We thought that using some new technology we recently acquired would give you a more enhanced view of our experience. This is our first try at it, so please be gracious! The video clip is me coming into Las Vegas after my drive from St. Louis. Before then, this is what happened. Annette, our four kids, and Angie Glassmeyer got onto an airplane in St. Louis last Friday. It was a little stressful getting them on the airplane, and then Annette's worst fear (and mine) was imagined. After getting settled onto the airplane, a terrible storm swept across St. Louis. The plane lost power and sat on the runway for an hour and a half (with everybody still on board)! Not a good way to start a potentially stressful trip. By God's grace, they reached Las Vegas and settled into the condo where we are staying until Sept. 3rd (and hopefully longer depending on negotiations that are taking place). The condo provides us with a place to stay that is rent/utility free and is a tremendous provision from the Lord. Getting back to the road trip, while the family was flying, I loaded up our van (in the midst of that terrible storm). First the wind storm came that blew around dirt like a really bad sandstorm. Then the rain came a tumbling down! It was like somebody didn't want us leaving to go to Las Vegas (Hmmmm). Thankfully, with the help of two friends, the van was loaded up before it got too bad. Then I jumped in the van and began the official "Trip to Las Vegas Tour 2007". I video taped my trip at various places across the country. I left Friday afternoon (around 3:30 pm) and arrived safely in Las Vegas Saturday evening (around 11:00 pm). If you want to see a video of my road trip, I could send you a CD in the mail. It is sort of funny, in a quirky type of way. It was so good to reunite with the family and begin to get settled into our temporary home. We enrolled Micah in a Christian School and he began classes yesterday. So here we are, finally in Las Vegas, excited to be here, a little tired, and thankful to the Lord for a relatively smooth transition. Before we left last Friday, we were notified that we received approximately $40,000 in pledges for the week. This was really encouraging to hear as we were leaving St. Louis (home for the past three years) and going to make a new home in the Southwest. Please continue to pray for our transition, fundraising, sale of my parents home (they had two lookers in the past week) and their health, that we could stay in the condo for the next couple of months, Micah would feel adjusted to his new school, productive study for ordination exams, and provision for our living expenses during the month of September. Please especially pray for Caleb's eye (his tear duct appears to be clogged). Thank you so much for praying and caring for us! Let us know what you think of the video as well! I was filming this at about 80 mph, so the next one will be a lot better! Stay tuned!!

We are headed to Vegas!

The Lord answered many prayers this week! Caleb our new baby boy is doing great! He is doing so great we have decided to make our transition to Las Vegas! We were scheduled to be out of our current home this coming Friday as the family is returning from their summer internship. Annette, our four children, and Angie Glassmeyer (the wife of Philip, the lead church planter of this work) will be flying out around 2:30 pm this coming Friday. We are amazed how the Lord worked out these details and provided a seemingly smooth living transition. Please be praying for all the aspects of this trip. Pray that it would be a lot of fun for everybody and that Caleb would be protected from any germs and sickness. We are so thankful that Angie agreed to help Annette! Praise the Lord for her love for her and our family. As I was talking with a particular donor about our travel arrangements, he offered to pay for all six tickets! Praise the Lord with us for this provision and this donor's love and care for our family. Getting tickets three days before a flight can be expensive, but praise the Lord that we found really good prices! We are so excited to finally get to Vegas! I will be driving our van to Vegas after I drop the family off at the airport on Friday. It is around a 23 hour car ride, so please pray for my safety and no break downs. I want to get to Vegas as legally fast as possible to be with Annette and the kids. A fully funished and equipped condo has been provided for us by a donor as well. We will be able to stay there for at least the next couple of weeks and possibly the next couple of months. All of the expenses including rent, utilities, and ammenities have been provided for as well. This is such a blessing for many reasons. It will allow us to focus on fundraising without having as great a financial burden. We will also be able to keep our belongings in storage and not have to move them more than once. Praise the Lord with us for this gracious provision! Please pray that the details would be worked out that we could stay there for the next several months. Would you please pray for us to make good decisions regarding temporary health care as well? Please pray for my teammate Philip, who is taking his final two ordination test as we speak and will stand for ordination on Sept. 22nd. This is a key undertaking for our work to proceed, so please pray for a successful ordination examination for him. Please also continue to pray for our fundraising. We are happy to report that we have crossed the $100,000 mark in pledges. We only have six more of them to go (our total goal is around $700,000). If you are still thinking and praying through this, I thought this update might be helpful. We have a few key churches that are meeting this week. Please pray for them to decide to support this work in Las Vegas. Thank you so much for your care and love for us by your praying regularly. The next time you get an update from us, we will hopefully be in Las Vegas! Rejoice with us!!

Rejoice with Us!

