A Big Week Ahead for Our Entire Family – Please pray

The next nine days will be significant days for our entire family. Could I ask you to pray?

Update on Emily:

First and most importantly, Emily’s first post-chemo scans happen on Wednesday. She had a lung and bone scan immediately after chemo in September, but this will be the first one after having no chemo for a period of eleven weeks. Now is when we will start to find out if the chemo killed all the cancer that spread or if it simply has held it back for a year. So on Wednesday, we will have an X-ray of her bone replacement to be sure that looks right, but also a chest CT to see if there are any suspicious spots. 

As you can imagine, some anxiety begins for our family as we get closer to Wednesday. I will be out of town but fly back on that day to be there at the hospital with Sue and Emily. Could you pray? I think our requests would be these:

• Ask God to be glorified whatever the results are – life or death, cancer or not, joy or sorrow. May God be glorified.
• Pray God will continue to use this in Emily’s life and our lives (as he already has)
• At the same time, we have a preference about those results. Pray that all things are clear in the chest scan.
• Specifically, ever since the very first chest scan, there have been nodules we see on the scans they are keeping their eyes on. Pray those nodules have not grown. It seems to me that if they haven’t grown 11 weeks post chemo, I will be less concerned with them (of course, that is from my expert medical knowledge… which mean nothing… but I’ll feel better).

A Big Family Update:

We also have some big family news that isn’t as important, but is a surprising turn of events for us. Let me give you some background.

When we left Northridge Church in 2016, we moved to Houston so I could work with pastors and churches. Although I didn’t understand all God was doing, I was 100% convinced it was the right thing to do. Although I’ve missed Northridge Church, the staff, and our friends – God had removed from me the burden to teach and lead the church. In some ways, it was confusing to me, but I knew it was right (even though it may not have made sense to everyone – when things were going so well).

About 18 months after starting my role as a consultant with Vanderbloemen Search Group, Emily was diagnosed with cancer. We now live just over 20 miles from the #1 cancer hospital in the world. All of a sudden, God’s leading made more sense than ever. We had an amazing peace about why we were in Houston for this season of our lives. As much as we loved Rochester, and still considered that “home” in many ways, we knew Houston was exactly the place God had led us to for this moment. There are many great cancer hospitals in the nation, but for some reason – God led us to the city where MD Anderson is located. For the rest of our lives, we will be thankful for that.

About halfway through chemo, I began to think, “what’s next for me?” If a huge reason God brought us here was for Emily’s cancer – what is next? I wasn’t in a hurry, but God brought that thought to my mind. This summer, a change occurred at our company that made me realize a transition should happen sooner rather than later. So I had discussions with leaders at my office, and begin to pray about what God might have for us.

As we began to pray, God surprised us with how quickly things have moved. So – I wanted to let you know that I am at my fifth visit to a church in Vancouver, Washington. I am candidating this week and weekend to be the next lead pastor of New Heights Church. Does that shock you? Well, a couple of months ago, it would have shocked me too. God has clearly opened doors in the process that I never anticipated. And I can fill you in on the longer story, but I wanted to ask for your prayers as I candidate. Sue and I have been in Vancouver since Tuesday with a lot of meetings. As I mentioned, it is my fifth trip here, but it is the last trip before a vote by the church to have me be the next lead pastor. 

Why this church? Well, that would take a long time to explain, but here are some brief points:

• The mission of the church is “More and Better Disciples.” That sounded a bit familiar. In fact, it is the only church I know of that hasn’t been influenced by Northridge to have that same mission. That grabbed my attention. 
• It is a multi-site church with four campuses. A north campus, an east campus, and a west campus. The original campus (they call “main”) sits in the middle of the other three. Again, that is very similar to Northridge. Except Northridge has a south campus not a north campus. A north campus in Rochester would put it in Lake Ontario… Here in Vancouver, a south campus would put it in Portland, OR. 
• It is a church with video teaching and utilizes a teaching team. Things I’m comfortable and familiar with.
• Those are just some of the similarities. Those are the things that initally grabbed my attention.

Once the church had my attention, I began to dig deeper to see if God was leading me here. And that is where God opened doors that surprise me and made it clear we were to keep walking through them.

All that to say – this weekend, I’m preaching six times. They have two Saturday night services and three Sunday AM services. They also have a Latino service on Sunday afternoon. Then, next weekend, the church will vote.  to ask me to be their lead pastor. 

So – will you pray? Thanks!