Christmas With The Triplets

Everyone should experience the holidays with two year old triplets. It's one I will never forget. My brother, David, and his wife, Dana, came to visit us from Florida with their 5 yr. old, Daelyn and their 2 yr. old triplets, Cameron, Carson, and Rachael. Christmas was rather quiet in comparison until the family showed up in their 30 ft. RV the day after Christmas. The next four days their never-ending instructions filling the air like: "stop that", "leave your sister alone", "come 'ere, come 'ere...", "don't grab the kitty", "get down from there", "give her that toy back", and "who's that smell coming from?" Our days were filled with trips to the National Zoo, Lincoln Memorial, and National Christmas Tree in Washington D.C., and Fun Land in Fredericksburg. At night when the kids finally went to bed we were all too tired to do much else but go to bed ourselves. But what fun it was and I'm so glad they came!

When I think about my little nieces and nephews I am reminded how much I sometimes act like a 2 years old in my walk with Christ. I sometimes have to be told the same thing over and over by the Lord before I finally obey. I'm not always friendly and I don't always like to share. When I've done wrong I'd rather go hide. I can be good at telling God about other's faults. I can really make a mess sometimes. But, unlike earthly parents, who, because of their humanity can become a little stressed and impatient sometimes with their children, my heavenly Father never looses patience with me His child. Father's grace is inexaustible. Father's mercy is unending. I feel undeserving when I make a mess of things, yet Father reminds me everyday that I am His.

"The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love...he does not treat us as our sins deserve...as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." Psalm 103: 8-10, 13-14

Duane

In Awe of God

I have a few reasons to be in awe of God today. Even though I don't understand everything He's doing (or what I may feel He's not doing), He still amazes me with His goodness to me and my family. He's good to me even when I'm not feeling or acting good towards Him. That's His grace...and it still amazes me. Here are a few of the ways God has been good to me: 1) Both my daughters are home for the holidays...Becca from Liberty University in Lynchburg and Aleese drove all night from YWAM Orlando with a friend she dropped off in Richmond. 2) Two ladies showed up at our house this week with about a dozen bags of groceries...they said the Lord had laid it on their hearts to give is the food...wow! 3) Another lady from the town of Orange (about 20 minutes from Culpeper) invited Mechelle to come to her consignment shop. She then let Mechelle pick out clothes for herself and Bryce and then gave them all to us free...wow! 4) Mechelle and I celebrated our 24th anniversary on the 20th...we celebrated with hot, juicy burgers at Five Guys. 5) Someone gave us a $100 gift card to Walmart...left it in a Gideon's New Testament in our mailbox. 6) PACE (our homeschool group) gave us a $50 gift card to Wallyworld (Walmart). 7) Gifts came in totalling $250 towards our Community Project. My family handed out over 400 roles of scotch tape this weekend in our community. 8) Our neighbors went to church with us and then we hung out together afterwards.

So, like David, I "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever" Psalm 136:1.

Duane

How Did I End Up Here?

Sitting in a 6th grade Agriculture class as a substitute teacher today, I found myself asking the question, "How did I end up here?" I asked myself that same question last week as I was putting up stock for the Sears that I'm working for part-time. Sometimes the path towards the vision that God gives is different than what you expect. But its the path that God lays out to take us to the exact place where He wants. And here's the cool thing...even though it may not be what you expected...God always suprises. Let me give you an example. Sunday afternoon I was working at Sears (I'm working there until Mosaic starts meeting) and the first guy who walks in buys a freezer from me for his house. We chatted and I commented about how I knew some people with his last name in Florida. I helped him load it into his truck and away he went. I thought I'd never see the guy again. This morning (Monday) I walked into F.T. Binns Middle School and I'm escorted to my classroom by one of the staff. She's fairly new to the school and has to search for my class and then she accidently unlocks the wrong door. My door was right next to the one she unlocked. As we went into my class a gentleman walks out of the class next door to see who unlocked his door. He looks at me and says, "You look really familiar, do you work anywhere else?" I said, "Yes, I work at Sears." He said, "I thought so, you sold me a freezer yesterday." What a suprise! Later on as we were walking down the hall I got to tell him why God had brought me to Culpeper. Is that amazing or what?!

