You don't realize how deep your roots are until you go to dig them up!

A friend of mine (and my management chair for our church plant) is also in the process of moving his family from Nashville, TN to a suburb of Atlanta. A couple of weeks ago when we were talking about how difficult it was to take the friendships that we have and walk them through this necessary, but amazingly difficult transition, he said these words that stuck with me. "You don't realize how deep your roots are until you go to pull them up"

Those words resonated with me over the past few weeks as we started the final days of our tenure in Bryan, OH. I cannot begin to express the unbelievable significance that each of you have played in the lives of my family. Over the past 7 years, you have been our surrogate FAMILY! You have invited us over for holidays when we had nowhere to go. You have helped us care for our sick children when we didn't know where to turn. You have given us advice when we were lost. You were there for us to build memories. You were willing to forgive us when we made mistakes. Our roots in Bryan must have been fed some amazing fertilizer (I am refraining from jokes for this ONE moment - you cannot understand how hard it is to refrain from making a fertilizer joke right now... you know - something about being fed poop... BUT I WILL NOT!!!)

Here is the thing... I think the analogy is simply perfect... we never intended to take a shovel and cut off those roots - we never desired to kill the plant. We intend (and continue to do so) to pull those roots up and take them with us!

We were overwhelmed Sunday (and the weeks leading up to it) by the number of people who expressed their sorrow upon our departure. But we all need to understand something VERY IMPORTANT.., OUR MINISTRY YEARS (and friendship years) ARE NOT OVER!

WE NEED YOUR FRIENDSHIP AND PARTNERSHIP NOW MORE THAN EVER!!! Please know that things will undoubtedly change, but we still care deeply for each of you as you ARE a significant part of our lives!

Many of you have asked what you can do to support us in this next phase of Kingdom Building. Well, since you asked (and for those of you who didn't - this is the part where you are more than welcome to stop reading because our friendship is about to get to the part where YOU come in.)

PRAY LIKE NEVER BEFORE!!! Church planting is a spiritual effort! The enemy is already starting to throw doubt and turmoil into the picture. Every single day brings new challenges and problems into the scope.

• Pray that our team maintains a high level of purity and focus - Satan would love nothing more than to distract us with failure - WE WILL NOT STAND FOR IT!
• Pray for our team to build relationships! God has provided us with a team on the ground in Jackson that is capable of AMAZING things on a human level. I am unbelievably excited about what GOD will do when He adds His SUPER to our NATURAL!! This unbelievable asset will be a detriment if we cannot build this into a TEAM!
• Pray for my family! This is obviously a very difficult time for all of us. We leave behind all that we know and love. Pray for Sheila and the girls as they work towards settling in to the new area and developing friendships with some of the amazing people we have already started to get to know.

Also, as you might expect, we can always use financial support! I do have an incredible opportunity (one that you will hear much more about in the coming days). Over the past couple of weeks, I was made aware of generosity that allows for a MATCHING GRANT for THIS PROJECT! Because of the amazing generosity, every dollar that is donated between now and the end of January will be matched ONE TO ONE!!! That means that if you are able to send $10, it becomes $20. $100 becomes $200... $500 becomes $1000... and yes :-)... $5000 becomes $10,000!!!!

Listen, I know how many of you are feeling - Sheila and I have felt that way too - I have sat and thought "It's easier to ignore it than to send in $10- it's too small an amount to bother to send." Let me tell you something from the other side now... NO AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL. We are serious about this... We are excited to see the Body of Christ do its' thing... God provides from every possible angle! I would encourage you to do this: Take a moment and pray asking God to give you a clear understanding of how He would have you be involved in this project - if financial support is a part of that leading, the amount does not matter - faithfulness is what matters!