Prayer and Praise

Please see our updated prayer list on the side!

Ordination

I was finally Ordained last Saturday to the call of church planting in the Philadelphia region. Here is the "laying on of hands" part of the service. 7 Commissioners from my Presbytery drove down to Fredericksburg in order to perform this Ordination. Bagudekia and Suzanne Alobeyo helped my wife sing a special song during the service. One of my former pastors, Bob Becker, (New City Fellowship) preached the sermon.

My friend and fellow PCA pastor Jack Howell gave the charge and it was very personal and pertinent. This was probably my favorite part of the service.

We had a reception immediately afterward that was thrown by the people of New City Fellowship...complete with chocolate fountain, Deejay, finger foods and a huge cake seen here.

Everything went well and I enjoyed seeing people from different areas of my life gathered together. It was almost surreal. Thanks everybody for all your work and support!!

Prayer and Praise

Please note that I have updated the Prayer and Praise section of the blog on the upper right side.
Thanks to all those who pray for us and support us!

Guatemala Trip

After the Holidays I took a nine day trip to Guatemala to help some friends on a short term missions trip in which we began filming a documentary. The film is called Athentikos Guatemala

http://www.athentikos.com/

and will tell several stories about what God is doing in some of the poorest areas of Central America. Despite difficult circumstances there are people following Jesus into hard-core ghettos, gangs, prisons, garbage dumps, and drug-infested streets in order to love hurting people. I was very privileged to be a part of this group and hear some of the incredible stories of redemption! God is full of mercy and compassion and those who have spearheaded these ministries know that better than anybody else. I was blessed to hear them describe the goodness of God in their own personal stories. You can see some of the pictures of this trip here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/athentikos/

My responsibilities on the trip were to help in any way I could...I carried equipment, set up lights and screens, interviewed people, directed some interviews, and led a discussion group about our trip. (I think my chief responsibility was to beat everybody at the card game "Nertz" and continue to carry the JMU banner of aggressive card-playing excellence...HA!) It was a great change of pace and opportunity to work with a young fun-loving crew. The weather was to die for--sunny and warm everyday with clear skies and smoking volcanoes for a skyline. I am sure I will return one day, Lord willing.

Cold and Gray

The sun broke through the clouds yesterday for awhile, but today it is back to cold, windy and rainy. The last few months have been miserable. The constant cold rain has added several inches of water to our once nice basement floor. Everybody tends to get sick in this kind of weather too. However, another moment of light breaking through the gray was that yesterday I finished all my written exams for ordination and soon will face my oral trials. Now it is time to relax for a few days for Christmas. The birth of Jesus--the incarnation of God himself, of course, being the greatest light shining into the darkness...check out Isaiah 9:2-7, and John 1:1-14. Merry Christmas everyone!

Student Once Again

I've been studying church history for weeks now to take another Ordination test this afternoon. Then I will only have 1 written exam left (Greek). Can you identify these important men from the Reformation?

Back Home

This Sunday I am preaching at Christ Liberation Fellowship whose pastor (Lance Lewis) is a friend from many years ago. We served/attended this church seen above (New City Fellowship of Fredericksburg, VA) and carpooled to seminary classes together. Although, back then we did not have this lovely building. The Sunday after next I will be back at New City to give friends and supporters an update about our efforts here in East Delco. It is always a privilege to be back in my home-town and visiting the church that helped me so very much in discovering and developing my calling as well as help me flesh-out a fuller understanding of the gospel.