So, how did I end up here? God wanted me here to meet that guy. Who knows what God will do with the seed I planted. So, be faithful wherever you are and wherever He's taking you. You'll end I right where you're supposed to be.

Duane

Around The Bend

"Lord I don't know where all this is going or how it all works out. Give me a peace that's past understanding. A peace that has no doubt." Those are the words to a song by the Newsboys that God used to speak to me. This journey of faith that we're on has twists and turns and bends that are impossible to see around. We're asked to trust. And that's not easy. Sometimes things don't turn out like we imagined or pictured it in our minds. That's when I have to remind myself that the journey is about God bringing me in line with His plans not Him into mine. I was informed today that we would not be able to lease the Culpeper 4 Theater as the place where we could meet for worship. That was a real let down. I really wanted that venue to be the place where we met as Mosaic Church. That, plus the struggle financially and the fact that our house hasn't sold yet in Florida, has really challenged my faith...my trust in God. Obviously God has different plans than I had for where Mosaic will meet...I'm content with that. His ways are always better, yet they're not always clear from the beginning. But, He knows where all this is going and how it all works out. I choose to trust.

Duane

The Substitute

Remember when you were in school and you walked into class and discovered you had a substitute? Remember the things you would try to get away with? Well, today those days came back to haunt me because today I was the substitute. Another way for me to get out into the community and to help us out financially right now is to substitute teach in the Cupeper County School System. So, today I got my first call...freshmen learning disabled English. It definitely was a challenge to work with the few who had disabilites, but most were just lazy and didn't want to do any work. The High School schedule is divided into 4, 1and1/2 hr. blocks. One of those blocks was a teacher planning period with no class. As I sat in one of the teacher's lounges with all that time on my hands I pulled out my Bible and began to read. Needless to say, I got some pretty strange looks, but everyone was friendly. During lunch I went into the lounge where there were seven teachers eating lunch around a table. I pulled up a chair and made small talk. They were friendly, for the most part, but by their conversations none of them seemed to be Christ-followers. Someone has said to me, "Why start another church when there are already so many?" Well, just go to the nearest school...sit in a class...sit in a teacher's lounge...then you'll understand why we need another church. There's a lot of friendly people here, but friendly people can still miss heaven and end up in hell. Pray for us as we try to make it hard to go to hell from Culpeper. Help us financially. We need your support!

Duane

Puttin' Up The Christmas Lights

It's that time again. Time to drag out the Christmas lights. This is my job. Mechelle decorates the inside of the house. I do the outside. The lights we brought from Florida fit that house perfectly. My challenge this year is to figure out how to put up the lights on a new house. My friend and boss from Sears, John, let me borrow his extention ladder. I've never had to put lights on a two story house. Well, the challenge was met and the house looks pretty good...if I do say so myself.

This reminds me of something I read this morning in Luke 11. One of the challenges of being a Christ-follower is being authentic...being real and honest about our struggles. The opposite of authenticity is hypocrisy. That's one of the things that Jesus challenged the Pharisees about...their hypocrisy. They looked pretty good on the outside, but on the inside Jesus said they were like a graveyard. I'm not saying our house looked bad on the inside...Mechelle's done a great job, but you get my point. Our lives can look pretty good on the outside, just like my house. But on the inside we can have sins, struggles, doubts, secret addictions, that we don't won't anyone else to know about. Oh, we look like we've got it all together, but... Our challenge as Christ-followers is to be real, honest, authentic. The book of James in the New Testament tells us to confess our sins to each other. Now that's being real. People need to see how Christ is helping you with your "stuff". The world is hungry for authenticity. Its had enough of the other.

