Long Time No Blog

Well we're in it now!
We have begun our weekly services and are two weeks into it. We have yet to stop growing in attendance... this last week we were at 262 including kids... WHICH IS CRAZY NUTS! Let's catch you up to speed on what's been happening with Great Lakes and with the Petersons. First lets do a little GLC.

December was an exciting month as it was our final month in Mahone Middle School (pronounced Muh - Hohn). There is a neighboring school that was going to be needing Mahone as it was doing some renovating... so the plan was to move into Tinseltown (Kenosha's movie theater). Unfortunately, movie theaters might be GREAT for adult services, but they suck for kids. Ultimately, Dave was able to secure us a consistent spot at Nash Elementary, which is (no joke) two blocks from Dave's house. Nash is very reminiscent of Kirkland Junior High (where EastLake was before it moved to Bothell) with a big cafeteria with lots of day light for the Elementary Program, and adults are in the gymnasium. It might have been a bad move to secure an Elementary School, except that this one has over 200 parking spots for some reason... so we're good.

Our first service in Nash was a week-and-a-half ago on January 4th. Setup was on Friday morning of all the crazy times, and the crew was minimal, but the few people that were there have been clutch players in all of this from day one, so they knew the drill and we were able to setup everything, including Kids Program, in record time. Sunday morning we arrived at 8am to boot up and power on. The band was able to have an hour to rehearse and it was our very first time practicing all together... lol. I'm still leading worship... I really miss playing electric guitar, but Christian (who has joined the team as the 3rd "real" music team member) has been doing a phenomenal job on electric. I'm feeling a little more comfortable singing now, but still know that there is someone out there who is made for leading at Great Lakes.


We started our DNA series on the 4th, which is a great way to go weekly... it let's people know who we are and why we do things the strange way we do. It's kinda like a 5 week membership class. On the first week Dave spoke about taking risks... This past Sunday, the 11th, Dave spoke on our come as you are atmosphere. The rest of the series will touch on challenging people to not stay as they are (or to grow more Christlike) and getting plugged in with volunteering.

I'm looking forward to our official launch next month... it's the SEX SERIES and our first big mailer will be hitting homes at the end of this month. I can still remember the flack that EastLake had to deal with when the "Thank God For Sex" mailer hit the community... and I'm sure some of you do too. I'm not looking forward to dealing with bad attitudes toward our openness on the subject, but the lives that are going to change through it are totally worth it!

Here's Michelle.

Hello there :) So yeah, launching a church is a bizarre endeavor, and I can't believe we get to be a part of something like this AGAIN! I feel very fortunate and look forward to being a grandma and great-grandma someday and telling the grandkids what Grandpa Tony and Grandma Michelle did a long long time ago before they had kids and when people were still using DVR. I know that's an odd way to look at it, but it gives me perspective that this is worth all the risk, all the homesick days, and all the freezing cold we are experiencing now.

I work mostly behind the scenes, managing follow up and connection, trying hard to recruit volunteers onto our many teams. It's a funny thing to do, since we are technically only two weeks old as a church. However, Dave and the rest of the team have all been so clear and so passionate about our vision of starting a church in this area for people who don't go to church, that it's been easy for people to jump on at attach themselves to that. After last Sunday alone, we had 19 people commit to helping in Kids at least 1x per month. Many of those that committed were visiting us for the very first time! Isn't that something to thank God for? More than sharing our insider perspective, I'll share what some of our guests have shared with us over email...

I grew up at [local church] and attended regularly until about 2002. My husband and I got pregnant as teenagers and moved in with my parents who are members at [local church]. We wanted to get married [there], went through all of the classes and such, and were informed one month before our wedding that they would not marry us because we lived together. We were told that in order to be married that my fiance would have to move out for that month. We wanted to raise our child together and therefore changed the location of our wedding and found another pastor to marry us. My husband of now almost 7 years having been raised catholic was totally turned off to the church and would not return. [My husband] didn't want to go to church anywhere anymore until I begged him to attend Great Lakes (told him that the pastor often preaches in hoodies and jeans.) He liked the idea and loves it now as much as I do! Praise the Lord! I have waited so many years for something like this to come along and pray that he will stay interested. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you are doing for people like us! God Bless!

