Preparing a place

So, my wife and I are making preparations to move my grandmother from San Diego, CA to Kirkland, WA to live with us. She is legally blind and wheelchair bound. She requires 24 hour a day care. She is one of the most beautiful people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing in my lifetime. I began thinking today about what makes my grandmother so special. I came up with quite a bit as I thought through the experiences she created for me growing up. My grandmother (and grandfather) was always there for my family no matter what challenges we were dealing with at the time. They always had and open door. My family lived with my grandparents in Oxnard, CA on and off as we were growing up. We also visited my grandparents often when we were not living there. My grandmother was always in a cheerful mood when us kids were around. No matter how she was feeling inside, how sick she might be, how much pain she might be experiencing from an accident or something, she was always cheerful. Prior to our visits, my grandmother would always have something prepared for us kids. I remember that she use to keep the Star Wars cards, that came in loaves of bread back then, aside for us and would set them out on the coffee table in the living room so that we would see them as soon as we arrived. There was always something special waiting for us when we visited my grandma's house. The entire time we were at my grandmothers house, whether just visiting or living there, she would get up early every morning and make breakfast special for each of the kids. Anything you wanted, she would prepare. Games were also something my grandmother enjoyed a lot and we spent hours upon hours playing "Pollyanna", Dominoes, and various other board games and card games. She simply loved to spend time with us. She has always been a beautiful person. my wife and I truly feel blessed to have her come and live with us. Although we know it will be challenging for us, we trust that God will guide us as we move down this path.

We live in a two-story home and all of the bedrooms are upstairs. We are converting our formal dining area and formal living room area into a suite for my grandmother. We are also taking out the existing "powder room" and expanding that space to include a shower with full handicap access. We never really used the formal dining and living room areas for their intended purpose. My wife uses the dining area for her scrapbooking stuff (and believe me, there is a ton of it!) and our kids use the living room area as a playroom. We are converting part of our garage into a space for these two activities to live in after my grandmother is here. We are preparing a place that we believe will be most comfortable for her and allow her to live out the rest of her many years with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren in peace.

In thinking through all of these experiences, I can help but turn to God. I have prayed quite a bit about this significant event in our lives and constantly feel God's blessing on me and my family. As my grandmother always prepared a special for us to go when we were younger, we now are preparing a special place for her to go. As my grandmother made many personal sacrifices in life to ensure her grandchildren were comfortable and happy, we will make sacrifices in our own lives to ensure she is comfortable and happy. Because of the life my grandmother lived and the love and grace she showered my family with, we feel blessed to have her as part of our household.

In all of this I know that God has prepared a special place for all of use to go when that time comes. Our heavenly father is setting aside all the Star Wars cards and making sure there are plenty of games for us to play when we step in to his kingdom. Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice in his life to ensure we were comfortable and happy. As we live our lives, its absolutely important for us to shower those in need with love, grace and kindness. To make our Father proud as he welcomes us in to his house.

The Beginning

I have been working on rekindling my relationship with Jesus Christ over the past year and decided to start this Blog to put my experiences out there for others to see. I have had a life full of experiences that have had me walking with Jesus Christ and venturing off that path and then back again. I have always had a relationship with Jesus, it has simply varied in levels over the years.

Since this is "the beginning", I thought I would share a few bits of my history to set the tone. I am married to an amazing woman and we have 4 children, 3 boys - ages 5, 11, and 17 and 1 girl - age 2. I grew up San Diego, CA with the exception of living in Virginia Beach, VA for 3 years. I can remember being introduced to "Church" when I was about 8 years old. My step-father was in the Navy and we were living in Virginia Beach, VA at the time. Although I may have attended Church at a younger age, I remember this as being my initial introduction. My parents began attending Hope Lutheran Church and we were very consistent in attending services and Sunday school on a weekly basis during the time we lived in Virginia. Thinking back, the area in general and neighborhood we lived in was very "religious" and if you did not go to Church you were looked down upon. This is probably a big reason that my family attended. I do not remember ever attending Church as family outside of the 3 years we lived in Virginia.

