Week 2 at FamilyLife

We finished up our second week which proved to be much more productive with the completion of editing 8 FamilyLife Today programs. A 3 minute clip of each day will be posted on the web site 2 weeks before the program so people will get a flavor of what the program is about. The next 2 weeks will be a little slow because of Christmas and New Years. We are building edit suites next to our studio so we can be in the same general area all the time.

The girls continued in home school and reached their Christmas break on Friday. Charlotte continues to settle in meeting many people at FamilyLife. She was able to participate in a Ornament exchange at FamilyLife, the Christmas Party and received a home visit from 4 women at the ministry. We are seeing God orchestrate all the events to help us continue to fit in to this new phase of life God has called us to.

Hal

We began our ministry at FamilyLife

I guess it is about time for an update, much has taken place about a month early. I started work at FamilyLife on Monday and I was able to use those God given talents immediately. The first day I was able to help a co-worker with a Photoshop question, and today I will be helping another with Photoshop.

As for the video department (which is why we are at FamilyLife) I do my first shoot today and the projection is, we will save about 8 hours of editing time a week because I can use my directing skills immediately. God has put us in the right place at the right time.

Now, why am I at FamilyLife a month early? God blessed us with the completion of our support (2% from finishing) in the past few weeks. We did adjust some things, which made it possible to be this close and to minister now and our FamilyLife coaches gave us the 'go ahead' to begin work over the weekend. Thanks Tom! The first day was a little overwhelming looking at all the projects that need completion, but we will be able to knock a few out pretty quick.

Charlotte is still trying to get the house in order and do Christmas all at the same time. We still can't find a few of our Christmas lights, so another trip to the store. Many trips to Home Depot and Lowes to change a few things to our house to make it a home. I put mini binds up on the kitchen window last night, it really helped dress up the kitchen a little.

Charlotte and the girls went to Tulsa last week to see the dentist and connect the girls with some of their friends. That was good for everyone, but Amy is seeing Tulsa drift into her past.

The girls are doing great at home school, and Kristi's basketball team is really good. Their average point spread is over 50 points per game. This gives Kristi plenty of playing time, she scored 10 last night. Amy is busy cooking desserts and would do 2 or 3 a day if we let her, she did a pumpkin pie on Monday.

God has been gracious to us this past month with all the changes and getting settled in, we are in awe.

Hal

November News

The November newsletter is available on the left panel. It has been such an exciting month to see how God is confirming over and over our call to minister at FamilyLife.

Thankful

Hal is back in Tulsa to finish the last 8% of our monthly support. We have so much to be thankful for this month, from the 7% new monthly support, to our move to Little Rock, that Charlotte and the girls could remain in Little Rock to get settled in, and for all the prayer behind our transition into full time ministry.

Made it to Little Rock

We had a quick closing in Tulsa, finished loading the trucks and hit the road at 12:15p. We arrived in Little Rock about 4:45p and met two of our neighbors. Kristi checked in at DSW shoes, which is where she worked in Tulsa and she was able to transfer to the Little Rock store. After that we picked up the washer and dryer and met a potential ministry partner. Had dinner with the Murray's and made it to bed by 10. Now the big part comes today, empty the truck.

Our Tulsa friends, Forrest & Nina Cowan, that came with us were such a help leaving and getting to Little Rock. Poor Forrest, he drove the truck and was beat by the time we arrived. He said he has never used side mirrors so much and been so tense when driving. I can understand that since this was a 24' truck with a 13' 1" clearance. Thanks Forrest.

We have some friends coming from FamilyLife to help unload, and my new coworker came down with the flu and can't help. (just trying to get out of unloading :-) ) More tomorrow . . .

Hal

Leaving for Little Rock

We close on our Broken Arrow home this morning and drive to Little Rock (4 hrs.) to move into our new (to us, 1971) home tomorrow. The Lord provided the needed percentage of support from a dear friend from our California days so Charlotte and the girls can officially remain in Little Rock while Hal finishes connecting with the remaining 8% of needed partners in Tulsa over the next month.
If you have a second, check out Ex 15:11, our God is GREAT!

Hal

Little Rock, Here we come!

Much has happened since our last entry. We have reached 87% of our financial support with only 13% left. The moving truck and all of the preparation that led up to it was completed yesterday with the help of many friends and some of 20+ age group men to move the piano.

We head for Little Rock in the morning to begin a new chapter in our lives. We are so thankful for everyone who was praying for us this past week as we had some challenges to overcome, which the Lord provided in His timing. We learned once again to patiently wait on the Lord.

Please pray with us for 2 good home closings and a safe trip.

God's Hand at Work

I have decided to try to document as many of "God's Orchestrations" on this post for the next six weeks so we have a record of what God is doing in the final stages of our move to FamilyLife. When we accepted the contract on the house we agreed that the next six weeks would have to be directed 100% by God.

