Quarterly Update - Q4 2011

Hi all,

It's been another busy quarter for us but we're loving life and are looking forward to 2012, 2011 has been a great year on the whole!

Ministry
It's hard to believe I've already been at Bracken for six months! There's been so much in this last quarter, the Pumpkin Patch and the Fall Festival were both very successful events that were well attended by the community and I enjoyed getting to speak to lots of people. There have been some communication issues in my ministry that came to light this quarter but after some prayer, thinking and some help from a fellow member of staff who pitched in some ideas they came round well, it was painful for a while and looking back on my mistakes still hurts but it's good to have learned from them. I find that I'm enjoying the Children's Ministry side of the job more than I think I thought I would, even if some days I'm not feeling up to it the kids just give me the energy to kick on and do a good job, and I feed off that energy all day. Things are going well, the youth group on Sunday evening has gotten too big to run as a Bible Study so we're switching to a talk format as 2012 begins and the Midweek Children's Ministry has been successful, they're now going to meet every week instead of every second week, they've been learning the ten commandments and they're doing a great job.
Prayer:
Pray for me that I would faithfully teach the word of God, that I would make spiritual growth my priority.
Pray for my relationships with parents, kids and youth that they would continue to grow.
Pray for all the members of our groups that they would grow in knowledge and understanding of God.

Family
Channing and I have moved in to the Parsonage, so we now live on the church property which has greatly shortened my commute, it's much bigger than we need but it allows us to have guests which is neat, we've already had Channing's Mother stay with us. We also have an addition to the family, we got a puppy a rat terrier that we have named d'Artagnan. He follows me on my interval runs (the church property is big enough to run intervals around) and he's good fun even if we're still trying to train him.
Pray:
That I would show Channing that I love her and be a good and loving husband.

Football/Soccer
This quarter saw two college tournaments come to town which kept me busy, I was able to pick up $200 covering the NCAA Division III tournament for two North East newspapers which was a nice boost. Things are picking up, media wise, I've become the soccer correspondent for the local Sports Magazine (which may be getting a TV Show) and I'm also going to get accreditation for both Texas MLS teams as a Texas correspondent for a Pacific North West website, that won't involve a whole lot of actual writing it's more a good way to get a season pass to both clubs.
Pray:
That I would put sport in the right place, not ahead of God & Wife
That the time I spend on this would be refreshing not a chore