Kevin Riggs

Today was my first day at GCR. I did not lead worship, not yet. Today was, in the words of Ronnie White, "the passing of the torch." I had the rare chance to sing tenor on the team. That's not rare for others, but it's very rare for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It also let me know I am out of shape vocally. Leading a band has let me get lazy. The a capella world is much more demanding.

I am very impressed by what God has done in Kevin Riggs. Kevin has been the worship leader at Golf Course for the past three years. He took the mantle from Ken Young who led worship and directed Hallal Ministries for many years.

Kevin has done a fabulous job with the GCR worship team. He has transitioned it from the leadership of Ken into something very much his own. Following in Ken's footsteps would be hard for anyone, and Kevin has done it in a part-time status. My hat is off to him.

What impresses me even more is his humble attitude. That same attitude is reflected in his wife, Iris. Kevin recognized what few are able to do. In his words, the GCR worship ministry is going great but it needed to go to the next level. He felt like he could not do that in a part-time role. And he certainly was not going to give up the construction business that he owns. He came to that painful conclusion about the same time that I first sent out a mass email to my friends telling them I was looking for a job.

The day after I sent out that email, Kevin called me and laid everything on the line. He told me he needed to step down and asked if I was interested in taking his place. The rest is history. Not only did Kevin listen to that still, small voice of God, but he acted submissively... going as far as actively recruiting his replacement. And his attitude and behavior has continued to reflect that submissiveness.

I am honored to share the ministry with Kevin. He is truly a man of God.

Home is Where the Bus Is

That used to be one of our little pet phrases while on the road with Acappella... "home is where the bus is." Our bus has made a stop in Midland. Lord willing, we can just park the stupid thing and be done with it.

I write this on Thanksgiving night. Everyone has gone to bed but me, and I'm not far away. The past few days have been some of the most physically stressful and emotionally challenging days I've had yet. I will cover the whole moving episode in another post. For tonight, I thought it appropriate to stop and give thanks to the good Lord for all He's done. Especially all He's done in the past few weeks.

I'm thankful that....

• We made it to Midland in one piece, safe and sound.
• Our dogs have not run away and seem to be adjusting well.
• Our kids have not run away and seem to be adjusting well.
• We had lots of people show up to help us load and get things finished up in Corpus so we could leave (more info later).
• We had lots of people show up to help us unload here in Midland.
• We had a wonderful greeting awaiting us when we arrived in the form of a massive care package specifically designed for each of our tastes. Thanks Praise Team!
• Our house closed on time and we actually got a refund instead of having to pay cash.
• Ashley had a chance to meet some wonderful people and make some very good desserts.
  
• Nancy and April were available to drive our truck to Midland and stuck around for a few days for "vacation" (can you call helping us unpack vacation?).
• Thanksgiving meal today was fabulous. :)

There's much more to be thankful for and more stories to tell, but I am very tired. To all my friends in Corpus who are reading this, thank you for three great years. We will miss you all terribly. To all my new friends in Midland, thanks for the warm reception. I can't wait to meet all of you.

All because of Christ...

Midland or Bust

This should be my last post for a few days. We've been packing for weeks now and tonight is the night the computer goes back into the box. Tomorrow (Sunday) we load into the truck, and Monday we hit the road for Midland.

Tuesday morning we close on our new house. Tuesday afternoon Sherri has her interview for the new job. Tuesday evening Grande installs cable and Internet.

Wednesday morning I stay in bed until Thursday.

I should be back online by Thanksgiving. Keep us in your prayers. God bless... ~Gary

A Plethora of Boxes, God Stuff & MISD

We are getting very close to our moving day. We have boxes running out of ears. I found a place online that gives you great deals on boxes, so I ordered about 90 for about the price I would pay for 30 at U-Haul. It took 5 days for them to get here with free shipping. In those 5 days, friends have donated about 90 boxes. So we have a few extra. Okay, a ton extra. Better than not enough, I suppose.

Sherri got a call from MISD today. As I mentioned in an earlier post, she found a job she is interested in at Rusk Elementary. Normal procedure is to have a screening interview with the District people. If you pass that, you can interview with the principal of the job you're looking at. We set up a screening interview for Tuesday afternoon, the day we close on the house and move in. One of the administration people from Rusk called today and wanted her to interview at the school on Monday, before the screening. We obviously can't do that, since we aren't there yet. So they asked about Tuesday morning. We can't do that since we are at the bank closing. So they said to drive over to Rusk right after the screening interview downtown that afternoon.

I don't want to read anything into this, but it sure sounds to me like she's got a pretty good shot at this job. Which makes this yet another God-thing. This entire experience has had Holy Fingerprints all over it. We keep wondering what will be next...

Now if OUR house sells quickly...

The Place of Houses

Things are coming together, finally. The biggest obstacle we've been facing over the past few days is our home. Packing and cleaning. And a realtor.

The realtor part is going well. God led us to Jean Marie Giegerich of The Place of Houses. After some not so good experiences with Realtors, it is nice to have one who is very good. Jean Marie has been doing this for almost 20 years and is one of the top 5 in Corpus. I feel that we are in good hands. She's better than Allstate.