• Sept. 18 - Offer accepted on the sale of Tulsa house on Hal's dad's 80th birthday
• Sept. 21 - FamilyLife receives news
• Sept. 22 - FamilyLife presents the idea of house hunting even though we were not at 90% support. Since we are so close to Little Rock physically, they felt it would be a good time to find a home, and close on both homes at the same time and make one move to Little Rock instead of multiple moves or storage.
  The inspection on our Tulsa home happened today with no problems.
• Sept. 23 - God chose our realtor in Little Rock! One of our FamilyLife friends recommended the realtor they just used two weeks ago and were thrilled with. Before contacting him, Charlotte wanted to get the name of a realtor Dave Ramsey recommends. You guessed it, it was same name. God is so good to us; we are in awe.
  
• Sept. 24 - FamilyLife gives us Oct 1 to be in the office for meetings with HR and other interviews. Because of this date not being earlier or later than Oct 1, two other events fell into place. Hal's parents left for Chicago on Sept. 30, which Hal had forgotten (bad son) and return the day after we returned to Tulsa on Oct 5. Therefore, if we had gone earlier in the week, Hal's parents would have had to find another ride to the airport from our house. Then, since we will be in Little Rock on Oct. 2, Kristi was able to attend a retreat with the HomeEd Seniors in Little Rock, their first event of the year. Hopefully, she will feel more a part of the group in Little Rock after meeting some new friends. If we went to Little Rock later or earlier than Oct. 1, this would never have happened.
  
• Sept 25 - Updating the blog while being totally blown away at what God is doing already and beginning to see why God's plan was to keep us in Tulsa past September.
• Sept 28 - Received the inspection report back on the house, only four minor things to address. The builder of our home of 16 years, Jim Kelley, recommended an electrician to use, and he was available first thing Tuesday morning. We, also, confirmed staying with our friends the Murrays, in Little Rock instead of a hotel. Late tonight we receive an email from the home school basketball coach inviting Kristi to be on the team in Little Rock. This is huge for Kristi, since this is what she loves to do, and it will be an opportunity to connect with other girls her age and make new friends. Pray that Kristi and Alison (from another new FamilyLife family whose daughter is also a senior) will hit it off. Alison is struggling with the move to Little Rock.
• Sept 29 - The tears of joy are flowing today and I struggle writing this update, as I am totally overwhelmed with God's goodness. This morning the four items on the inspectors punch list to fix on our house were done in 30 minutes, and one item didn't even need attention after all. About 11:15 am, Kristi returns a call from the home school basketball coach in Little Rock and this is her Facebook post: "Ahhhhh! I'm officially on a bball team in little rock!!!!" God is taking care of our children in making this adjustment to a new life away from Tulsa.An hour later I'm sitting at lunch with our new pastor from Tulsa Bible Church sharing all these exciting things God is doing in our lives, and the Lord touches the heart of one of our friends to partner with us monthly, which I received in an email after I returned from lunch. See why it's a good 'cry' day?!
  My coach at FamilyLife sent this to me today, which is so appropriate right now - "Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?" Ex 15:11 I think this will be our verse for this phase of watching God put our partner team together.
• Sept. 30 - Traveled to Little Rock to meet with FamilyLife and look for our new home. We had about 12 homes we had found on the internet to give to our realtor. We left Tulsa a little behind schedule, stopped in Fort Smith to see some former TBC friends, the Gustafsons, for dinner and arrived in Little Rock about 9:45p.
• Oct. 1 - We headed to FamilyLife about 8:45 to hand off the girls to Trish Tully who has a daughter Amy's age. Met with the VP of HR, my boss, the department I was to be working in and my boss's boss. We both came away from the day with way too many emotions for a blog, but were happy since they started seeing Hal as someone who could fill more than just a video role (graphic design and internet design, also) and a little sad since we had never considered the question, "So what if you don't find a home this weekend?". In our wildest dreams, we had never considered the fact we may not find a home, we just knew God would find us the house He wanted us to have.
  That evening, we had a great dinner and fellowship with one of my new co-workers, the Timmers, and they showed us around Maumelle, only to find another home to add to our list. After leaving the Timmers, we headed out into the 'sticks' to pick Kristi up from her first B-ball practice. Now for all the Tulsa people, let me put this into perspective on distance and time: TBC to Claremore, but half of this was a dark, tree lined, country road. We were able to watch Kristi practice for about a half hour, met her coaches, some dads and found out that two of them attend The Bible Church of Little Rock. Kristi practiced for 4 hours and was exhausted by 9:30, but happy that she not only could practice, but met a new group of great girls.
  
