In Need of Prayers

In the process of making the move, several things have kind of fallen by the wayside temporarily, and one of those things is this blog. I just wanted you all to know that we're alive and well, and things are going smoothly. We're still settling on a few things, but overwhelmingly most of our move is complete.

I know I have several readers, not many that post comments, however, but for this post, comments are not necessary, only prayers are needed.

Last night, I discovered that my sister, Mary Anne Walton, has developed cancer in one of her breasts. They went to do a biopsy several days ago, and it came back cancerous. She is faced with several big decisions as to what her next step will be in this process.

I ask that all of you stop what you're doing and offer up a prayer on her behalf. Mary Anne will be 35 years old in May. This just isn't supposed to happen, but it has. Pray for her that the cancer can be removed completely. Pray for her husband, Kevin, who works so hard and diligently to support his family. Pray for their two children, Faith and John Derrick, who are just wonderful kids and are a testimony to how Mary Anne and Kevin live their lives.

Both of my grandmother's had breast cancer, so this does run in the family I suppose. But its still just so alarming that it happened to her at such a young age. I know so many of you will help us out by praying. If any of you want to send her an email, send it to me, and I will forward it on to her at lanewidick@gmail.com

God bless you all.

Getting Settled

The past week has been a very challenging one. Josie got sick last Sunday with a Croup type cough, and made her first visit to her new Pediatrician. I was busy getting acquanited with things at the office. Kristen was unpacking boxes and setting up the house.

Then, I caught whatever it was that Josie had, and I'm just now starting to get over it. Fortunately, Kristen has remained healthy through this whole ordeal. If she gets sick, then the whole house will fall apart.

We've been here working with the church at West University for a week now, and we're getting to know the people more and more. Its a church that has a lot of hope and excitement, and wants to grow and prosper the best it can. Its a tough dynamic working in the downtown area of a larger city, especially since most people live in the suburbs. By the time they fight traffic to get home on Wednesday nights, they don't typically have a chance to make it back to evening services. Its just different than what we're used to doing.

Pray for our work here. I'm acting as an Associate Minister, which covers a whole lot of things. Some of the main areas I am working with is Worship Leading, Media Management, Young Families, and helping put together some sort of youth program. We currently do not have many teens, but there a whole lot of children. The problem is retaining them when they reach those teen years, because there's not a developed youth program. If anyone has any resources for me, I would gladly accept the advice.

Once we get interent set up at our house, I promise things will return to more of a regular pattern with my posting. It should be within the next two weeks or so.

God bless you all.

Moving Right Along

I just realized it has been several weeks since I posted anything, so I thought I would catch everyone up:

Tonight, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Hattiesburg, MS, on our way to Sugarland, TX. Today, the moving truck came and loaded up all our stuff, and it will meet us there on Saturday. (By the way, This Side Up Moving based in Madison, AL, is an excellent company, if you ever need to move). We drove about 5 hours tonight, and we'll drive the other 7 or so tomorrow. We're going to "camp out" in our new home tomorrow night in sleeping bags. How fun!

This past Sunday, we said goodbye to our family and friends at the Guntersville Church of Christ. It was a great day. I was able to preach on Sunday morning, with a sermon entitled "Deep Water Faith In The Shallow End". That night, they had a wonderful going away ceremony for us.

I think the thing that made the transition easier for us was that everyone understood and supported our decision to get out of youth ministry and into a different role. Thank you to all those at Guntersville for making the last three years great.

As for an update on my car that had the tree fall on it, it is finally fixed. The first day that they "fixed" it and I drove it home, I realized the driver's side mirror was rather shaky. I took it back up there the next day, and they said they would order another mirror. When they got the new one in, it was still shaky. Since that one didn't work, and both of those were aftermarket mirrors, they ordered a factory mirror. That didn't work either. They started to look at the door, thinking that when the tree hit the mirror, that it bent the door frame, so they ordered me a new door.

The new door came in on the Wednesday before we were supposed to move. They ran it through quick, and I received a call late Wednesday afternoon. They told me they had the new door on. I said "GREAT!! Did that fix the problem?", and they said "No, it did not."

So after three new mirrors and a new door, the problem still was not fixed. As a last resort, they asked me when I was leaving, and I told them today at 2:00. They asked if they could keep one more day, because they had found a used mirror on in a town about an hour away. They pulled off a junk Accord.

Today, at 1:45, they called and said it was done. It was fixed. So after 3 new mirrors and a new door, the problem was that Honda's new mirrors are no good. They told me that the used one weighed about two pounds more than the newer ones. No wonder the mirror shook like a leaf in the wind.

I probably won't have internet access till later next week, but I wanted to keep all those remaining readers up to date on the situation. Pray for us, and look for a new web address for my blog in the next few weeks, since I am no longer a youth minister, it just doesn't make sense!