My husband and partner of 18 yrs killed himself Nov 2, 2008 and I am looking for someplace to start putting my life back together. I felt welcomed yesterday and one of your volunteers saw me crying when I came in and she gave me a hug and made me feel loved and welcome there. Thank you and I will be there next Sunday, weather permitting

(from one of our surveys)
WHAT DID YOU NOTICE FIRST?:
All of the people standing outside in the freezing temps to greet me and show me where to park.

WHAT WAS YOUR OVERALL IMPRESSION?:

I WAS OVERWHELMED,OVERJOYED AND LEFT FEELING WONDERFUL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MANY YEARS AFTER LEAVING A SERVICE. THE LADDER LESSON WAS GREAT AND YOU MADE IT ALL SO EASY TO UNDERSTAND FOR SOMEONE STRUGGLING TO GET UP THE RUNGS :)

We are humbled and overwhelmed to be a part of something that has the potential to bring so much healing and hope to so many people.


NOW - ABOUT THE PETERSON'S
It's very very very cold here. A co-worker at Starbucks helped me get some perspective today. She told me that most winters, the most snow Kenosha will get is about 19". Ever since Tony and I moved here, we've heard tons of horror stories about how terrible last winter was - way more snow than anyone could have imagined. My friend said that last year, by the end of the winter, Kenosha had 32" of snow total. YIKES! Then she told me that this year, so far, we've already received 39"!!!!! Our little Kenosha house is currently surrounded by about 2 feet of snow that doesn't seem like it has any intentions of melting any time soon. It's usually very pretty. It just becomes kind of a drag when I work at 4:30 in the morning and my car needs to be shoveled out before I can get anywhere. OH, not that I do the shoveling - I work really hard to stay toasty warm while Tony freezes his face off digging out our little Lupita (the Subaru).

Speaking of Lupita - here's something I've been chuckling over lately. Back in April when we finally decided to go out and purchase my dream car, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the purchase price included these never-used snow tires. Then, when we got our little car home, I was quite annoyed that we had no place to store these newly acquired assets. I quickly got really frustrated that the snow tires would have their home on the very small deck of our apartment - a complete eye-sore! I thought at that time, "Why do we even need these. It doesn't snow enough in Seattle to make this necessary". Fast forward several months, here we are in Kenosha Wisconsin experiencing record amounts of snow. Tony had the snow tires installed early in December and they have been a complete life saver. It makes me laugh every time I think of it and I pray, "Jesus, how patiently you dealt with my annoyed attitude about these tires when you knew all along where we would be and what we would need."

So, yeah, it's cold and I work at Starbucks. It seems like that sums up life between services for me. Oh, except for this fun fact... Tony and I have been having people over for Game Nights lately. Not necessarily Great Lakes Church people, mostly co-workers from Starbucks and their friends. It's been a fun change for Tony and I to actually find ourselves hosting anything. As some of you might know, we found it quite comfortable to have an apartment just big enough for the two of us, but not big enough to ever have people over. We liked our cozy private life, and were happy to leave any sort of hosting to just about anyone else. Here, we have a nice little house with a pretty open floor plan which makes it great to have people over. We've met some fun people and played some crazy games of Cranium, Catchphrase, & Apples to Apples. Tony also get's a chance to make a variety of appetizers to share - his latest were these amazing home-made pot stickers! Holy Smokes!

Me (Tony) again...

To wrap this all up, we realize that we've sorta disappeared to some of you back in Seattle and that's not how we want it to be. We totally miss you all and miss EastLake and miss needle-type trees and miss the backdrop of mountains and miss Peso's on Queen Ann and miss Cafe Veloce in Totem Lake and miss Jake and Lucy and Ruby and Tucker and Mazzy and miss consistently finding new things to do in Seattle. Thank you for praying for us and please continue to do so... specifically that Michelle can find another good paying job and that we can afford to stay here. Also, pray that God will continue to do what he's been doing and equip us to handle it.

Managing Expectations: 2nd Preview Service

"Managing Expectations" - This is a phrase Dave has been using with myself and the launch team... and I think it's wise to prepare people for what is to become of their efforts, but MAN have we been off!

It was expected that our attendance at our first preview was to be between 50 - 80... and we were hopeful... so we shot high and shared the hopeful number of 100 with the launch team... that's managing expectations. This isn't just a made up number either (the 50 - 80), it comes from numerous church planters and books written by church planters, and also based on the population of this area. We thought we'd shoot a little higher than that. Well, if you've been reading ours or Dave's blog, you know that our expectation of 100 was a shy guesstimate of God's plan of 174 in attendance. We were shocked!

