Launch!

Disingenuous. That's how I usually feel about people who say "I didn't know it would be so...(insert whatever comes next)." Maybe it's because my brain never stops running ninety miles an hour and it plays out every scenario that could ever possibly happen, or at least that's how it feels. Whether that's the case or not, rarely have I ever followed through with a big decision and felt like, man, I really didn't know it would be like this, or feel like this. But standing in my home church on Sunday after my dad (our pastor, for those of you who don't know) asked me to come up and say a few words since that was our last service (at least for a while), it hit me. That moment of clarity in knowing that I wouldn't be around every service like I had been for almost twenty-four years now. For you to understand, I have to start at the beginning...

(If you're only interested in hearing an update on our travels, feel free to skip the next three paragraphs as I reminisce.)

Growing up, my parents taught and worked at Texas Bible College in Houston. When I was six years old, my parents felt the call of God to start a church in the Lake Conroe area. When God provides direction like that, faith filled action is always required on our part, and so without a job or any kind of steady income, my parents and my two brothers and I moved out to Montgomery to start a church. We ended up in a subdivision named Walden, mainly because at the time it was where we could find the most affordable house. Just getting a loan was a miracle in itself - when was the last time you financed a home with no current (paying) job, no income, and no money for a down payment? That just doesn't happen, but God wanted a church there, so He worked it out. We had services in the living room of our home for a whole year. The second service we had, our very first saints attended, and throughout that year, God drew people to our little church. As you can imagine, pastoring a church of ten or twenty people, five of which are you own family, isn't very lucrative, so Dad worked tirelessly in different ways to make ends meet. One such job brought him into contact with a local business owner, who graciously offered to lease us a space in his shopping center for three years rent free if we would just complete the build out. The next three years we worshipped in our shopping center building, proud that we had a place to call our own. But when the three years was up, rent was too high and we were headed back to the house. That lasted for a year, until we were fortunate to start sharing a building with another church whose service schedule was different than ours. For the next four years, we shared that space, until one of our saints found a mostly unused old church building on Longmire in Conroe, our current location. After renting for five years and doing a whole host of improvements, we were eventually able to buy that and have continued improving it into the beautiful building that it is today.

But why tell you all of that? Well, when you're involved in something like planting a church, it doesn't leave you. I could never separate the burden that I have for my church from who I am; it's ingrained in me. Watching the sacrifices my parents had to make throughout the years but seeing their faith and faithfulness, and watching God provide again and again and again, it bred an innate knowing that I could trust God, and a love for the work that my parents fostered and built. Over the past twenty-three years, I think I've probably attended more Sunday services at our church than even my parents have. Even through college, I drove home most Sundays to be in service (and to see Molly, of course!) I've done everything from greeter, usher, sound man, church cleaner, Sunday School teacher, bus driver, youth leader, worship leader, musician, praise singer, organizer, and probably many other things I'm forgetting. I've not only grown up in, but also with this church. Sure I've had my own spiritual ups and downs, but this church body has rejoiced with me through the victories and cried with me and for me in the defeats. I've been blessed with lifelong friendships here, with meeting my wife here, with dedicating my children to God here. So you can understand why saying goodbye was a little tough.

In that moment, standing in front of some of the most amazing people I know, many of those memories ran through my mind, and I thought...man, I didn't know it would be quite this hard to say goodbye. But even in saying goodbye, I knew this was right. There comes a time in each of our lives where we make definitive choices that ultimately shape who and what we become. I can't tell you that I know what God has in store for me and my family, but I do know that when He opens a door, you walk through it with your head down and hands ready to work.

So enough of that! Needless to say, Sunday was tough, but exciting at the same time. The last two weeks have felt like holding your breath, just waiting to exhale; knowing that we were finally starting our journey was a welcome relief, even though we didn't enjoy the leaving home part. After church we had one final dinner with Molly's parents since we had spend the past week with mine, then we headed up to their farm where we were keeping the RV. Since we had to pull out early, we went ahead and packed the whole trailer and hooked up to the truck. We rolled out about 8am on Monday morning headed for Lake Charles. We arrived there around 1:30pm. I needed to stop at a client's office, so fortunately the Treece's were kind enough to let me offload the trailer in their church parking lot for a couple of hours so I could maneuver through the city unencumbered. After a quick lunch, Molly and the kids dropped me off at the office and while they ran to Target (of course), I met with my client. Once she picked me back up, we were able to run over to Starbucks and grab some coffee with our friend Lauren Beckham before pulling back out. After re-hitching, we were back on the road headed to Livingston, LA, just outside of Baton Rouge. This was our first official stop! The last four days have been hectic, at least for me. I've been visiting clients around Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and Molly and the kids have been hecticly...visiting the pool. :-)

We attended church in Denham Springs last night, and it was refreshing hearing Bro Johnson preach and feeling the same Spirit of God that we feel in our home church. Today I took Molly and the kids with me and after I made a few client visits, we drove over to the French Quarter and had dinner at the Gumbo Shop, then beignets and coffee at Cafe du Monde, then some macarons at Sucre. Afterwards we drove the kids around some of the tamer parts of the city and looked at the beautiful architecture here, probably my favorite thing about NOLA, second only to the food.

As I sit here typing this, I know that not every week will be this good. I know we'll have some challenges along the way, get on each others nerves at some point, and probably run into some difficulties. But I'm reminded of the verse that simply says, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified...for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you."

~Jonathan