We're finally seeing some headway on our packing as well. It seems like we have been packing for weeks and nothing seems to change except the stack of filled boxes in our garage. The house still looks the same. But after careful inspection today, we realized that a large part of what's still in the house is either stuff we will need till the last day, or stuff we are getting rid of in our "moving sale." Sherri feels a lot better about it, which means I feel a lot better about it. You know how that goes.

As far as Midland is concerned, everything is coming along nicely. Our house is in the last stages.We close on the 21st, and we are just waiting on a time. We've even got the cable/phone/Internet company scheduled to come in that afternoon, so the mortgage company better make sure they have their act together. We even know our phone number already.

If you read this, please pause a moment and say a little prayer for safe journeys, peace in the transition, and strength to see this out. God bless... ~Gary

MISD

Another God thing might be happening.

Midland ISD posts new job openings on their website every Tuesday and Friday afternoon. Sherri has been watching this site since we first began to look seriously at GCR.

Last night (Tuesday) Sherri found an opening at Rusk Elementary for a position in "Life Skills" for K-1st. We believe this to be the same type job that Sherri is now in, though it is called Adaptive Education here in Corpus. This is what Sherri loves and she is very good at it.

One of Sherri's old friends works as a teacher at Rusk. They have spoken and Sherri is trying to contact the Principal there.

On top of all this, it is about 3 minutes from our house. These kind of things just keep happening. I don't know if Sherri will get this job, but the way things have been going, it sure seems likely. Praise God.

The Church of the First Down

We had an interesting experience this past Sunday morning. I mentioned in an earlier blog that we didn't feel entirely comfortable going to our new merged church. So we chose to go to the mega-church here in Corpus, Bay Area Fellowship.

I'm sure, at some point or another, you've heard comparisons drawn between the behavior of people at a football game and the behavior of people at church. You've most likely heard something along the lines of "why do we get so worked up at the stadium and not at worship? Isn't God more important than ______ (fill in your favorite team)?"

I finally got to see this concept in action at Bay Area. This past weekend was "Dallas Cowboy Weekend" with special guest Bill Bates. Do you remember Bill? Linebacker wearing the number 40 for over 15 years. He wasn't afraid to hit anyone and often used his body as a human projectile. One of my favorite Cowboys of all time. It was worth the visit just to hear him speak.

But the fun part was the worship service. At least, I think it was worship. Most of the crowd and ALL of the staff were wearing Cowboy jerseys (except the aging rock and roll bass player who was actually wearing a Houston Oilers jersey). Some of the greeters and ushers actually had their faces painted in Cowboy colors. The band broke through a big banner to enter the stage, which was covered in massive glittering metal stars ala Cowboy logo. They had a pretty rockin' first song which got everyone pumped. Then the second song was none other than the Monday Night Football theme song with a few lyrics changed. The place went nuts. For the first time in my life, I actually saw the same enthusiasm at a worship event that I see on TV at a pro football game.

And it was all for God. Way cool.

As an aside... there was a television crew out front filming reference shots as we were leaving. That evening on the local news the story ran with some of those shots. There we were, big as life. The Moyers family walking out of Bay Area on Sunday morning. Sherri had several people at school ask her what we were up to the next morning. I think we got caught. :)

Real Estate

Lots of stuff is going on in our world of real estate. It's been less than a week since we've accepted the job in Midland. In that short time we've made an offer on a house (which was accepted) and taken the first steps to putting ours on the market.

The Midland home has a few problems, as all homes do. The inspector did his thing yesterday and came up with three pages of problems, some small, some not so small. Now we begin the process of working through those problems.

This afternoon we made contact with the realtor we wanted and she is excited about working with us. She is one of the better Realtors in Corpus Christi and I expect God to use her as He has everything else in this change. In her initial look at our place, she was pricing it in a ballpark that floored us. I guess housing has gone up in the last 3 years. We apparently made a good investment. We shall see if we actually get what we asking for.

It's Saturday night, and we are trying to decide which church to attend tomorrow. We thought about going to Christ Point, but I'm afraid we'd be going for the wrong reasons. If we went there, we'd be doing our best to put on a "I'm not hurt at all" face, which would not be the truth. The minister at GCR told us, whether we realized it or not, we were coming to them wounded. The more we reflect on that, the more truth we see in it.

God's Canvas

The past few days have been a blur of spiritual activity. We're not talking "Ghostbusters." This is the Holy type. Kevin Riggs commented in an email I received today that "this has been like watching a picture that HE'S painting coming more and more complete." Amen to that one, bro. The ultimate artist.

The list of coincidental timing issues and answered prayer has become almost humorous. Things keep happening and details keep falling together. And as usual, God has waited until the last moment to make it all happen at once so that I will have no trouble recognizing that He is the one doing it and not me.

We made an offer on a house in Midland yesterday. They've accepted. So unless something bad comes up in the 10-day inspection window, that's a major hurdle out of the way. Anyone out there interested in buying our house in Corpus? Anyone? Bueller? Beuller?

If things continue to proceed on the path that's appearing, we will be moving to Midland during the week of Thanksgiving and I will start full time duties at GCR on the 27th of this month... unless something goes hinky with the housing thing.

Things are speeding up quickly. God is really moving in an obvious way. We'll see what happens before the next post...