But that was a one time thing. The truth is, Dave had been here for a month pumping this church up and getting people to invite their friends and family. The launch team was also very pumped to be involved, but now that the first service is over, we can release our held breath, and sigh. Now, the natural response is that the energy has come down... right?

Again, prepped by our planter friends and their books, we managed expectations with the team. We advised them that "typically, after the hype of the first service has passed, the attendance of the second service is about half of the first" so we told them that we should probably see about 80 - 100 in attendance at Preview Service #2... in essence, 100 would not be shrinking, it would be growing. All this, so that when we DO have 100 in attendance, we don't feel like we've failed in bringing back the 174, but we've succeeded in growing beyond the norm.

182! I'll just say it... no more suspense... just let that sit in you for a sec. 182 adults and children. We didn't lose half... we didn't lose even 1%... we grew! According to the Connection Cards, over 30 adults came for their first time!

So much for "Managing Expectations".

And let me tell you right now, it's not about numbers. It's about touched lives... and those numbers signify potentially touched lives. And here is the shocker... it's not even potential... it's fact. At our second preview service, without talking about salvation, and without having an alter call (which we'll never do anyway), we had two people come to Christ for the first time (one of which came just from our Facebook ad). I hesitate saying it for privacy purposes, but if Heaven is having a party over it, shouldn't we?

A-Mazing!
Let me tell you a little about my experience.

It was a busy month. I personally was busy with all kinds of media projects... working on the website, and the videos needed for it... creating advertisements for the local papers... designing and printing invite cards for the upcoming services... creating and editing the videos for Sunday morning... shopping... rehearsing with the band... and all the time dealing with a computer that's been mocking me with the dreaded "blue screen of death" near the 95% complete render portion of my projects.


Michelle is working at Starbucks now (AH YEAH HOOKUP!)
She's meeting new people and really loves her job, but with all the distance between services right now, she's not feeling busy enough with Great Lakes (very typical Michelle... busy all the time). But fear not, the second service came just in time, and she was (no joke) dancing almost all morning long. All her energy came back to her as if it never left.

We were short a worship leader for the band, so I had to step out of my comfort zone with my electric guitar, and strap on my acoustic (thanks Matt) and stand behind the mic. Day of, I was less nervous than I thought I'd be, but that calm could not have been my own doing. All month long I was practicing the setlist...
Everlasting God
Sweetly Broken
Turn Your Eyes
Here I am to Worship
... and it truly is my wish to find a great lead singer for the band, as I feel great to do Gods work, but know that my gift is in accompanying, not leading.

Julia, thank you. God has brought Great Lakes an amazing musician. Before I came out here, I had a picture in my head of what the Great Lakes Music Team would look like. A loud drummer with great timing... a hyper bassist with big hands... a bald good-looking electric guitarist with charm and big holes in his ears... an acoustic playing lead vocalist with golden vocal chords... and a naturally gifted alto/vocal harmonizer with an enviting stage presence. That was it. I knew what I knew of rock bands, and I knew what people were expecting to see at church, so I was adamant about not having a keyboardist... simply to break the mold and for shock value... but I was wrong.


I remember praying "God, I need a Ceci or a Leah or a Cathy. Someone that I don't have to teach all the parts to, but can just naturally pick up the harmony parts." and He answered my prayer. Julia is not only amazingly gifted at EXACTLY THAT, but she plays keyboard masterfully. She could BE the band if needed. Our vocal rehearsals look like this...
I pick up the acoustic guitar... I sing a song she's never heard before... by the end of playing it one time through, she's done writing all the harmonies... one more time through for lyric memorization and we're ready to perform. No joke.

But everyone is amazing. Aaron, our drummer whose limbs seem to care not that they are attached to the same nervous system. Kevin, our guitarist who played last Sundays songs WAY better than I could have. Gordy, our World of Warcraft loving bassist who doesn't play bass... he IS bass. All of whom are so giving of their time and talent, you'd think they're on payroll.


Also I'd like to thank the behind the scenes guys like Jesse, our parking lead, who is more MacGyver than Pat McJunkin (sorry Pat)... and Jon, our producer, who is our Jenn Aaro times ten... and Jeff, our media guru, whom I need not say a word to and all computer issues are non-existant... and Mark, our sound engineer, who has way too much pre-knowledge of sound energy and way too much fascination with our soundboard, I'm a little intimidated by him.