Duane

Thanksgiving With The Neighbor

Thanksgiving morning started off with our tradition of enjoying Mechelle's homemade Monkey Bread. Yum! After breakfast we started a new tradition. Here in Virginia there are Christmas tree farms all around. So instead of buying our tree from the Lions Club in the park in Okeechobee like we've done the last 10 years, we decided to go to the Glen Gary Tree Farm to cut our own fresh tree. When we got back to the house our neighbors were outside with friends they had invited over, but we noticed our neighbor across the street was by herself. Miss Lucy is in her eighties and was out bagging the leaves in her yard for her garden. While Becca and I took the tree in the house, Mechelle and Bryce walked across the street and invited Miss Lucy to have Thanksgiving Dinner with us. A few hours later, Joel, Dana, and the kids came over, then over came Miss Lucy. As we sat and talked with Miss Lucy while the turkey was frying, we learned a lot about her past. She grew up in a convent, had two husbands who both had passed away, and had three children who seldom came around. She had lived in the same house here in Culpeper for 25 years and had seen a lot of changes. Suprisingly she told us that when she lived in the convent she knew God but she didn't know Jesus. But the most suprising thing she told us was that in 25 years of living in the same house on the same street we were the first to invite her over for a meal. Imagine that! Someone could live in the same home for years and no one reach out to them. But, sadly that's the way it is for many. We felt honored to have Miss Lucy sit down at our table and share Thanksgiving with us.

Thanks to all of you who have been a part of sending us to reach the Miss Lucy's of Culpeper.

Duane

Workin' In The "Real" World

It's been a long time since I had what some people call a "real" job. But I have to admit I haven't stood on my feet for eight hours straight in many years. Yet, I'm kinda enjoying being a bi-vocational pastor for the time being. One of the challenges of being a full-time pastor is that you can sometimes isolate yourself from people outside of "church". So its been fun to work again outside of the walls of the church building. Each day I meet new people from our community and I've made some new friends with my fellow employees at Sears. On the way to work these last 5 days I have prayed that Christ would live His life through me as I work...that I would be a good employee...that I would be kind to everyone, even the one employee that the others can't seem to get along with. I also pray that Christ will show me ways to share Him with the people I come in contact with...even if it's just through an act of kindness.

"Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

Duane

A ride in the country

This morning I went to Substitute Teacher Orientation at the Culpeper County School Board building. I sat in a conference room with about 25 other people who were being taught along with me about the "do's" and "don'ts" of being a good "sub". Now that's some exciting stuff! I met some interesting people, some of which I'm sure I'll see in the halls and classrooms of Culpeper's schools. Some of the people I met were confident, others were nervous and a little unsure of themselves. But everyone is looking to make some income and to help better their financial situation in life. People from all walks of life. Some retired teachers and some who hadn't been out of high school for too many years. But all were looking to better their situation and maybe to make a difference in the classroom also.

This scene reminded me that everyone wants to better their situation financially, but unless Christ betters our situation its all futile...vanity...a chasing after the wind. When Christ forgives us and gives us His life to live through us, then life has meaning and hope.

After sub orientation, Mechelle and I took Bryce to his art class which takes place at a home in Reva which is about 10 miles out in the country. After we dropped him off, we turned right out their driveway and just started to drive to see where the road would take us. The scenery was amazing. Mountains off in the distance...rolling hills and valleys filled with all the colors of autumn leaves...something we missed living in Florida. There is something peaceful about a ride in the country. It turns my thoughts to God and ignites my imagination as to what heaven might be like. I know it will be a place of peace and beauty...maybe just like our ride in the country. So lets take as many people with us, because as I read in Hebrews 8 this morning, "He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he ever lives to intercede for us."

PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for me as I start a job working at Sears tomorrow. I definitley will be bi-vocational until Mosaic Church gets going and is able to support us. The owner of Sears is a great Christian guy who we met through our homeschool organization. I will also begin substitute teaching by the end of this month.

Pray for Joel. He's trying to get another job working as a police dispatcher for Fairfax County. It's a job that pays really well and will really help out their financial situation. He needs this job...so pray!

Pray for Mechelle as she begins taking on-line classes to become a Medical Transcriptionist. A great job for a home-schooling, stay-at-home mom.

