Day Five

Day Five - Wednesday
Ok, so the person's house that we stayed at, we met through facdebook. She is apart of my best friend's church and they stay there whenever they are in town to preach (they are traveling evangelists) and have good references. this is definately a different day that we live in.

Interesting story about her:
While praying God told her that he was going to give her a new house, so she packed everything she owned in boxes and prepared for her new house. Her possessions stayed in those boxes for the next 7 years. Could you imagine, everyone around her thought she was out of her gourd. Well Target came to her one day and offer her 250K for her 75K house and property so that they could build a parking lot on her and the neighbors property. She then moved to the side coty that she wanted to move to, built a house for her and her son, and furnished it with the money. I think of Noah and doing the crazy, but acheiving the results. Interesting lady, good conversationalist.

Anyway, we drove around and prayed a bit and then got some lunch. We went to Church on the Rise for the church tour and meeting. On the way there I recieved a call from Michael W. Smith and Billy Hornsby. They shared with me that the ARC church in Solon was pastorless and was currently looking for a pastor and that I should check it out and see what I think. Whoa! What ... Umm, ok we can do that. We cancelled our meeting with the real estate guy, because things were now kind of up in the air.
And now for our meeting with COTR. They have a great church facility (Sanctuary reminded me of Celebration Church) and youth building. We then had a quick meeting with the founding pastor. We chatted and shared for about an hour, which was much longer than we thought we would get with him. As it turned out the original pastor of Oak River (the ARC church in Solon) came out of his church and and they actually Sponsored the plant through the ARC. He had some inside info and thoughts toward the situation. He also, had some great ideas on other areas in the city that would be prime for a church plant and some other pastors in the area that I should know. A very good and timely meeting.
We got a bit to eat, checked out a local mall and started off to meet a couple that wasa recomendation from my youth pastor growing up. Sol and Jamie Gunyola. The Starbucks that we went to was one of the coolest. It used to be a bank and it was three stories with a fire place ... very cozy. They were a neat couple. They are very evangelistic and have a great heart for reaching the lost. Sol is a tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy that you definately don't have to guess what he is thinking or going through. I like that about him. His wife is very into horses ... It is her life. She has a heart for worship and she is strong, which Faith likes. They are, oddly enough, not currently plugged in anywhere and want to find a church home. They said they would help us out no matter where we went, except for Solon. haha. Anyway, we left encouraged, they are a great couple with much potential. We called it a night and went back to Chris's house for the night.

Days Three and Four

Three - Monday
Well, the previous two days have completely drained me, so, I slept in. Way in! Didn't get up until like 10. We didn't leave the house and get into cleveland until like 1:00. We left all of the kids (except Ezra) at my Mom's house for the week. Woohoo! A whole week with my wife and only one kid. I am not sure what to do with myself. In short, We had a good time talking, sharing vision and heart, and stoping at the awesome Starbuck's on the Ohio turnpike. We got into Avon the place where we have been praying about over the last year or so, and drove around a little. We stopped by the highschool to check it out. It maybe a potential great place to start services. The building is new and an incredible facility. They were practicing for a live presentation of "Highschool Musical". We called the school and the lady told us that in Avon they believe in the separation of church and state and that she didn't think they would rent to a "Religous Organiazation". She knew of a couple of other cities that might do that, but, she would give me the information anyway of who to contact. We talked to the city planner and he said that the lady had no clue what she was talking about and that they would be happy to rent the facility to us. Haha ... people are funny ... we always want to interject our own interpretation what what the law should say. Anyway, we drove around and talk to some folks in Avon and Westlake. Over a pretty good day. We drove to one of Faith's best friends to stay for the night

Four - Tuesday

We had breakfast, check email and facebook, hopped in the car and started driving back toward Avon again. We called a couple of ARC churches in the area to see if we could meet with them and talk about what we are doing, hear about their ministries and get some advise. We talked to our realtor and set up an appointment to look at some houses to rent and set up dinner for that night to review our needs again. We found an ARC church in Westlake that we didn't realize was there. We have heard about this church, but didn't know that it was and ARC church. We called our superiors to check on what advice they might give us on whether or not they thought it might be to close. Drove around looked at some more of the city and met some more people. We gave out some cards and collected info of some people that seemed interested in hear more about what we are doing. We met Realtor Mike at Red Robins for dinner. Great guy with heart for ministry. He was involved with his church plants a few years back and had some great insight into the area. We mentioned that we wanted to go check out "Church on the Rise", and he had a friend that is married to the pastor's administrative assistant. She got us in for a tour and meeting with the pastor the next day. Wow, that was interesting right. Overall it was good and full day. We drove to facebook buddy Chris's house and turned in for the night.

Day Two

Highlight from Last night and this morning ...

The kids wanted a story in the van before they went to sleep. They had watched High School Musical and and now wanted a Daddy story. So I asked, Who wants a scary story (jokingly)? Well Christian and Grace screamed yeah!! and Elise screamed no, followed by Ian's "yeah daddy ... scarry story" - he really has now clue about what that even means. So I thought, this is perfect, stranded at some gas station, we have no idea where we are with 45 other cars full of strangers, not to mention all of the semi-trucks. It is the dead of night ... wow! I could scar them for the rest of their lives, they would scream until they all peed their pants. Wait ... that would stink and I really don't like scary at all any way ... ummm. How about 3 little pigs ... with a twist.

The three pigs were named: Ipsy, Pipsy and Pipsy ... Ispy was the deep woods hillbilly sounding pig that tried the hay, lipsy had a severe st st st st studdddd studd st stammering problem and pipsy was the high brow pig with the simon cowel sounding accent who consequently also built his house with bricks. The big bad wolf was truely big and bad ... he also goes by Sam on facebook. Not to go into all the details, but the story ends with Pipsy having a sever pride problem and all but calling his brothers complete morons for building substandard housing and leting that Big bad wolf blow their houses down like that. When Sam comes to the door (AKA big bad wolf) and when Pipsy finds out it was his facebook buddy whom he wanted to meet and without thinking excitedly opens the door, he finds out that he just let the big bad wolf right in his house. Ipsy and Lipsy were playing card and Sam goes on to explain that he just wanted someone to play cards with and, since he has an anger problem, blew the houses down because he was offended that they wouldn't play with him. Anyway, that was the gist ... lots of fun and laughing ... even a couple of morals in there and we could talk about.

In the morning I went in and got some some "Dounettes". A bag of powder and a bag of chocolcate. The benefit of having a gas station as a hotel. So I come back to the van and Grace screams (followed by the rest of the clan). Awesome!! Daddy, can i have one. To which i said, of course sweety. She then said: "Daddy!! This is the best trip ever!! I am having so much fun" I thought wow ... you gotta be kidding me. I know that normally the nutritional content of Dounettes would prevent me from normally buying those, but best trip ever. haha. Snow every where, we are stranded and can't get back on the highway, it is cold, we are sleeping at a gas station, i was getting woken up every hour on the hour, taking Ian potty inside at 3 am, he then wanted to cuddle with daddy in the ever-so-huge-driver-side-area (he was cuddly and warm though) ... and this is fun. Yeah ... I guess it is fun, isn't it. Spending time with the family, daddy can't work, telling funny stories, eating dounettes, sharing memories that most other people won't have ... yeah this was a great time! Here are some more pics:

A beautiful morning. Snow outside and my beautiful wife. perfect.


You can see some of the caked ice on the road still.


one of the many cars still left.

a couple of semi trucks on the side of the road still.

This is great ... I was thinking "Wide Right Turn", but hey Wild Rigth Turn" works as well.

Still Happy!