Rerouting | Family Update #9

“For an entrepreneur, every day is a crisis.”

Nike founder, Philip Knight, said this recently in an interview at his alma mater, Stanford.

Honestly, I’ve never thought of myself as an entrepreneur, but I’ve certainly found myself in the position of starting something from scratch – and it is the kind of journey that challenges you to your core. But the great part, though painful, is that it forces you beyond yourself, into a place of dependence on others. And for me, it has brought me to a place of utter dependence on God.

it’s the kind of journey that challenges you to your core

All that being said, we aren’t where we thought we’d be a year ago, but we are still walking the journey of faith toward living lives that breathe life – and freedom and rest and healing and play – into the lives of the people God puts around us. In addition, we continue to walk toward founding Breathe Life Ministries – a retreat of rest, healing, and play for ministry leaders and their spouses.

we are still walking the journey of faith
toward living lives that breathe life

As Siri, in her matter-of-fact voice regularly announces to me, “Rerouting,” we have been rerouted from what we thought laid ahead for us. What has hit us as crisis after crisis, is really just another opportunity to see God at work and to learn to trust even more in his goodness. I don’t think Jesus is worried about where we currently are. And, everything about our journey still says that he is leading us toward founding this ministry of Breathe Life.

So here’s what’s going on with us:

At the beginning of August, we moved out of our townhouse in Tomball and stayed with friends in Cypress, TX.
All four kids started public school at the end of August after homeschooling all their lives. They barely got started and then Hurricane Harvey hit, shutting down everything for a solid week. When they got back to it, the kids have done really well academically (thanks to their amazing teacher all these years)!
A few days after Hurricane Harvey finally left, we moved into a rental house in Tomball. We love it! It’s really close to the kids’ schools and to Jamie’s family.
Steve’s half-time pastoral position at LifeBridge Church in Cypress went away in August due to a financial shortfall. Currently, Steve is working as an artist at Painting with a Twist – one of those places you go and drink wine while making a painting in a couple hours. It’s a lot of fun! Steve continues to look for other employment as well.
Jamie is looking for a part-time job for the first time since we can’t hardly remember (about 15-16 years). Currently, she’s delivering flowers.
Breathe Life Ministries is having its inaugural Board Retreat in November as we set the course for starting ministry in 2018!! We thank God that we have funds to navigate the first 18 months of operations already!
OUR GREATEST PRAYER REQUESTS: The next year or two will likely require a combination of jobs for us. We are praying for work outside of Breathe Life Ministries that is both sustaining for our family as well as fruitful for breathing life into us and into others – and ultimately keeps us on the path of creating and sustaining Breathe Life. We are asking for God’s favor with people and businesses in this. We need wisdom. We are also praying that in such a season of constant change and transition, we would be able to live in our ministry core values of rest, healing, and play. Finally, we are asking God for a real sense of stability for our kids in Tomball, even as our ministry life continues to be in a season of creating, building and rerouting. Thanks so much!