• Oct. 2 - We have finally reached the day we have been waiting months for and a long two weeks from the initial day our Tulsa house sold. We dropped Kristi off to spend the day with the home school seniors, some who she played B-ball with the night before, and then headed off to meet the realtor. Upon our initial meeting, 2 or 3 of the homes we had picked had been sold or had a contract in the past few days, including one we have had our eye on since April. Obviously, it was not the one God had picked for us. Also, the realtor had found a couple of homes we had either not seen or did not meet our parameters. Some of our parameters included making sure my dad could have access to the house without stairs (a little difficult in an area of mostly hills). We headed out about 10:30 on a trek we thought would last most of the day. Home after home, Charlotte and I either saw extremely bad conditions or knew it would be too much work to fix up. One home didn't even have a workable eating area. Pictures on the internet are so deceiving. The last home we came to was the last one in the area that would put us within that 15 min. commute to work we desired, We have a new home! God showed us, over the next 24-48 hours, so clearly that this was the home for us, just as we asked God to do. After spending close to 3 hours looking, analyzing, etc., we decided we needed to at least feed Amy, who had been along with us and see the house out of commute range. It was a lovely home from an interior designer's point of view, but not really workable for my dad and too far to the office. We then decided to go back and take a second look at the only home which met most of our parameters and was the nicest one we had seen all day. We spent the next hour going over everything we could think of to make sure this was God's house for us. We put an offer on the house within our parameters, offering them $9K less than their original listing. If they were not interested with that price, they would have two options: kill the offer or counter. They were interested! We now had to wait until noon on Saturday to get the answer.
  We then headed out to have dinner with the Tully family (our coaches throughout this whole process of moving into ministry, and had a great meal and fellowship.
• Oct. 3 - Before noon our realtor called with the news. The seller countered with a reasonable offer, but we felt it should be better (let God prove to us a little more that this is the right house knowing all the time, the offer could fall through). A little side note, we have such a little amount of faith it scares me sometimes. We countered back with an offer that took more off the price and other minor changes. They countered back later in the afternoon with a deal we could not have negotiated ourselves. They backed off the initial asking price over $5K, picked up some of the closing costs we asked for and didn't even blink on the closing date we had given them with the stipulation they would have to vacate on the day of closing also, which our realtor said "it's not done that way in Arkansas".
  Lining up the inspection was the last part of this weekend we had asked God to put into place so we would know beyond a shadow of a doubt this was the one He had picked. We called the first 2 inspectors the realtor recommended and they were not available. The last name we had was one that a few of our FamilyLife friends had just used to inspect their homes, and you guessed it, he could meet us Monday morning at 8:30 so we could walk the house with him. Is God good? He is awesome!
• Oct 4 - The inspection happened as planned and a list of about 20 items was assembled. It was recommended that we have a structural engineer look at some settling on the west side of the house which meant we had to wait another day. (God felt we needed more patience.) We headed back to Tulsa to wait.
  
• Oct 5 - We contacted a structural engineer and he verified what the inspector had assumed, the movement was over 15 years ago and had not moved since and it probably won't move any more. So, on Nov. 3 we close on the house in Little Rock and move our stuff. The plan is to return to Tulsa to finish the remaining percentage of our support. We will find a place in Tulsa to call a temporary home, so where or how this will happen is only God.
  
  Hal
  
  
  

Our Home Sold

We don't know where to begin with this post, so much has happened in the last week, so how about the beginning. Two weeks ago we had a 'looker' at an open house on Sunday. Monday they want a second look and utility bills. Wednesday is the third look and a contract. The offer was very bad, so we countered back with the original amount of sale and a couple other tweaks. The buyers counter came back this time with only a $1000 reduction in price. So on Friday, (my Dad's 80th birthday the Lord sold our house. Wow!

The buyer set a closing date of Nov. 2 which gives us 6 weeks to wrap everything up. Knowing that God will orchestrate everything, Hal called FamilyLife with the good news. Since then we have received the approval to come look at homes in Little Rock and try to move right after closing on Nov. 2. We will go to Little Rock on Oct 1 to look for a new home. God already has the right house for us, hopefully within 10-15 minutes of FamilyLife.

Pray that we find our home quick, the seller will accept our offer, and we can close the beginning of November. Pray also that the remaining 19% of our support comes in quickly because Hal will have to come back to Tulsa to finish if we do not have 100%. That means that even though we are in Little Rock, Hal cannot start serving until that goal is met. We need about 20 to 'partner with us in the gospel' at $100 or 40 at $50 or any other combination. We are also looking for more prayer warriors.

Exciting days are ahead as we see God's hand at work every day.

Hal

New Family Picture

It was really funny on Tuesday, we needed to take a new picture for our church's mission conference of just the part of our family going to Little Rock. Our son Jon just started taking pictures without poses, positioning, etc. and we just had a great time laughing at some of the shots. This picture ended up being the best one of 120 pictures. Did Jon go crazy? Yes! This was also probably one of the least stressful times we have ever had taking pictures except for the mosquitoes. It was fun!

Hal

September Begins

We started the month of September with a bang. Seven appointments in the first week, but week two has zero so far. We are starting to reach outside of Tulsa Bible Church for the remaining support. Pray with us that we will be able to reach the 5% needed this month.

