Sandwich to Southwest Ranches

After 18 months I have been hanging out in Sandwich. I have been asked, why would you vacation in Sandwich this time of year? It is cold. It is gray. I am writing this from Panera in Yorkville. Why? free internet access and a fire place. Well when you live in a beautiful place where do you vacation? I have 3 weeks vacation and I though I should use at least one week. I wanted to see the trees in fall and Kentucky was beautiful. I wanted to reconnect with people that I had done life with for almost 9 years. Finally I wanted to see what had been accomplished.

Barry took me through the building that we built while I was pastor in Sandwich. There were some great upgrades. Many asked me if I liked the changes. I chatted with Wes the new pastor of Harvest. I am confident that he is the one that God wants to lead Harvest and he is doing a fantastic job. And I met people and remembered when many of them came to faith. I remembered the triumphs and tragedy that we walked through together. All in all the greatest blessing was to see God’s hand at work.

“Unless the Lord build a house, they that labor labor in vain.” I am so glad to be able to look back on 9 years of work and see that the labor was not in vain. Please don’t misunderstand and think that I desire any credit, frankly because I don’t want blame and they go hand in hand. But I look at the ministry that continues and has grown in powerful ways and I recognize that God was building the house all along. I see people who have risen to new challenges and opportunities and see God at work building the house. I see new faces coming to faith and being baptized and recognize that God is at work building the house. The times that I stressed and worried about so much seems silly now because God was always at work building the house.

When Margot and I moved to New Hope to begin a new challenge I asked the people, “what have we got to lose?” And today I am convinced in Sandwich, Il or in Southwest Ranches, Florida we need not worry. We have nothing to lose if God is building the house.

What does this house look like? It looks like a place where people are connected to a loving God and connected to the master purpose that He has for their lives. Its a work zone where God is busy building, so I rest today knowing that God is at work.