Many of you all have heard by now that Caleb was born August 15th at 2:50 am! He was 7lbs. 3 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long. We are so happy and thankful to the Lord for such a remarkable labor and delivery. Annette literary did not have to push for Caleb to come out. It was one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen. The dude was cooperative. Thank you for all your prayers! Caleb was having some breathing difficulties and I wanted to update you specifically on these concerns. Apparently, the doctors believe that because Annette didn't have to push, Caleb had more amniotic fluid in his lungs than normal (I guess when the momma pushes, this helps the baby to lose fluid in their lungs). So it took a little extra while for the fluid to come out of Caleb lungs. He is now "fluid free" and breathing like a champ! We are so thankful that it wasn't anything more complicated and rejoiced at the news that both Annette and Caleb will be released from the hospital tomorrow! I put some pictures up on this blog (scroll down), so please rejoice with us of the birth of Caleb (we haven't decided on the middle name yet) Phillips, child of the covenant!

New Addition Coming Soon!

No, this isn't our new baby. This is Joshua after he was born. But I thought I would get the blog ready with baby pictures, because that is what you can expect after Tuesday, August 14, 2007. Annette will be induced tomorrow! We will make sure to put up some pictures for you to view of our new baby. Please pray for a safe (and quick) delivery for both mommy and baby. We are excited to welcome our fourth addition to our family! So stay tuned! Now for a quick update on everything else. We are hoping to make a smooth (whatever that word means) transition to Las Vegas in the next two weeks. The home where we are staying will be re-occupied by its owner on August 25th, so we need to be out on the 24th. Please pray for housing to open up in Las Vegas so we do not have to make an extra transition to another dwelling. Micah is scheduled to begin school on August 27th, so if our housing opened up at that time that would work out really great. We grow more and more excited to land in Las Vegas! On the fundraising front, things seem to be going slow with pledge cards coming in as of late. That is the nature of summer though, so we are still encouraged. We have almost broken the $100,000 barrier in pledges, and this is extremely encouraging! We have a lot of people and churches making decisions in late August and September, so please be praying that the Lord would move in their hearts to join this mission to North Las Vegas. My parents are hanging in there and still have their home on the market to be sold. Housing market is not good for that right now, so please pray for their house to sell in the right time. For a few good reasons, I have elected to put off going through ordination until January of next year. I will be coming under care of Pacific Presbytery at their next meeting in September (they asked me to do this first then go through ordination at the next scheduled meeting in January). This works out a lot better for me and our family. With all the transition going on, I found it difficult to effectively study anyway. This slight delay in the ordination process has yielded some great family time at a local waterpark (its been really hot in St. Louis). This has helped both the kids and Annette tremendously! So here we stand, asking the Lord to provide a healthy and safe delivery and baby, depending upon the Lord to open up a place for us to live in Las Vegas, trusting him to provide for our financial needs, hoping that he will work out all the details with my folks, and asking him to help me study for ordination exams. We are also joyful that he has blessed us with another child, thankful that he seems to be working to open up a home for us free from financial burdens for the next four or so months, trusting his promises to provide everything we need according to his glorious riches, confident that he will work out all the details with my folks at the right time, and glad he has been preparing me well for these ordination trials for the past three years. We would not want to be in any other place! Please join us in praying, because that has been the cause of our faith sustaining during this time of transition. Prayer makes the difference!

Frog Hopper?

Fundraising is like being on the Frog Hopper (the amusement park ride you see in the picture). This particular thrill ride goes up and down at any moment. It leaves feelings in your stomach that you would not normally experience. You cannot even tell if they are good or bad...they just are. That is how this last week has been for us, like being on the Frog Hopper. One minute we have an overwhelming sense of insecurity, the other minute an unbelievable sense of thrill. I have been reading through the first five books of the bible, and have been considering the exodus of the people of God out of the land of Egypt where they were slaves. The LORD brought them out of Egypt after displaying his power to Pharaoh via the plagues. Then in a great display of the LORD's power through the parting of a sea, the people of God must have been absolutely thrilled. Then as they travelled through the desert day after day, month after month, year after year, there was an overwhelming sense of insecurity. They began to complain and actually considered that it might be better for them to return to their slavery than trust in their LORD who had delivered them. I relate all to well with these people. We have seen the LORD do some pretty amazing things over the past two months, and even so I find myself at times wondering if it would be better to return back to the things that I have found myself enslaved too in the past (things like control, security, pride, and many others). Why would I do that? Because I am weak, sinful, and lack faith. The LORD is the only one that can love me the way I need to be loved. I am convinced of that and need not look any further than the time Jesus entered the desert. After being baptized by John, Jesus entered the desert and fasted for 40 days. Then he was tempted by the devil but resisted as he clinged to the law that brought him freedom to express his true humanity. Insecurity is a powerful feeling that should drive us to cling to the one true God, not embrace false gods that bring bondage. Would you pray for us? Pray that as we ride the Frog Hopper of life, that we would do it like our kids did in the picture. Happy, thrilled, joyful, at peace, and wanting to do it more! You could also pray for those things I listed last week as well (fundraising needs, safe delivery for mom and baby, parents health and the selling of their home at the perfect time, and fruitful study for ordination exams).