Baby!!

So our friends Steve and Jane just gave birth yesterday to a 10 lbs, 1 oz. Evan. He's like a little hairy sumo wrestler, and we're very excited for them and pretty sure we got the best gifts for them too! HAHAH! Oh, excuse me, just feeling a bit competitive today :)

So Walter and i met on Monday with Mark Reynolds (no relation) the head of the Redeemer Church Planting Center (or something like that) and it was a good challenging meeting. Mark didn't pull punches, was excited about working with us, and presented us with a lot to chew on and consider. Apparently i saw him in rare form too, bc supposedly he's a pretty reserved and straight laced guy. But he actually was cracking some jokes with a straight face. I appreciated his sarcasm. 

So we are slowly moving ahead and weighing options. Unfortunately finances are among those we have to consider when looking at the future. We have the opportunity to take advantage of 2 different programs they offer there at RCPC: 1) The Incubator a 2 year once a month program you go through with other pastors that are currently planting that covers many topics and is very good. Walter did the predecessor program for over a year about 4-5 years ago and now they have only expanded and improved the previous materials, so we are excited about that. 2) The Fellows, this program is probably more only an option for myself and then to follow a year later into the Incubator possibly. The Fellows is more of an intensive internship with a current church plant to gain experience about the process for those who aren't yet fully ready to start a plant verses those in the Incubator which are starting or in process of a plant. The Fellows requires that it is the exclusive "job" of the participant, and as such receives a stipon of some sort though i didn't ask bc i didn't want that to cloud my judgement.

So we are looking at timeline and the spread of the approach we want to take for the church beginning. This may look like starting solely in one location and expanding in a year to two into a second and\ or third location, or starting in two and expanding into three. So based on our moving forward on the plan will affect our inclination for us both to go through Incubator or only Walter and for me to go through the Fellows and just be assigned to the church plant we are doing. The advantages of the second are that we then would have a full time person to address many of the time consuming issues with the plant on a daily basis, while Walter would still be free to work in another capacity to produce income for his family. And of course the theological training and practical mentoring would be beneficial to me as i received it from the Fellows leaders. However a negative could easily be that this is an exclusive program, meaning i would not be able to be involved in the HOC program teaching martial arts in the public schools, or teaching any evening classes (though as of now i am planning on ending those classes by August), and then who knows the impact on my personal training and plans for world domination. Supposedly the fellows is a 70 hr+ per week commitment. 

In addition to this currently the schools have not paid me nor has Walter been drawing a salary all this time and we both are looking at the possible necessity to seek income by other means. I suggested selling body parts on the black market, drug trafficking, or simply annexing our own country out of the US and printing our own money, but for some reason he didn't like those ideas. So then it is to the possibilities of other employment we may need to look. Tammy and i have been cutting back a lot of stuff in the hopes to reduce our bills. We canceled our cable and changed our internet provider and somehow wound up with a credit to our account for Time Warner. Thanks God!

And of course Walter and i have the Next Level commitment coming up for May-August that we have to fulfill so that impacts our capabilities to get involved in much else. Though all things work out and it's not as bad as it seems. We order Fresh Direct and still indulge our selves with organic brownies mom sent (which were amazing) and our hobbies. Life is good we are growing these are just the pains associated with the process. Like my soreness from Mondays training session that i haven't gotten over yet but will be adding to in 2 hours....

love you guys,

Jonathan

Currently listening to:

The sounds of birds, my street, and radiator....yes it's still cold enough here that the heat is on...