When I was 9 or 10 years old, I was baptized at Hope Lutheran Church. I remember this as being very significant from a "ceremonial" prospective. I have 2 brothers and a sister that were all baptized at the same time. We were all dressed up in our best cloths and walked down the center of the Church between the pews with everybody looking at us. Then the pastor said a few words, we all dipped our heads in a big shell and had water sprinkled on us. The congregation then clapped for us and we were on our way. Baptized and headed for heaven. We all had certificates to prove it. From a spiritual prospective, this event was not that significant in my life. The truth of the matter is, it really wasn't spritual for me at the time. Knowing what I know today about the significance of being baptized and the symbolism associated with baptism; these were not the things on my mind during this time in my life. I remember thinking that this was "the thing to do" and that was it.

When I was 10 years old and just out of the 5th grade, my family moved back to San Diego. Between the 6th grade and 8th grade I had no involvement in Church at all. When I was in the 8th grade, I met some friends that were involved in the youth group at the local Church in area we lived in. We lived in Murphy Canyon military housing and the services were held in the local recreation center with youth group meeting each Sunday afternoon. The youth pastor there was a guy named Ed Eby. Ed was a great guy and we really had a lot of fun in youth group and that led us to begin attending the Church services as well. The youth group became very involved in everything going on at the Church from setup on Sunday mornings to Christmas plays to the choir. I think half of the choir consisted of teenagers from the youth group. I met my would be wife, Tammy, there and began dating her at the ripe old age of 15.

When I was 16, my step-father retired from the Navy and we moved to Santee, CA (a suburb or San Diego) and I was forced to change schools in my junior year. I kept close ties with my friends in Murphy Canyon until I graduated in 1988 from Santana High School. I intended to become a pastor all the way through my graduating high school but as you will see, that did not really work out.

After a short stint of making chicken at KFC (my first job), I got a job at Chevron while in my senior year of high school. I did not attend Church after graduating high school. I continued working at Chevron and was engaged to Tammy when I was 18 years old. In order to provide more stability and BENEFITS for my soon to be family, I made a decision to join the Navy. I joined as a Submarine Sonar Technician. I served as "religious" petty officer for my company in boot camp and spent a lot of time praying with folks and providing spiritual support for the other recruits going through the program. The Lord certainly blessed me during this time, because the head Chaplain for the Recruit Training Command in San Diego was Chaplain Vanderbilt. Chaplain Vanderbilt was the Chaplain at Murphy Canyon Protestant Chapel back when I was active in that Church. He took good care of me during my time at boot camp and provided a lot of spiritual guidance for me throughout my time there. After boot camp, I went through training and then on to my first submarine and the rest is history. I spent 6 years in the Navy. I stopped attending Church after boot camp. I was really busy you know.....

When I got out of the Navy, I began working in manufacturing for various sized companies and today have my own consulting business specializing in management consulting and operational excellence. About a year ago while I was traveling on business in the United Kingdom, I began to feel God tugging on my heart.

Tammy and I had been searching for a Church for a while. We landed at Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, WA. The timing was good because the second week we were there, they named a new Lead Pastor (Mike Howerton). Mike's teaching immediately began resonate with Tammy and I and we feel very blessed that God lead to Overlake. My relationship with Jesus Christ has continued to grow and is really changing my life.

I stopped traveling in March of 2008 and have really slowed down on the consulting business for 2 reasons - 1) I had been traveling about 85% of time the last 2 years and 2) the existing contracts I have with my clients are coming to an end. So, now I am really considering what to do next. I have prayed about it, but not nearly enough. God is still tugging on my heart, I am simply not sure what his plan is yet. My wife and I both serve at Overlake Christian Church in the children's ministry and feel very blessed to be able to do so. I have considered becoming a pastor and there are many experiences I have had over the past year that have steered me in this direction (to be shared in another blog, later). I will begin attending Northwest University this fall and going through a certificate program that covers the foundational knowledge associated with biblical and theological studies. Earlier this year, I applied for and was accepted in to the Northwest University Masters in Missional Leadership program, but was intimidated by my lack of general knowledge. As a result, I shifted to more a practical program that would give me more confidence. As I pursue the certificate program, I will continue to look to God for the next steps in my quest.

I really did not plan on being here typing this blog at 1:00am, but here I am. Hopefully there are not too many errors and you were able to get to this point in the blog before being bored out of your mind. Until next time...... blessings.