt. 18:20)". This is one thing that Keith Green was very passionate about. Ever since I read Keith's biography "No Compromise" back in 2006 I have been hungry and unsettled for a life of no compromise. In every decision we make (most importantly, the smallest places) we choose to either obey God or to neglect Him. Neglecting is our natural tendency. We are born into a sin. But when we challenge our natural thoughts and actions and seek Gods way in every situation we will experience a closeness with God and become more familiar with His voice. It breaks my heart to think that we can actually go before God and He can say "yes, I know you healed people in my name but I never knew you."
God, wake me up where I've fallen asleep. Make me like you no matter the cost.

It's been taking a lot of patience to keep my head on these past few weeks. Between settling in to our new home, finding work, building relationships and doing our very best to follow God. It can be hard to have patience. We were doing life, enjoying where we were and then God told us to go.

Just because we did what God told us to do doesn't mean that it's going to be easy. I think that God will ask us to do crazy things just to see if we will trust Him. I'm sure that it's hard to top the feeling than knowing that the person you love doesn't just believe in you but they also trust you.




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After applying at 20 some different places, visiting each Manager with a resume in hand and following up with a phone call... I finally landed 4 interviews and 3 job offers. Just last week I was starting to wonder if I would ever get a job and now I need to make a decision. This is a much better week. Thank You Jesus!

This week has been kind of hard. I have been struggling a bit with not having a job. But I believe that I have been missing the picture a bit. I have been focusing so much on finding a job with my own strength and not seeking Gods direction in the little aspects of my days. So I am deciding to turn around and be more occupied with allowing God to use me how he wishes this week.

I love Shawna because she is constantly helping me to become a better man. She helps me become more like Jesus every day. She can say an encouraging word to me like no one else. She believes in me more than I sometimes believe in myself. She has strength when I don't. This is just a a glimpse of how much better she makes my life. But what is most impressive, on top of all she does for me, she still manages to chase down bold dreams of her own, give the most sincere and heartfelt gifts to others, serve her friends and church in many ways, write stories and poems that entertain the masses and seek God with her whole heart. She is a beautiful mystery to me. I love her.

update:

Shawna had an interview today with Pier 1, it went very well and she is supposed to hear from them by Saturday.

I am still looking for work, the Lowe's HR Manager will not be in the office until Monday. So I will be at Lowe's Monday morning begging a job.

Shawna and I are learning the area very well and beginning to feel at home. But not to at home. We like to be just uncomfortable enough to follow whatever crazy thing God says to do.

Derek, Daniel and Fred will be arriving this weekend. It will be nice to have a few more close friends near by.

We had the pleasure of meeting our neighbors on both sides. Tiffany is a young single mother, we are really praying for a good relationship and that God would use us somehow in her life. Norvel and Leeann are an elderly couple that love to keep an eye on everything outside their apartment. We are so happy to have such great neighbors.

and lastly, I am so excited for the beginnings of our worship team. I am so thankful for the opportunity to learn from Jeremiah, Charity and Steph Modder. God has used them to teach me so much. Please be praying with me that God would direct me to people that we could teach and disciple to be worshipers for Him. Or that people would be directed to us. However the way, that God would grow this team and our leadership and wisdom to be affective leaders for Him.

We've begun our job search here in Tulsa. So far I have applied at Lowe's, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, Guitar Center, Seatles Best and Boarders. I would really like to work at Lowe's, I go in Monday to meet Julie in HR, please pray with me about that. I had a little bit of difficulty choosing where to apply because all I want to do is ministry. But now I'm thinking that I've got a lot to learn about ministry. I am actually getting excited about all that God is going to teach me as I work to serve Him and work to be able to serve Him. Serving God is a privileged not to be taken for granted.