Hal

Great News!

The end August has arrived. We have been blessed beyond measure throughout this month; we celebrated 34 years of marriage, mom celebrated her 80th, a new church is supporting us as missionaries, and what many of you have prayed for, a 5% increase in support came in at 4.75%. Please continue to pray that the momentum that has started will continue throughout the fall. We officially end the month with 77.5% of our financial support reached. We are anticipating the day we report to FamilyLife and begin the work God has called us to.

Hal

Church Support

A small church had decided to support us monthly, this is so cool since this is only the second church along with TBC. God has been so faithful in providing 72% of our support from individuals like you. We are forever thankful. "God is good all... the time, all the time God is good". (noted quote from Marshall Gordon)

Hal

God will bless us if we let Him

God has a sense of humor! When we finally get off ourselves and our abilities, He surprises us with something wonderful.

I am on a youth retreat with TBC at a camp called New Life Ranch. God's creation is everywhere and it is impossible to say 'there is no god', He is everywhere. After opening games and orientation for the kids, they had free time to get snacks from the store. As I picked up a candy bar for myself and Amy, I sat down with some adult friends to catch up. As we are sitting there the wife pops up with "we sent our first support check before we left". That may not sound all that special, but we met with them over a year ago to share the ministry and at that time they were gracious to share a one time gift with us, but were unable to help monthly. Now a year later, during a really low week connecting with people, hitting an all time high amount of folks saying 'no', calling on the Lord for His help, and He brings a monthly supporter out of the blue. God loves to bless us when we get off ourselves.

I was reading through "Leadership as an Identity" by Crawford Loritts this week. Throughout this book he keeps going over the fact that God can only use leaders who let God lead and stop using their own abilities to lead. That has really played out this weekend after a week of trying to do ministry myself.

Hal

Eureka Springs

It's that time of the year Charlotte & I get away to be alone to celebrate our wedding day 34 years ago. Time has flown so fast, but it doesn't feel like yesterday every time I look at our kids and how old they have a way of reminding us that it has been a few years. What a blessing to be married to the same woman and have all six children together. This again is another reminder why God has called us to FamilyLife.

Charlotte saw in the Tulsa World Tuesday the list of marriages and divorces. The list went something like this:
9 marriages, 9 divorces requested, and 8 divorces granted. No longer are 50% ending in divorce based on this list, twice as many are getting divorced than getting married. Where is the family going and where is God going along with it? All the more reason for Christians to help those who have struggling marriages by inviting them to a Weekend to Remember.

Hal

What has happened since we returned from Colorado?

Upon arrival home on the afternoon of July 30, we noticed we had new neighbors across the street. In a tradition Charlotte began 15 years ago in our neighborhood, Charlotte made some muffins and we went over to introduce ourselves. Our new neighbors, Chris & Jen Giles just happen to be Christians and work in family counseling (God thing). Upon further conversation, they go to a church in Tulsa that we know quite a few people at. One of those mutual friends is the head volunteer for the FamilyLife conferences in Tulsa each year. What a small world especially in God's eyes.

Kristi returned from Guatemala about one hour before we did and ended up crashing on Monday. Her first activity when she got home was to take a shower. You never know how important showers are until you can't take one each day.

We moved right back into meeting with people and finding new partners. The thrill of getting to know people and having them join our team has not changed. What a privilege.

Hal

Our FamilyLife Team

We wanted everyone to see our future co-workers at FamilyLife. These are our friends that went through training at the same time and have also been raising support. The couple on the right reported to FamilyLife in Little Rock just before the conference. The couple standing next to us are reporting to Hope for Orphans in Dallas in September.

Back to Tulsa - Day Two

The morning began a little hectic since we forgot to plug the computer in, which is our alarm, and we woke up 20 min late. We had the privilege of seeing Mike and Callie (Blythe) Gann for breakfast. What a cool house, fellowship, and wonderful breakfast.

The rest of the day was drive, drive, drive to pick up Socks (Amy's cat) from the Jones' house (thanks so much!). We arrived home at 5:00p to a 'Sold' house (just kidding, keep praying).

2000 miles on the car later, and we are glad to be home, but also sad that this wonderful time in Colorado came to an end. We will be sharing some things we learned in the up coming newsletters.

Mike and Callie Gann ->

Back to Tulsa - Day One

We headed out about 8:15a to see Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs. The tour was interesting, seeing the radio and video studio and the area where all their counselors are answering phones. We ended in the Visitors Center to see Whits End, the area patterned after the radio show "Adventures in Odyssey" for kids. Amy got to slide down the three story slide and we ate lunch in Whit's End Soda Shop.


We headed to Trinidad so Charlotte could visit with her Dad's cousin. All the stories and history he shared was amazing. We finally ended up in Amarillo at 11:30p. The GPS took us to a field which was supposed to be a hotel. The hotel and street ended up being too new for the maps.