Outside of that little team are 40+ more names who make this happen. You're all amazing for what you do and for where your heart is.

We're changing lives you guys. Some people are impressed, some are moved, some are invested, some are checking this all out, some are right now anticipating our next service, many have yet to come, but we're all in Gods sight and He's proving it to us directly to our faces.

I work at Starbucks... and other stuff

Still settling in to life in Wisconsin, we’ve got A LOT going on. I started working at the closest Starbucks to our house last week. Tony and I knew before we got here that I would be putting my “career” on hold, whatever that was. We knew we weren’t coming out here to build our resumes, necessarily, but that we needed to be open and ready to do what was needed. Starbucks seemed like the perfect opportunity for me. I get to work at a place I am way too familiar with, meet some locals, and leave work at work so I can concentrate on whatever needs doing for GLC. So far, I love it!

Today, in my training, I got to taste Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend. It reminded me a lot of wine tasting when I used to work in restaurants. Did you know there’s a whole process to tasting coffee? Mmm Hmm…
1. Smell
2. Slurp
3. Say words like “nutty” or “citrus” or “earthy”
4. Take a bite of something (pairing)
5. Slurp Again
6. Say different words like “smooth”, “acidic”, “spicy”
That’s all I’ve got so far. I’ll keep you posted as I learn more about the proper ways to drink coffee. I dig it.

I’ve also met some great people. One of my trainers, after she asked me to “share a bit about myself”, told me she had heard of Great Lakes Church. She shared that she goes to a small-ish church in the area and her pastor mentioned us, asked them to pray for us, and to donate their pocket change to us in hopes of raising $1,000 in one month. Isn’t that incredible!?! She’d not only heard of us but has been praying for us. Another one of my trainers, a couple of days later, also mentioned she’d heard about us. I was STUNNED. She said she had a friend of a friend who mentioned it, and then she saw a bunch of people talking about it on Facebook (THANK YOU FACEBOOK). She said she wanted to come to the first service but had to work. Imagine that! She could have been number 175! Meeting these girls and other people has just confirmed for me that taking a job where I could meet lots of people was definitely the right thing to do. If I had gone back to something more comfortable for me like an office job, I would have probably only been around the same 5 people every day.

Tony and I just got back from Woodmen’s Grocery Store. It’s gigantic! About as big as Costco, but you don’t have to buy in bulk, it’s a little nuts. Anyway, he’s invited a few of the people that played music at the 1st Preview Service over for dinner tomorrow night. It will be our first time hosting anything social at our new place (aside from having our awesome roommate over for dinner). It’s been a good motivator to really finish moving in. I must say, it is a little strange hosting anything at all, when we really feel like everyone here is a stranger. I guess they will stay “strangers” until we get to know them, and that’ll probably just take time.

So, what I miss about home…
• Coffee dates with Katy Pratt
• Impromptu “We’re coming over to your house” plans
• Sushi
• Local wine
• Hills
• Seattle skyline from anywhere in Kirkland
• Predictable weather
• Café Lladro
• Running into _____________ (please place your name in the blank)

What I love about Kenosha so far…
• BIG SKY with cool looking clouds
• Great Lakes Church team
• Noodles & Co.
• Corn fields just a few miles away
• People don’t assume I’m in a cult, just because I go to church
• Huge grocery aisles of cheese
• Friendly, take-your-time, kind of people
• Our old house
• The squirrels that watch me do dishes from our back deck
• Working with Dave Nelson again



In other news... the Great Lakes Website is now up and running. Check it out. To those of you that go to EastLake, it may look a little familiar :) Also, since we're only having services once per month at this point, we had a couple of "Connect Events" this weekend. They went great. We had a few more people decide to help out and be on the launch team. The people here seem to love the vision and can't wait to be a part of it. We have our 2nd Preview Service coming up on November 9th and another Launch Team meeting this weekend to get organized and pray. Please pray with us that our Launch Team continues to grow and that we really connect with the community here.

Great Lakes Church 1st Preview Service

Week 1 of life in Kenosha was expectedly chaotic. Tony and I were anxious to meet the local members of the launch team and help any way we could. Dave has done a phenomenal job of sharing his vision of Great Lakes Church to anyone who would listen, so it’s no surprise the people that are already a part of the team have so much enthusiasm.

