To hear the audio, click HERE.

I know that it’s been a few days (or weeks) since my last post, it’s been wild. I’ve been swamped and trying to get my “sea legs” at the new job. But it’s been very eventful and a blessing. Sid and I accomplished several goals last week: we sent our first mortgage payment in 10+ months AND we finally got our Disney Annual Passes…so, we feel that some of the hard fighting to survive is finally starting to ease up.

So let’s look at what this weekend has brought…

• I actually got to preach this Sunday at Church of the Suncoast.  If you’d like to listen to it, click HERE.
• I knew that it was going to be a wild day, I had a volunteer call and cancel at 9:00ish on Saturday night, and then I found out that our bass player had MAJOR heart surgery, AND one of the set up guys wound up having a stroke.
• I was preaching on Communion, last week we talked about Baptism, and then baptized 9 people!
• I’m not sure how many preachers I have heard connect Communion with Disney World and Verps….There’s probably a reason for that…. ??
• First service went well, and then some friends of mine from Orlando walked in.  They drove all the way just to hear me speak and hang out.  I am blessed.
• After church, we all went to Vallartas, and Sid got off work a little early and got to join us.
• I came home and absolutely crashed.  Sid had some errands to run, and then she came home…and crashed.
• I spent the evening working on ww.canthisbechurch.com and watching NASCAR from Atlanta.
• And there are days that I miss my old home town.
• But tomorrow, Sid and I are spending Labor Day at Animal Kingdom…we’re opening the park at 9:00am.
• We are truly blessed!

When we moved back from Georgia, I had 2 interviews lined up.  One with a church planter in Wesley Chapel, and another guy named Danny Schaffner at a church called Common Ground.  I checked out the one guy, interviewed with him and started spending some time there, and God made it VERY clear that I didn’t need to be there.  I also interviewed at Common Ground.  I liked them and they liked me.  The only problem was, because the economy was tanking, they had some funding that fell through…no money, no job.

So I kept looking.  At one point I was sending 20+ resumes out a day for everything I cold think of.  I went to cattle calls, I shaved my beard, I applied to drive trucks, make bed deliveries, sell furniture, sell office supplies, I even had a possibility to work with the State of Florida.  But nothing landed…for 6 months.  Add those 6 to the 4 in Georgia, I was looking at 10 months without a job.

2 months after my first meeting with Danny Schaffer, I started to have this recurring thought: You Need to work with Danny Schaffner and Common Ground.  What I know now is that was the voice of God telling me what He wanted me to do.  So after a little begging, Danny allowed me to come on staff as an apprentice.

I worked there helping with their leadership development, team building, band, and tech area.  I learned a lot, and one day, Danny told me he had a friend who was looking for a guy like me.  And that is how I got connected to Brian Moon, my new boss Church of the Suncoast.

Some would say that it was all because of my connections.  Or being in the right place at the right time.  I would disagree with all of that.  The ONLY reason that I got a great job during one of the worst economies in the last 50 years is because God ordained it.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

It’s miracle that after 10 months I get hired by a church.  It’s a miracle that it’s the perfect job for me: close to home, all about leadership development and team building.  It’s EXACTLY the amount of salary that we needed to save the house.  Who else but God could orchestrate something like that?  No one.

So the first miracle I want to focus on, is our house.

For all the back story, you can check our this post and this post.

Flash forward to July 1, I had NO job, Sarah was working 7 days a week, and we were barely making it.  The house was in foreclosure, but the bank had not taken us to court.  We had not paid a payment in 10 months.  It all hinged on my getting a job.  And then, I was hired by Church of the Suncoast to be their Director of Ministry Operations.  All I had to do was make the call the our bank, and try to get the house back.

On Tuesday, July 28, 2009, I finally had all the information they needed.  And I made the call on my way home from work.  After 10-15 minutes of answering VERY sensitive questions, I finally had my answer:  “YES, we were available for homeowners assistance.”  In fact, our loan was available for modification and we were only going to have to pay a little over 1/2 what our original mortgage amount per month.  We were no longer just going to be surviving, we were going to be able to aggressively get back on our feet financially.  It was a true miracle of God.

On Monday, I started back in my routine of memorizing scripture, and I (randomly) landed on Galatians 6:9, which says, “And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.”

There were many days that I felt I was losing heart.  Many nights of anguished prayer for God to intervene.  But His timing is NOT our timing, but He is ALWAYS faithful.

And from experience, I can say that God has provided a miracle: our house.