The Journey is moving to a new church

   Hello Old Friends and New Friends,

   Life with God, like Abraham of old, calls for leaving a familiar place and going where God wants us to go. This is happening to me this summer. Not only and I recovering from surgery, but on July 1 of this year, I'll be assigned by the Bishop to North Bethesda United Methodist Church. When I accepted God's call into the ministry in the United Methodist Church, I agreed to go where the Bishop appoints me. Like many of my brothers and sisters in Scripture, we don't always know why, but we say as Jesus does, "Not my will, but thine be done."

   So to introduce myself to my new congregation, let me tell you a little about myself.

   I was born in Baltimore, and at 5 years of age, my father accepted an invitation to be a missionary in the Belgian Congo. So we moved to Brussels to learn the language and to prepare for the mission field. We served in Kindu in central Congo and returned for a second assignment to Elizabethville n southern Congo. We had to be evacuated because of a war, and returned to the USA in February of 1962 as refugees, with only the clothes we could bring in a suitcase. But God provides, and soon many individuals and churches helped us with housing, and clothes and the household needs. I've learned early on that God takes care of us, especially when we are doing what God wants us to do.

   I made the decision to follow Christ at a Young Life retreat when I was 17. That was followed by an invitation given by E. Stanley Jones to enter the full time ministry. He was preaching at Chevy Chase UMC when I accepted that call. I prepared for the ministry at Western Maryland College in Westminster, now known as Mc Daniel, in the area of Sociology. I attended Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, specializing in worship, including serving as the chair of the worship committee.

   I've served three rural churches along the Pennsylvania line, an inner city church in Baltimore, that my grandmother was a member of. I served a suburban church, and then Ashton UMC. I spent a couple of years at the University UMC in College Park, and the last seven years at Liberty Grove in Burtonsville. I am looking forward to coming to North Bethesda, just down the street from where I went to High School.

   Elaine and I have been married for 15 years. We met on the internet in a Christian Matchmakers site. We have some interesting stories to tell. We were both divorced and I knew finding the right person was going to be tricky. I have two sons from my first marriage, and the oldest and his wife gave us a grandson, who turns seven this summer. Grandchildren are awesome. Elaine has been a real blessing in my life, and I am truly grateful for her love and support.

   I hope this blog can be a way for us to get to know one another. You fill find links to youtube sermons so you can become familiar with my preaching style. I hope this can be an avenue for your questions that might help you get to know me even better. I'll write about once a week to continue to share my story.

   May God bless our journey of faith together.

Pastor Jeff

Recovering from Surgery

   Hello travelers in faith. Thank you for your prayers for healing and support, keep them going.

   Healing after surgery is a unique experience for each person, and I am now experiencing my own recovery. The external wounds created for the robotic surgery are healing up nicely, and the pain and discomfort related to those wounds is minimal, Thank God.

   The bodily adjustments to the recovery however, seem to be on their own path all together. I am not a very patient person when it comes to me. I can have patience for others, but wanting me to be complete recovered is going to take longer than I had thought or have the patience for just yet. That's where God comes in asking us to wait upon the Lord to renew our strength. (Isa 40: 30-31) Oh how I wish I were already flying on Eagle's wings.

   But God knows I also need a time out from the other parts of life to be healed and to be prepared for the next stage in my spiritual and ministerial  life. God knows that will take some doing and now I am beginning to see how God will do that. I am waiting and resting and becoming aware in a big way, how much we take for granted and don't even think about.

   Speaking of taking for granted, my wife Elaine has been fantastic through all of this. She is a supreme example of a wonderfully loving wife and a practicer of the art of nursing. She is also juggling a new job and the relationship to that responsibility and at the same time getting her mother adjusted to a new care facility and all the applications that requires. She is a real super trooper, thank God. I know neither of us would want this right now, but God doesn't give us more than we can handle, we just don't think we can handle all that much, and so we get the other half of this equation, that we won't have trouble that God isn't able to help us with. In this case a little of us, a lot of God.

   I'm trying not to overdue anything so I'll let this go for now. Thank you all again for such great support, understanding, love and encouragement. Thanks to for your prayers, now you can direct them for Elaine and for me in recovery.

Blessings

Pastor Jeff