We were fortunate to get into Mahone Middle School on Saturday for a few hours to set up for Sunday service. There was quite an energy as we worked together to figure out where everything belonged and what we still might need. Fortunately, several families who have kids brought some great toys and baby items for us to borrow. We did as much as we could for a sound check, although Tony would have spent all day in that room trying to get it all just perfect. We spent the rest of Saturday running errands, doing whatever we could to take care of the last minute details.

Sunday morning arrived, for me at 3am. I could not sleep. I sprang out of bed realizing, “WE HAVE NO PRODUCER!” For those of you that haven’t been a producer, or worked near one, the Producer is really responsible for running the service, especially the timing, on Sunday mornings. Certainly neither Tony nor I had ever been in this role before, but we did our best to exchange notes on what we could remember about the Producer Role, so that I could do it/recruit someone to do it.

By 7:30am, the members of the music team were in our living room practicing the music for the morning. It was surreal that this team who had only practiced once before were so cohesive and so receptive to Tony’s direction. Tyler and I just stood by and watched for a bit, enjoying this behind the scenes look at what was about to happen. We arrived at the school just before 9am, hoping they might open the school just a tad early for a few more preparations. The whole team was there on time, if not early, ready and eager to work their tails off. It was incredible! By 9:30am, everyone was ready and in their positions praying and hoping people would actually show up. Pretty soon our guests started to trickle in.

I’ll share with you the teams impressions of the day as well as what some of our guests said in the surveys we sent out.

GLC Team Responses

Q: What went right?

• I guess everything went ok since all the cars got in to the lot unharmed!
• friendly people, Dave's "talk," weather, enough help, positive attitudes, the list goes on and on...
• The coffee timers went off as planned and my child was kept alive in the nursery.
• In my humble opinion, I think almost everything went right. Like I said yesterday, it almost seemed like we had been doing this for 5 years already.
• The Kids Workers did a great job keeping up with the kids demands. I think we had a great amount of toys, and things for the kids to do. I didn't hear any of the Childrens workers say there wasn't enough to keep the kids occupied. I think that's a great Feat right there!!!!

Q: Overall Impressions? Any Good Stories?

• I was very impressed that we FILLED the parking lot, only the handicap spaces were left!
• I couldn't be more thrilled with the opportunity to help out with Great Lakes Church!
• I am biased because I have been waiting for this church since we left San Diego, but I thought it was Outstanding!
• I thought everyone did a great job and worked well with each other. I feel like we had great feedback from the guests in that they felt very welcomed and the service was easy to follow.
• GREAT! I think it was amazing to see all the team members pitch in and help in ALL areas, not just the areas they were responsible for!
• The kids were fun, and I cant wait until next time
• It was great and exciting and I can't wait till next time
• Better than expected Preview Service. The “kinks” were not noticeable by those attending. Everyone was super friendly which made for a great atmosphere. Dave’s message was killer.
• Everyone was sooooooo helpful and friendly!! I was going to fill my car up at the end and literally 10 people showed up and started carrying my stuff to the car for me...it took us 3 seconds to pack my mini-van!! Go team!!
• I remember a friend of mine came up to me and said she invited a friend of hers that used to be friends with another one of our volunteers but because of some issues in the past they had not talked for over 6 years and when her friend walked into the auditorium and was greeted by (other volunteer) with the bulletins, they hugged for about 15 minutes and made up after 6 years! It was so awesome for me to see the joy on these girls faces after that.
• I thought it was so cool Dave's mom had jeans on! My wife is more on board now!
• My boys were in "sunday school/kids' church" for the first time IN THEIR LIVES (without mom or dad), even though they've grown up in the church, and they talked about it all afternoon and are so excited for November's service!

Guest Responses

Q: What did you notice first? What was your overall impression? How can we pray for you?

