Recent Happenings
The past couple of weeks have been exciting and adventure filled to say the least. It all started on the 12th of this month when over a dozen people from our church plant here in Tampa made the trek to Richmond, Virginia, for the 1st Aletheia Network Conference. What an incredible time the Conference was as four of the five Aletheia Churches (Mark and Abby couldn’t make it because they were having baby Rachel) gathered together in one location, to worship Jesus and to Reflect on what God has done over the past 9 years and look ahead to what He’s going to do in the future. The Aletheia bands from each of our churches led the worship times and the pastors led the teaching times. It was an incredible 3 days full of unity, like-mindedness, strategic discussions, and vision casting for the future. The 125 that attended really got a sense for where Aletheia has come, where it is now, and where God wants us to go in the next 5-10-20 years. Here are a couple pics from the weekend…
We returned from Virginia on Saturday night the 15th, and the next morning, we decided it would be a good time to launch the Aletheia Tampa morning service. I know, we like to keep it interesting. So on Sunday morning the 16th, we got up early, headed to our new location (the BCM building on the north east edge of USF’s campus). Our team of volunteers worked furiously to get the building ready and when it was all said and done, the place was totally transformed. I am blown away by the team that God has assembled here in Tampa. They worked so hard and did an incredible job making our new facility absolutely amazing to worship God in. A nice group of people showed up even though it is officially summer now and we had a great time worshiping God and beginning the next phase of our ministry.
After our Sunday morning launch, it was time for Ashlee and I to get away and celebrate 5 years of marriage. And get away is exactly what we did. Savannah, Georgia beckoned us and we had an incredible few days of seeing the historic sights, eating a lot of ice cream, and turning our ministry brains off for a few days. Asher joined us for the trip and Drew spent the week with Nana and Papa. I still can’t believe I’ve been married to Ashlee for only 5 years. Sometimes it feels like so much longer because during that time we’ve…
1. Been pregnant FOUR times.
2. Lost two children.
3. Taken about 25 plane trips to places like Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, California, and Georgia.
4. Moved 750 miles away from home.
5. Helped to start 2 churches (Richmond and Tampa)
6. Gone through many hair-do’s (see the pic below)
7. Potty-trained one child (this might be our biggest accomplishment to date)
It’s been a crazy ride, a tough ride, a challenging ride, and a fun ride all at the same time. I love my wife.