<- Fred Power, Charlotte's dad's cousin

Day Nine at CSU

This was the last day of our conference. The morning gave us some unexpected free time, so we took a drive directly west towards the mountains to see what we could find. We found Horsetooth Reservoir, which is about seven miles long. We also got some pics of Ft. Collins from above.

In the afternoon, we went to sessions on "Raising Healthy Kids on Staff", more on techniques of support raising, and a session on the Emergent Church and the evils of this movement. In case you are asking if CCC is buying into this movement, CCC does not want to have anything to do with it.

The evening session was mostly Praise and Worship. Keith Battle gave a final challenge to everyone challenging that, since many Christians are not evangelistic and want to stay inside their churches, we need to get out there and share Christ with others. Just like in a football game, the game is not played in the huddle, the play is executed by running the play, not just talking about it. We need to get out of our 'holy huddles' and "Just Run the Play".

The evening ended with lots of hugs, temporary good-byes (especially for all of us on our way to FamilyLife), fellowship time and, of course, yummy food.

Day Eight at CSU

Our day was filled much activity, as usual. The morning and evening session featured amazing stories of how the different ministries are reaching others for Christ, and we shed a few tears of joy again. We finally met the daughter of a couple we know in Tulsa and had dinner with the Whitehouses from our church in California, Redwood Chapel. The afternoon saw us meeting with our training group from May 2008 for a couple of hours in the afternoon for a reunion. This will probably be the last time together for this group, since one couple will be moving to Dallas instead of Little Rock.

Amy had her usual worship and Bible study in the morning and did a community service project by cleaning a local park. She was supposed to go to the mall for outreach, but the buses were already full. Her day ended dramatically, as we walked back to our dorm. The lack of sleep hit her to the point of tears and she just wanted to go home. This is Amy's first time away home for this long and she misses her kitten.

Today we've reached our last day of seminars and then head out in the morning to tour Focus on the Family on the way home. Amy should especially enjoy "Whit's End". We should arrive back in Tulsa about 4p on Friday. What a blessed time we have had! Thank you again for making this possible and for praying.

Hal

Day Seven at CSU

...Interesting way to begin a new week. We were led in Praise and Worship by Keynote, but this group was mostly black. They have a very different culture and way of singing. We didn't connect with all the new songs and not many other whites did either, but it was still praise to God. But, the exciting thing happened next when we were led in teaching by Keith Battle who is the founding Pastor of Zion Church in Landover, MD. What a dynamic speaker. He taught from Romans 8:28-30, which is all about our calling and the fact God has chosen us to be ministers of the gospel. Theologically, he was right on target. He also showed us that with all trials, there is good. God doesn't give all trials or all good things, we need the mix to grow us.

We were also treated to a complete performance of "The Witnesses". It was the follow up to The Rock & The Rabbi musical drama we had seen in Tulsa. "Peter" was telling his story from Pentecost and many years following, including Paul's conversion and missionary journeys. After Peter told some of his story, it was followed by song. It was even better than the Rock & Rabbi.

Lunch was with some of the FamilyLife Staff followed by our afternoon sessions. The first one Hal attended was about reaching the black culture with blacks, not whites, and how different the cultures are. Philip Abode from Crossover Bible Church (church plant of Tulsa Bible Church) would love this guy. The second session discussed Ministry Partner Development.

Amy met all morning for Worship and Bible Study. This has been a great education for her to have worship for her age, not with adults. She even 'raised her hands' in worship (based on scripture the band shared) just like Pastor John Barnett taught us, with open hands, palms up in offering ourselves to God. She then helped with packing food for Africa. Her team of four packed 648 bags while all the kids combined packed over 66,000. She then had to hang with us the rest of the evening.

We met up with Charlotte's childhood pastor, Pastor Eugene Petersen last night. It was fun to hear them recall her parents involvement in the church, her dad playing the organ, and their memories of her as a child. We finally got back to our room about 10p.

Two more long days then we head home. God has been so good to us through this conference and reconfirming our call to FamilyLife.

Pastor Eugene and Marge Petersen

Pictures of Conference

Day Six at CSU

Sunday, we left Ft. Collins and traveled south to Aurora, CO to attend church with the Crawfords (friends from TBC) and spent the afternoon at their lovely home, catching up and sharing about FamilyLife with them. Amy had a good time playing with their daughter, Holly. We left at about 4:30 from their house to enjoy visiting over dinner with a friend I traveled with when I worked for National Seminars. On the way back to Ft. Collins, Charlotte enjoyed catching pictures of giant cloud formations and the sun setting over the mountains. We finally arrived back at CSU around 9pm after putting about 200 miles on the car.