• It’s been years since I’ve been to church. Please pray for healing from the past.
• I noticed lots of people waving when we pulled up. I had a good time and most importantly, my kids want to go back.
• I am wanting my whole family to be involved in the same church and I believe this is going to be the one.
• I noticed the friendliness of parking attendants and greeters. Great Job!
• The whole service was great for a “first run”. Dave is an awesome speaker and the band sounded great. We will be praying for you and will return on the 9th for the second service!
• I liked the greeters – very helpful. Dave is a good speaker.
• I am so excited that you are doing this in Kenosha. I have been living in K since 1989 but we attend a church in Zion. I love my church, but there are almost no young people (20-30’s). My kids (23 & 21) have all but stopped coming. I think this might be the church to reach them again.
• I noticed the parking guys smiling and waving at us. Everyone was very friendly and enthusiastic. I love the message and my kids loved “Mr. James”!
• I noticed people in JEANS!!!! Everyone was friendly.
• Please pray for my son… he doesn’t like music at the church we are attending and uses that as a reason not to go. He came with us to your service on Sunday and he said he liked the music!
• It was very friendly and down to earth service. I loved the amount of volunteers you had helping with the service! I am not too fond of most churches, but I will definitely be back to this one.

We had a total of 174 in attendance, including volunteers and kids. That is far and away more than we could have hoped for. As you can see from their comments, it seemed to go well. Now we just pray that we can be good stewards of this momentum, help people get involved and connected, and really help accomplish for this community what we believe God has already started.

Road Trippin’: A Shared Experience

We made it! We now, officially, reside in Kenosha, Wisconsin. We finished our last minute packing, errand running, and breakfast on Monday, 9/28 and headed out. The first 20 minutes of the drive were really the hardest for me. It was the last of the “Good-Bye’s” and “See-you-soon’s” we would have for a while. I was definitely teary-eyed… can you still call it “teary-eyed” if the tears are actually rolling down your cheeks and creating a sort of bib on your hoodie? Anyway… I was truly comforted when Tony grabbed my hand as we left Kirkland and said, “This will always be home.”

Day 1: Monday – We popped in THE SHACK (audio book courtesy Karen Jussel) and made it to Spokane in time for Tony’s dad’s (Allen) incredible cocktail sauce before dinner. It was a great evening! Tony played some of the song’s he and Ryan have written on the Larrivee, and we talked about what little we know of Wisconsin. They shared their adventures of the early years of their marriage, Allen’s days in his own rock band, traveling the world and leaving their families behind. They were very encouraging to us, and still ORDERED us to keep in touch. We’ll do our best.


Day 2: Tuesday – We left the Peterson home just before the sun rose on Tuesday morning, hit up Starbucks, filled the tank, looked at a map, and headed out on I-90. The northern parts of Idaho and Montana were spectacular at that hour of the morning. I had no idea it would be so beautiful. We were still listening to The Shack, pausing every once in a while to talk about it. It made for an amazing trip. We got to the northern entrance of Yellowstone Park around 4pm, but we’d forgotten to buy firewood for camping. It took us much too long to find a store that was still open AND had what we needed, which of course included the essential ingredients for s’mores. We found a spot to camp and finished setting up mere seconds before it got dark. It was an incredible time. We ate hotdogs and the pasta salad we made before we took off. It was our first time camping just the two of us, I LOVE married camping. I can’t imagine anything better than a clear night with my best friend talking and singing and eating s’mores. We got into our very warm sleeping bags and before long realized I might not have inflated our mattress completely. Of course, way too cold to get out and fix it, we ended up sleeping on a V-shaped bed, rolling obnoxiously into each other all night. It wasn’t until the next morning that we realized we basically were on the ground… ah well.


Day 3: Wednesday – Had some camping style French press coffee in the morning and some nifty cereal-in-a-cup for breakfast. Broke down our camp and headed deeper into Yellowstone Park. I was confronted with two realities: 1) Buffalo and Bison are the same thing. 2) Neither are extinct. No, seriously. We have video to prove it. They’re real and they still exsist. Also, of note:
• Geysers are really cool looking and really stinky.
• The crows in Yellowstone are of pre-historic size.
• All Coldplay and the Garden State Soundtrack are the best CD’s to listen to while driving through Yellowstone.
• The Grand Tetons do not get nearly enough fame and attention for how amazing they are.
• Pictures CANNOT contain the amazing things you actually see.
We finished driving diagonally through Wyoming that day. Of course, couldn’t get through this great western state without an “up-close-and-personal” with a couple of hunters stuffing a dead dear with ice on their tailgate at the local gas station. I was in sincere shock! We ended the day by arriving in Ft. Collins and having dinner with a couple close friends. Thank you Grant and Natalie for letting us stay with you.