Pray for wisdom on what the next steps are for Mosaic Church.

I want to do, as my dear friend Scott Brown told me recently, "God's thing, God's way." Not "my thing, my way" and not even "God's thing, my way"...but, "God's thing, God's way!"

Making it hard to go to hell from Culpeper!
Duane

You Just Never Know

Everyday is an adventure, because you just never know what God is going to do. He is always working behind the scenes where we don't see and then He shows up when we don't expect Him. What a cool God we serve! I have been praying for God to continue to make Himself known to me and to help me to trust Him more.

Today, I was reading in 2 Kings 19 about how Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and his people were trapped. There was no way out. All looked hopeless. The king of Assyria had brought his mighty armies against Judah. Assyria had destoyed all of the surrounding nations and was about to descend upon Judah. The king sent a representative to demand that Hezekiah surrender or be destroyed. Hezekiah went to the temple and laid it before the Lord. God spoke to Hezekiah through His prophet Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied that Sennacherib (king of Assyria) and his armies would be destroyed, and that is exactly what happened.

But, the most amazing thing to me, was what God said through Isaiah. He said (talking about Assyria and what they had done and all the nations they had destroyed up to that point), "Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass" (2 Kings 19:25).

Did you get that? God had brought Assyria to Judah's gates. God had planned it! Sennacherib just thought He was in charge. Why did God bring Assyria to come against Judah? Maybe one reason is so that Hezekiah would have no other recourse that to trust His God...the only true and living God.

Why does stuff happen in our lives? Maybe God just wants us to trust Him and realize that He IS in charge. He's got it all worked out...planned out...ordained...and He will bring it to pass!

You just never know what God is going to do. Today, Mechelle and I walked into The Raven's Nest Coffee House here in Culpeper. Gordon, a member of Culpeper United Methodist Church was standing at the counter and we were greeted by Jessica the owner. She began to tell us that several people had asked here about the informational meeting we are having at her place this Thursday night. Then she gave me a business card that a lawyer from Richmond had left wanting me to contact him about Mosaic Church.

At first I was kinda nervous wandering why a lawyer would want me to call him. But Jessica said it was cool. He wanted to find out more about Mosaic. So I gave Him a call. His name is J.C. He said He was a Christ-follower first and a lawyer second. He had been in Culpeper to represent a young lady whose dad was a pastor but she had got into some trouble. Before going to court, he had been praying about what to say to this girl, being a Christian, and how he could get her some help here locally. He said that he was walking by a building and saw our flyer advertising our meeting. He liked what he read, so he wrote down the information and after the court appearance he prayed with the young lady and then encouraged her to come to our meeting and check us out.
He also met another young lady who worked at one of the resturants downtown and encouraged her to come check out Mosaic Church.

God is using a guy I have never met to bring people to Mosaic. Isn't God amazing! He's coming back to Culpeper on the 16th, and we're getting together to share the vision of Mosaic Church.

You just never know!

Duane

Looking For The Right People

I know God is already working behind the scenes preparing the right people to join our launch team for Mosaic Church. In order to connect with those people we are having an informational meeting next Thursday, Nov. 8, at The Raven's Nest Coffee House in historic downtown Culpeper. We don't want people who don't share our vision to be a part of this team so we are trying to weed out those who have a different idea about launching a new church than we do.

One of the ways we are doing this is by our advertisements on flyers and in the newspapers. We hope to create a stir in the community...which is good advertising. We might even make a few "Christians" upset. That's okay. We're not trying to reach them anyway. God sent us here to reach the lost...the unchurched of Culpeper. Here's how our ad reads:

"Are you gifted, talented and willing to do whatever it takes to change the face of church as we know it? We want you! We want people just like us to help change what church has been to what it can become. We despise judgmental attitudes, gossiping know-it-all's, and well-dressed better than you pew sitters. We are starting a church for those who do not go to church for whatever reason. We believe you're out there just waiting for an opportunity to be a part of something from the ground up. If God is moving you to be a key player in this new work please join us at THE RAVEN'S NEST COFFEE HOUSE, Thursday, November 8, at 7:00pm for an informational meeting about MOSAIC CHURCH."