Hal

Mark, Dena, and Holly Crawford

Day Five at CSU

Day five began as the previous days except Hal slept in until 6:30a. :-) So with renewed energy we went into a day off to catch up on laundry, make calls, etc. We had more time to get to know a few more FamilyLife staff, which gave us some insight into housing in Little Rock. Charlotte spent some time with her FamilyLife coach getting more information on home school and realizing she really has to get out of the rigid daily schedule of traditional school.

Amy went to her Bible study in the morning and decided to skip the food fight in the afernoon. We took about an hour before dinner to see Old Ft. Collins, a rebuilt area of shops, etc. This is where Ft. Collins started. Amy decided that if she had to live somewhere it would be here (now check out the logic) because there isn't much snow, it doesn't get too hot, and it seems like a nice town. I think she has been around the adults too much.

After dinner we had our last session of the week (Sunday is open). All of the 'new staff' sat together and took up most of the chairs on the main floor. Praise and Worship kicked it off followed by an interview of 2 boys in the kids program (under Jr. High age). The majority of the questions began with the typical; having fun? what did you like the best so far?, etc. The interview led to the mission project they were working on for the entire conference. They are raising money for one of the staff in Nupaul who is going to use is to help orphans get into homes. The money will buy them land, a house, food, and tuition for school. At the end, it was revealed that the 2 boys were also orphans from Russia. How fitting they would be the ones to tell about this project. The boys then went through the audience collecting money from everyone. They had it figured that if everyone in the audience (about 5000) would give $3-5, they would reach their goal that night. We will see in the next few days if they made it.

Steve Douglass (President of CCC) talked about all of the 'behind the sceens' things that most of us don't see. The majority of talk revolved around the people who came to know the Lord through the different ministries. What we found out also is how CCC and other mission organizations are partnering together to reach the world for Christ by 2020. With technology and manpower he showed how this could be a reality in our lifetime. Never before have we had the ability to reach everyone with the Gospel so quickly.

Lastly, all of the people who had accepted God's call on their lives since the last conference to join staff were introduced in a parade fassion across the stage. There were about 350 of the 1500 there to participate. Amy was also part of this since the Lord has called our FAMILY to FamilyLife.

After the session, our FamilyLife group from New Staff Training in May of 2008 got together for Starbucks (bet you'll never guess who's idea that was) and enjoyed each other's company until 10. When our day was complete we realized that we have the second half of the conference to look forward to.

Today we see the Crawfords from TBC and a friend Hal traveled with doing conferences with National Seminars.

More tomorrow.

Day Four CSU

We began our day, once again, with Praise & Worship, followed by Steve Douglass, President of CCC, presenting a talk on Adversity. His points showed us how to 'Grow Through Adversity' (I Peter 4:12), how to see with an 'Eye of Faith', and how to 'Draw from the Holy Spirit' through adversity. He was followed by an unusual multimedia presentation, since the voice over was all done personally by Tim McKenzie. He spoke from memory on the days of creation and the power of God. It was all scripture and lasted 45 minutes. Imagine reciting from memory for 45 min. As the band returned, Charlotte was thinking what song could possibly follow such a marvelous presentation and only "How Great Thou Art" came to mind. So, after we were all awed with the majesty of God, the Praise & Worship team lead us in 'How Great is Our God", which has the chorus of "How Great Thou Art" in the song. Of course, after all the pictures of creation and God's majesty, the tears came again. We were overwhelmed!

The afternoon breakout session took Hal to "How to Use Film Shorts in Evangelism". We would love to see Ryan Dunlap use his talents in creating the shorts for this ministry! Amy was at a Water Park all day where she connected with her new friends and brought back a good sunburn. Today she has her bible study and a food fight this afternoon. Oh, boy! Tomorrow she will be working on filling food bags for Africa to feed the hungry. GAIN (Global Aid Network) is one of the CCC ministries that provides humanitarian relief world wide.

Steve Sellers, VP of CCC, spoke in the evening, presenting a talk "Worthy of the Calling" based on Eph, 4:1. We ended the evening about 11:30 after 1:45 of Tim Hawkins comedian where we laughed for almost the entire time. It was good to laugh after all our serious days previously. We were blessed, beat, and bed was good.

Hal

Day Three at CSU

The Praise and Worship was even better than the previous day. They also gave us an opportunity to give financially to help ethnic missionaries raising support reach their assignment. We learned about Impact Ministries, which is like Student Venture for high school students, except targeted at the black culture. Philip Abode at Crossover Bible would love this!

Tim Keller continued his talk on reaching the world for Christ. We had breakout sessions all afternoon, Charlotte went to a session on life-coachhing women, while I attended a session on Facebook and one by Josh McDowell. His session was mostly creating the case with stats on how we are losing our kids coming out of high school within the church. The most staggering stat was 91% of Christian kids do not believe there is absolute truth. Also, research indicates that most people have adopted their religious beliefs by age 12.

The day ended with a gathering of many FamilyLife families. We met so many new families my head was spinning. I can't even begin to remember all the names, but it really got us more excited about finishing support and getting to Little Rock. I did ask about many on their churches, and still haven't found TBC in Little Rock.