Day 4: Thursday – Woke up and went to Grant and Natalie’s favorite breakfast spot. After a huge cinnamon roll and a little eggs benedict, we went to their favorite coffee shop, which was just a little outside of town. The coffee shop was called Loodles and would definitely be our favorite shop if we lived locally too. It’s owned by Mark Ludy (a childrens book writer/artist) and is decorated with Mark’s art. After Loodles we went and checked out their church / Natalie’s work. There was an awkward moment when we met their pastor and he shook Michelle’s hand for about 30 seconds, staring her directly into her eyes, but it turns out he’s just like that. Natalie does for that church what Michelle did for EastLake… Groups. Natalie has been using the EastLake groups method, and has been successful in implementing it… I think that’s why the pastor had heard of Michelle and was a little ga-ga in person. We left there and headed back to their house where Natalie and I swapped music vision… she taught me a few songs her church does, and I taught her one of the songs EastLake does. It was really fun, and Michelle was enjoying every moment. We ended the day with dinner in, and of course, video games!

Day 5: Friday – It was another early riser… we woke up and hit the road at 6am. On our way to Starbucks to get our morning fuel, we were almost tracked down and shot by an angry local who wanted to make sure I knew that I was in the wrong lane. Today was the day we were going to get to Kansas City, and have some awesome BBQ. We hit the freeway and finished The Shack audio book (which I can do a whole blog about… so I’ll just leave it at “we finished”) and started Blink. This was the first and only night that we stayed at a Hotel… so after hours and hours of driving, we made it to our hotel and went out to eat. Knowing that our friends Matt and Emily Cox are from the Kansas area, I called and asked Matt what place has the best BBQ. We found the restaurant, but just driving by we could see that every table was full and there were about 20 people standing and eating inside as well… really congested. We decided we wanted a more personal dining experience and ended up at a place called Café One80. It was fine, but I’m really disappointed we weren’t able to eat at Matt’s favorite spot.


Day 6: Saturday – Sleeping in is a blessing from God! Michelle and I spoke, and decided it would be so cool to show up early and surprise Dave… so we spent the whole day driving from Kansas City to Kenosha. We did stop at St. Louis for lunch, and of course had to try the local BBQ spot. We stepped into a little place on the outskirts of downtown called Smoki O’s. We were coaxed into trying the local delight called Snoot, which is the cooked-to-a-crisp snout of a pig. Not bad… kinda like a thick pork rind… but now that I’ve had it, I’m good with not having it again. We took our BBQ to-go, and ate lunch literally underneath the St. Louis arch. We finished Blink somewhere in between St. Louis and Chicago… another good book that would take too long to talk about. Chicago is AWESOME! We’ll prolly spend a lot of time there. We ate dinner (per the Stennetts advice) at a deep dish pizza joint called Lou Malnati’s… AMAZING PIZZA! Thank you guys for the awesome suggestion. In the end, we rolled into Kenosha and our new home around 11pm.

We’ll tell you all about our adventures here in Kenosha in different blogs, but we wanted to let you know that we’re here… we’re busy… church was AWESOME… and we were feeling bad about not letting you all know where we were and how we got here. Stay tuned!

Kenosha vs. Kirkland

We were wondering, and we thought you might be wondering, what are the real differences between the home we’re leaving and the home we’re headed to. Since we leave tomorrow morning, let’s see what we can find out…


ROUND 1 - Population
Kirkland: 45,740
Kenosha: 96,240
Kenosha knocks Kirkland out in 40 seconds with more than double the population. Who could have expected that?

ROUND 2 - Geography
Kirkland: Borders Lake Washington
Kenosha: Borders Lake Michigan
Kenosha the clear winner of that round. Lake Michigan is WAY bigger, colder, and more famous than Lake Washington!

ROUND 3 - Google Fight!
Kirkland: 14,500,000
Kenosha: 7,360,000
Kenosha slips as Kirkland triple punches Kenosha in the jaw...

After three rounds, Kenosha is the clear winner. We can't wait to get there and find out if it's true.

Growing Up...

