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)

The Van Has Been Resurrected

A praise, we were able to get the van fixed for half of the initial estimate. A friend from church gave us a person who was able to replace the engine over a weekend, in fact he did it in one day. (I guess when you know what you are doing, it is easy.) So with the economy, our move into ministry, and so forth, this was the best answer to our problem. Thanks for praying.

David & Sarah Beth's Reception date change

David & Sarah Beth's wedding reception has been moved to January 18, 2009. After all the "careful" planning and picking dates, we discovered that Harold would be in San Juan on the 11th, which is a problem that the groom's Dad would not be present. So thanks to the Greenos who are hosting it for us, they have graciously moved with us to the 18th. So, Tulsa folks, January 18th, 2p-5p is the new date.

Our van 'bit the dust'

Our van gave up the ghost this week when Charlotte was taking our grandson to Stillwater. We have to decide within the next 2 weeks what to do with it. It has 173K miles on it, so repair or replace is the question. Pray that we will make the appropriate decision and weigh all our options carefully.

Minor Setback

We encountered a minor setback this week with my travel to Canada and not able to make calls, but God is faithful, Charlotte was able to make over 30 calls, talk to about 20 people, and schedule 3 appointments to meet with people to share the ministry. Isn't it great how God has put our team together so when one is unable the other steps up to the plate to bat a home run? Everyone I am sure thinks their spouse is great, but mine is the greatest.

Pray with us that God will provide more people to talk to, we are only getting about 1 for every 10 calls. Pray also that people will return our calls.

Harold

Report to FamilyLife 9-1-09

We are in Little Rock attending Campus Crusade Follow-Up Training. There is a short break before dinner, so thought we would give you a quick update.

We would like to encourage each of our partners, especially our prayer warriors to pray, believing that the Lord will raise the required monthly support, so we can move to Little Rock to start our ministry assignment by September 1, 2009. That is only 11 months from now, which means that we will need to raise about 5 1/2% a month. This is based on our continuing our efforts with Harold still traveling two weeks a month. Please pray with us that Harold will be able to stop traveling by May 1, 2009 and be able to work 100% at developing our remaining partner team. We have started praying, trusting that the Lord wants us at FamilyLife by September 1.

Thank you to everyone who is diligently praying for us. We know the Lord will bless your efforts.

Updates and Prayer for October

It has been almost a month since our last post and we felt we needed an update. We have been progressing along and have reached 37% of our support. Harold has ended up on the road for the past two weeks, so we have slowed down a bit, but still thankful none the less.

We are so thankful for all the new partners that have come on board in both prayer and financial support that it still amazes us how God is so faithful to provide each and every one of you. Please pray with us for two things, we are presenting to our first large group at Grace Community Church in Tulsa tonight at 6p central time. Pray also as we follow-up with these saints that God will prepare the hearts of many to see the need to help us toward our goal so we can head off to serve the Lord at FamilyLife.

Also, please pray for safe travel to Little Rock for Campus Crusade and FamilyLife training on October 2-7. We will be taking Kristi and Amy along with us to see FamilyLife and meet new friends in Little Rock. On October 7 we will be participating in a world wide day of prayer for the ministry of Campus Crusade in reaching the world for Christ through all its ministries.

Thanks so much for all that each and every one of you who mean to us.

Harold & Charlotte

Another Mile Stone

We reached another mile stone in our journey to FamilyLife, we sent out 108 newsletters and an additional 78 by email. Almost 100+ prayer and financial partners. PTL

Time Off in God's Creation

We took a short break to celebrate our anniversary this weekend. We celebrated 33 years, which of course only seems like yesterday we exchanged vows at Grace Baptist Church in San Leandro, CA. We went to Eureka Springs, AR, a quaint Victorian town from the late 1800's, and stayed at a B&B that was wonderful. What struck me that was interesting about our stay, which was at an Inn that had 5 rooms and you ate together for breakfast, (not eating together or breakfast is interesting) it was that two of the four couples that were at breakfast were getting married later that day. Now again, it wasn't that interesting that they were getting married, but one couple had been together for a few years from previous marriages with four children between them and were just "getting around to getting married". How far our country and morals have drifted away from the sacredness of marriage, that marriage is only thought of as a task, not a covenant. This to me was another affirmation of our call to FamilyLife, to reach those couples for Christ and give them direction that would hopefully save their marriage.

We also had the opportunity to have dinner with one of our partners that lives in the area. It was so neat to get to know them better, especially the husband (we had known the wife since she was very little and had seen her grow up) who we didn't know at all, and see their passion for ministry at the church level.

Now back to reality, we drive home today to share the ministry and our passion with others. Pray that these upcoming weeks and months will see much fruit with partners coming along side us in this ministry. I will be home for four weeks and really want to pour much effort into raising up partners.

Harold