Hal

Day Two CSU

It began as any other day, get up, eat, and leave for our first general session. As we walked up to the arena, it was crowded, and everyone was handed the long awaited seminar book with our schedule. We flipped to page 6 and there it was, the TIMES for everything. Wow, now we know where to be and when! This was an important moment for trying to connect with Amy each day.

As we moved along into the CSU arena with the masses, we had to stop just to look around. I had been to many conferences, and this was so cool from my perspective, as a graphics and video person. Video screens everywhere, five cameras and a 'hand held' for recording every session, lighting like it should be done, everything had that Campus Crusade stamp of excellence on it for our Lord.

We met some new FamilyLife staff and wondered across to the other side of the arena and eventually planted ourselves. Of course, my mouth was still open still trying to take it all in. The two minute countdown started on the screens, and right at 9am, Keynote (music side of Campus Crusade) started playing. Our first half hour of Praise and Worship began. Then it hit, I couldn't sing. I was overwhelmed with emotion, the tears started, and all I could do is ask God "Why us? Why are we so fortunate to be the ones to receive such a blessing? Why have we been called to ministry and not others more qualified?" It was beyond words how thankful I was to be able to enjoy praising God with all the other thousands of missionaries in the arena at this time. How great and awesome our God is!

The remainder of the day proceeded like most conferences, hard seats, cramped areas for our legs, etc. but none of this seemed to matter, since our focus was elsewhere. We heard from Tim Keller, a pastor of a church in NYC talk about justification. Then we had a time of prayer, with times to ask forgiveness, sharing about what God is making us 'wait for', such as our move to Little Rock, and then we prayed about these specific things.

We had lunch, our afternoon session with Tim Keller, picked up Amy, dinner, then another highlight...Steve Sellers, Campus Crusade VP, shared the future of Campus Crusade. It is not an organization, but a tool to reach everyone for Christ. How refreshing to see such a large organization not losing sight of its original vision (DNA) like so many secular organizations have this past year and totally collapse from greed.

Most people would think that Amy had the most fun all day. She got to go to Six Flags and her asthma never bothered her. PTL! In actuality, she did have fun, but we received the biggest blessing in our meetings. God is good all the time, all the time, God is good!!

Hal

Opening Day at CCC Conference

Tuesday was a lazy day getting settled in, finding our way around Colorado State University (CSU), hooking up with FamilyLife friends, and seeing Josh Geppelt in Denver at a Starbucks (where else?).

The conference started last night with a carnival for fun, & fellowship, where missionary folks, who only see each other every two years here, could re-unite. Amy finally got to do something she enjoyed and got me on one of the 'spinning' rides, which I survived just fine. Amy & I got to take 3 little kids with us whose parents didn't want to get sick on the ride! Charlotte got to go the second time with Amy since I was feeling a head- ache coming on (good excuse). They had burgers, corn dogs, and all the other 'stuff' to go with them, but it took 3 hours to get one! The line was forever long at 6p, so we waited until about 9p to get in line to eat. It only took 10 min. that way. We saw the rest of our FamilyLife friends and met many new ones we knew only through Twitter and Facebook.

Today starts the first general session with Tim Keller (a pastor in Manhattan), Praise & Worship, and time in the Word. We have a full slate of sessions to choose from this afternoon, while Amy spends the day at Elich Gardens (Six Flags). Many of the adults were trying to get Amy to trade places with them for the day!

Kristi heads to Guatemala on a mission trip today. Pray for safety and a good time of ministry for her.

More tomorrow ...

Hal

Arrival in Ft. Collins

We made it to Ft. Collins with no issues and a smooth trip. Amy was able to entertain herself with school work and a couple of movies. Charlotte was able to stop at Lindsborg, KS to see a little of her Swedish heritage and bought a trivet with a saying on it that her mother repeated many times while she was growing up (in Swedish).

The trip started at 5:15a central time and ended right on schedule at 5:15p mountain time. We registered, settled into our dorm room on the CSU campus and started living the life of a college student again. How we survived those conditions I'll never know. I mean twin beds, common bath with next door neighbor (thank goodness it was Amy) hard matresses, etc.

Cell phones are great; we hooked up with one of our friends, the Davaults, and had dinner together. Guess what we talked about? Yeah. Getting to Little Rock as soon as possible and God's faithfullness in raising up partners for each of us.

The day ended at about 11:00, but we are excited.

Harold

R & R

Before we leave for the Campus Crusade conference, we are going to spend what could be our last time together as a family in Tulsa. Katie and Gage will be there, Joel, Jon, Kristi and Amy. We will only be missing David and Sarah Beth.

We will also be celebrating Charlotte's 29th birthday again while we are away. Pray that we will have quality time together as a family.