This is officially our last week in Kirkland, for a while anyway. The shipping company came and picked up Tony’s Bronco today and then we had a great little “Good Bye” get together with some of Tony’s family this evening. It is definitely feeling very final at this point. There are still quite a few details to figure out, and there is a ton on our minds. For instance…

Have you heard this one before: “If He calls you, He’ll equip you”? This phrase has brought me much comfort and strength in the past. I mean, it seems logical, reasonable, and definitely encouraging. There are plenty of stories in the Bible of God asking people to do something that seemed impossible, and then He provided a way for them to do it, strength to get through it. I believe it’s even happened in my life where I felt God was asking, urging me to do something that I never thought I could do. Then, when I stepped out to actually do it, I found I had more strength than I could have mustered on my own… that the Holy Spirit was with me to help me accomplish something that seemed impossible. I’m not talking about lifting a burning mini-van up off of a trapped baby. I talking more about forgiving someone I never thought I could or would forgive. I knew it was something God wanted me to do, never thought I could or would do it, and then with His help I did.

If He calls you, He’ll equip you…

Do you think the opposite is true? If He doesn’t call you, will He not equip you? If you haven’t read our last dilemma about calling, you might want to check it out. I am still thinking and praying about it. Now I’m wondering about this "call you-equip you" saying. I call it a “saying” rather than a verse because I couldn’t actually find this in the Bible. I know there are a ton of you out there who are more scholarly than me (or is it, I?), so if you know where to find this saying as an actual Bible verse, I would love the help. But, since I can’t find it, it makes me wonder if it is really in a list of clichés we’ve made up. You know the ones I’m talking about…
Cleanliness is next to Godliness
God provides for those, who provide for themselves
The higher the hair, the closer to God

So, I’ve been wondering… if He didn’t call us… is there a reason He hasn’t actually asked us to help launch Great Lakes Church? I mean, are we these people who volunteer to do something we think is a good idea, but really… maybe it isn’t? Are we these people who give your four year old daughter a puppy, because we know she’ll love it, and because we love her, and somehow we can’t see past our noses to realize we have just cursed your house (and your carpet) rather than blessed you?

You see, having desired to follow Jesus Christ for the past 7 years, I have had my fair share of experiences with obedience. I learned early on that obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22). I also, for all of my life, have known what it is to disobey or live in rebellion. I am familiar with guilt and shame, and I am familiar with the joy that comes from doing what I know I should do. But, this Great Lakes Church thing, as we’ve said before, is not an obedience thing. It’s something else…

As kids, we rarely did anything we did not want to do without being asked. There were plenty of times I knew my room was a mess, but didn’t even consider cleaning it up until I was told to do it. Oh, and if I was told to do it, and then didn’t do it… yep, disobedience. Disobedience = BIG TROUBLE! But that’s normal, right? Nobody expects a child to clean up without being asked. It’s a precious little miracle if they do.

I knew a woman once who, when dating a guy, would occasionally take him to a jewelry store. She’d show him the things she liked, try them on with him there, talk about what she wanted him to get for her. (I know, not my idea of a good date.) Then, in a matter of weeks, or the next time there was some sort of gift giving occasion, she would receive in a pretty box the very piece of jewelry she’d shown him. How lovely, right? A guy who would do what he was told?

... Hmm… Would you like to pause and raise an eyebrow with me? If you’re thinking what I’m thinking… Wouldn’t it have been better if he’d thought of the gift all on his own? Wouldn’t it mean more, and wouldn’t she maybe feel more loved, if he’d decided that he wanted to get her something special and then he went, like a big boy, and picked it out himself? It’s like she never even gave the guy a chance! Or maybe she thought if she left it up to him, he wouldn’t show her love the way she wanted.

So, we know we are not going to help launch Great Lakes Church because God specifically asked us. At first that thought is quite scary. We wondered, and still do sometimes, if God will really provide for us, equip us, since he didn’t actually ask us to do this. (We’re not giving the kid a puppy, are we?) But now, it’s getting kind of exciting. It’s this feeling that maybe we’re not kids anymore, kids that can really only respond with obedience or disobedience. Maybe we’re growing up just a little bit, and learning to love God in a new way. It’s exciting to think we have this opportunity to do what we can, not because we were asked, but simply because we love God and we want to give Him something of ourselves. Our Father has always taken the initiative toward us. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). He has pursued us, initiated the relationship, forgiven when we did not deserve. We know we cannot out-love Him. But, I wonder if maybe he hasn’t given us that assurance of a specific calling or conviction in order to give us room, give us a chance, to pursue Him and give all we can just because we want to.


Maybe this is our opportunity to truly love Him back.