Today we celebrated Vonette Bright’s birthday. There were 300 plus staff, students and children around to share their joy of knowing and being influenced by her precious life. I loved having the chance to go through the line and share with her that I am so thankful for her life, for the choices she and Bill have made and the daily choices she still makes to follow Christ.

Lisa has enjoyed even a more intimate time with Vonette. Lisa served as a writer for Vonette’s radio program during Lisa’s second year on our staff. Later Lisa prepared special meals at Bill and Vonette’s home for various meetings they would host. Here, after the crowds have dispersed Lisa spends special time with Vonette.

Lisa and Vonette Bright on Vonette's birthday.

Chris

Chis is from Oregon and a business major. He came on this project to further develop his relationship with God and to look at ways he might leverage some of his talents and skills in helping to fulfill the Great Commission. Chris is administrative and he is serving here with us as one of our housing directors.

It is a real treat for me to spend time with Chris working through evangelism, how to share the ministry of the Holy Spirit, how to study the bible and other fun topics. Chris is eager to learn and it is refreshing to be with him and the other guys that make up our small group.

I hope to introduce you to the other guys I am enjoying this summer in later posts.

Happy Father’s Day! We are on a family bike ride and a planned stop at Walrus Ice Cream here in Fort Collins. I am glad I am a dad.

Yesterday 64 students arrived and moved into the dorms at CSU here in Fort Collins. Today we did our project orientation. I think we have one night of the week off. Wow this will be an interesting 6 weeks. I hope we survive. Stay tuned to see how we do.

We saved a little money on this flight, but we paid in our time. Our flight from Orlando had two stops in it and not the customary one or better a direct flight. We stopped in St. Louis and Chicago before touching down in Salt Laje City. It made for a long day especialy as we waited in Chicago for some sort of paper work.

While in St. Louis we picked up a little guy, 8 years old, who was traveling to SLC to visit his grandparents. We had seats right by the entry way of the plane so we could hear the airline personel read his paperwork and assume care for the little traveler. Keegan and I decide we would be curious and so we asked how he was doing making this trip solo. He shared that he was nervious. We invited him to sit with us and the airline personnel seemed grateful we spoke up. We found out his name was Madison. Keegan and I looked at one another smiled and then I turned back to him and said we love that name. It was great reaching out to Madison. I love as Christ followers one of our roles as we spend time with others is to be explorers and see if we can learn and perhaps join in with others on their spiritual journies.

We are not sure exactly where Madison stands, but we enjoyed exploring a little into his world and letting him enter ours a little too. I hope you will get lots of opportunies to do the same in the weeks ahead.

Here is a picture of the three of us somewhere at 35,000 feet.

Keegan an I decide take matters in our own hands and get this plane going. Actually we are enjoying a day of flying with Southwest airlines. So far they are early in every way. Eveyone is friendly and informal. It makes me feel at right at home.

Keegan and I have one game of Battleship under our belts. I claimed the win. We will see what happens the rest of the day.

I am exhausted having spent the last week prepping our home to sit while we are in Colorado. My goal was to get both cars in the garage (I did it). In the last two days God provided an intern with our church to stay at our house and take care of the lawn. It still amazes me in all the ways God provides for us. Thank you Lord.

Okay westward we go.

Peace to you.

I am at Joshua 21 today in my listening of the bible through the year. I noted in this chapter that God had promised the nation of Israel all this land and in this chapter it says that God had fulfilled all his promises. Every thing God said He would do He did. But, Israel still had not claimed all of the land. They were successful everywhere they did claim it and they were enjoying peace from all their enemies, but there was more of what God promised to possess and it remained unclaimed.

It made me think how my life parallels the nation of Israel. I think of what God has promised me and yet I fail to claim it. I asked the Lord to show me why. I wrote down five barriers I encounter in possessing all that God has for me.

One is unbelief. In my head I can say that I believe, but in my practice there is no expression of faith. Two, is fear. I actually fear possessing what God has promised. Perhaps because of the extra responsibility it will require or maybe I fear that I will fail to possess it. It may be tied to my other three excuses. That is comfort. I love it. I don’t want to disturb it and laying hold of God’s promises often requires a shift in something. I am ashamed to say that I often love comfort more than what God has promised. Then there is laziness. It is related to comfort and I experience shame with it too. Laziness is characterized by a lack of effort or even care. I know there are times I am only thinking of now and an eternal perspective is not part of the picture. The last one is ignorance. I simply do not know what God has promised. It could be that I have not listened or taken the time to listen. All of these make up my barriers to laying hold of God’s promises. What about you?

I trust you can see a prayer in there for me. By faith thank you for joining me in my prayer to move toward God and his promises.

Note that he has promised salvation to anyone that would lay hold and claim it. See His story and His promise here if you want to begin to possess the abundant life for which He has promised you and me.