Travel Again

The Drivers are preparing to leave for Colorado on July 20, which means that Harold is back to traveling again. We plan on visiting friends and catching up with our training group. We will spend about 10 days with thousands of other Campus Crusade staff from all over the US for Bible studies, prayer, praise and worship time, plus encouraging seminars to help us in the ministry. In our case, many of the seminars we attend will be related to development of our partner team.

Harold

Now What?

We have now been raising support full time for a month now and it seems like it started yesterday. We have enjoyed meeting new people and renewing old friendships and are averaging about 4 appointments a week.

We placed the house on the market last Monday and we have our first open house this Sunday. Pray we will get lookers and potential buyers. Pray also that it will sell quickly so we can make the move to Little Rock easier.

We have increased our goal percentage to 68%, but still need the remaining 32% to move. It is going to be fantastic to be able to tell people the remaining percentage once that reaches 30%, hopefully next week. We are still on course for moving in September, pray that this is the Lord's timing also.

Harold

No More Travel

Travel as I have known it for the past 16 years has concluded. Now we move into high gear to finish raising up partners so we can report to FamilyLife. Pray that we partner with the remaining people in the next four months. Many of you are praying for a move in September and that is still the goal. Praise the Lord for the work over the past 16 years.

Harold

Commissioning at Tulsa Bible Church

What an exciting day: Sunday, March 15, 2009. Today, we had Bob Lepine speak at church, who is the VP of Content at FamilyLife and co-host of FamilyLife Today. He delivered a message from Colossians 3 about the things that suck life out of your marriage and what puts life back into it. He used a biology analogy of red blood cells shaped like hearts. The things that take life out of those romantic blood cells are lying, slander, malice, and all self centeredness. The things that put life back into marriage are all selfless things that put the other person first. Christ is our example, giving His life for us.

After the message, we were privileged to be commissioned to serve with FamilyLife by our home church. Not only did we have the privilege of having our Elders pray over us and our family, but also, Bob Lepine was there to participate in our commissioning. We could never have orchestrated such an event; it was all God. We also found out that Bob was asked to come and speak over four months ago, long before we had any idea when we would be commissioned. God is awesome!

David & Sarah Beth Driver's Wedding Pictures

The wedding pictures are finally where everyone can see them. Click on the link below to view them.

Wedding Pictures

God's Orchestration pt 2

Raising up a team of partners for our ministry with FamilyLife has opened a new dimension in our awareness of God’s hand. We get so busy we sometimes don’t even slow down enough to see God at work.

Over the past month, God has placed in our path friends from the past. One couple was at a restaurant sitting at a table next to Harold and the other showed up in a class Harold team-teaches in Tulsa. Both have become part of our team. Again, the world sees this as coincidence, but we saw both as divine appointments God orchestrated.

The last thing, which took place the last week of February was the appointment of our family as missionaries representing our home church of 28 years. It was an exciting half hour of sharing and Q&A, then a 100% affirming vote approving us as missionaries to FamilyLife. The most humbling part was the time of prayer at the end where the Elders gathered around us, laid hands on us and prayed. It was overwhelming to hear how God has, once again, affirmed our call into ministry through these godly men.

God’s Orchestration

Many times we see God’s hand in our lives and many times we miss it completely because of our busy lives. In December, we made a huge step of faith, deciding on a date that Harold would quit his secular job to devote his time to full time to completing our team of partners. This date was May 1, 2009, which was of course, based on discussion with FamilyLife, prayer and encouragement to set a goal.

Recently, God showed us exactly why He led us to pick the date of May 1. Most of you are aware that Harold travels for National Seminars,conducting seminars around the U.S. He “happened” to call the person that does the scheduling
for an unrelated mater and found out that the topic he has been teaching of late (Marketing) was being discontinued after May 1. This means, he would have been out of work after May 1. Does God know what He is doing? Of course. Is this coincidence? Of course not. Are we lucky we picked that date? Definitely not! God is amazing!

As we occasionally ponder why God has chosen us for full time ministry at this time in our lives, we simply have to marvel at His provisionof prayer and financial partners and that He knows the perfect timing for us to report to FamilyLife. When secular work is no longer available, God will have provided the funds to begin full time support raising followed by ministry with FamilyLife. How Great our God Is!

We made the round trip to North Carolina and back, a total of 2600 miles for David & Sarah Beth's wedding. It was a real joy to see them get married in a very simple fashion and also get to know Sarah Beth's parents much better. The real clincher was at the end when Sarah Beth's dad handed David the key to Sarah Beth's heart. It was a key to a locket that he had given Sarah Beth at a young age and the key would be given to the man she married. It was a real tear-jerker for everyone.

Thanks to everyone who was praying for clear sailing back and forth, which it was. The only bit of bad weather was Memphis to Little Rock which was rain at a low temperature, which created ice on the van. The trip was very relaxing and emotional as you may imagine.

Don't forget the Tulsa reception on January 18, 2009.

(male version)