Pretty edgy, I know...but we are looking for the right people God is preparing who share our vision of a "Come as you are" church. A church passionate about reaching this postmodern culture of today.

Pray for us...pray that the word will get out...pray that the one's God is preparing will come.

If you would like to invest in God's kingdom...we are looking for financial partners. It takes money to start a new church. There is nothing greater that you could invest your money in than the kingdom of God! 100% return! How much is a changed life worth?

Let us know if you would like to partner with us.

Duane

Pumpkin Carving Party

A couple of years ago, Mechelle came up with a great idea to help us get to know our neighbors. She organized a pumpkin carving party. It was always a lot of fun. This year she wanted to continue the tradition so we invited the neighbors over last Saturday night. Both our neighbors and their kids came over along with Dana, Melody and Micah (Joel had to work). There were twelve of us down in our basement were we had put up lights and decorated. We carved pumpkins, ate chili and Mechelle's famous apple slices and toffee. We also homemade pumpkin ice cream. At the end we put candles in the pumpkins, turned off the lights and had a great time admiring all our creations. We gave away prize for the best. Everybody had a great time. Its just another way we are trying to reach out to our neighbors and be good friends to them.

One thing we are passionate about here in Culpeper is that we are not just going to "go" to church or even just "start" a church, but we want to "be" the church. Not a building but Christ's body reaching out to this lost world.

Don't just "go" to church, "be" the church!

Duane

Our First 25 Days

It's hard to believe that it's been 25 days since we rolled into town. A lot has happened in 25 days. Joel and Dana met us here to help us unload. I've never had to lug furniture UPSTAIRS before! That was a new experience. I've always wanted a house with an upstairs and God has provided it. God is so good! We have a full basement, so really we have a 3 story house. More than I ever imagined. The first guy I met in Culpeper was a guy named Walter. He came walking up from the park behind our house and started talking to Joel and I. I offered him some cash and he helped us unload the U-haul. The first week we spent unpacking boxes and setting up the house. The first few days were rough for Mechelle...looking at all those boxes and missing her home and friends back home. But, once we got it all together she felt better.



The second day we were here Mechelle met some ladies down in the park and found out about a Cub Scout Pack down the street from our house, so Bryce is in Pack 198. We didn't have internet access at our house the first week so I went to a coffee shop in downtown Culpeper called The Raven's Nest Coffee House. Everyday I would go in there and I've gotten to know the owner Jessica. She's a single mom with two teenagers who opened this coffee shop in June. She's very interested in the church we are planting and has even offered her shop to us to have our first informational meeting on Thursday night, November 8th. Pray that she will see Jesus in us as He lives out through our lives.



We are busy building friendships with our neighbors. Dave and Tracey live next door and have two daughters, Sebrina and Kylie. Jeff and Jennifer live two doors down and have two sons Jess and Jason. Mechelle walks with Tracey in the mornings in the park behind the house and I played golf with Dave this week. We had dinner with Jeff and Jennifer last week and just hung out and talked for a couple of hours. We are having them over this Saturday for a Pumpkin Carving Party in our basement. Pray that we will be good friends and have opportunities to talk with them about their need for Jesus.



Here's what's happening with Mosaic Church: We are in the process of securing the Culpeper 4 Theater as our meeting place. Pray that we will get a contract on it soon. We have a web-designer working on our web-site. We hope to have it up and running by next month. The cost of designing and hosting the web-site is $625. We are getting our Incorporation and Tax I.D. at a cost of $225. We have another guy designing our church logo and business cards for $500. So, as you can see we have some intitial expenses. If you would like to invest in God's kingdom, we'd love to hear from you to help us with these and other expenses.



Our new address is 102 S. Blue Ridge Ave., Culpeper, VA, 22701.



Our home phone is 504-825-9886.



Making it hard to go to hell from Culpeper!



Duane