In the Saddle

June 1, 2006

The air was crisp and fresh at Camp Dick, high above the crowds and busyness of the life back in the city. It was a great adventure taking my grandson Jake to be my camping buddy for a couple of days. It was delightful! Jake picked the menu’s (sorry mommy), so we had breakfast cereal for dinner, hot dogs and smors! It snowed about 4 inches which added to his joy, camping and snow at the same time. Oh to see life through the eyes of an almost four year old again. Delight and joy come quickly. Wonder is a naturally outflow of his view of life, the life God has created for him.

Memorial Day was our moving day as we left Camp Dick and pulled our 27 foot Prowler trailer to Windsor Colorado. Thanks to the generosity of Steve and Carrie Winter, we now have a “home” in Windsor. The farm is just a few miles from the church in Windsor. We have spent the last three Thursdays in Windsor taking care of our new church family. This week we began our new chapter in ministry with full time focus. The phrase, “In the Saddle” comes to mind, whatever that may mean.

Boy are there a lot of boxes of stuff to look through and clean out! It has been amazing to go through stacks of paper that represent 67 years of history for Windsor Assembly of God. Annual Reports, board minutes, pastoral reports, real estate transactions, copies of financial records, and at least 5 different versions of bylaws! I discovered that I am the nineteenth pastor of WAG.

All of that stuff is just that “stuff”. What the church is about and will always be about is the people, both the devoted and dedicated servants of God who labored so faithfully, and the hosts of people who came to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. That has not changed. WAG is still all about seeing people, boys and girls, teenagers, men and women, being born into the family of God. The work is not yet done. “The fields are white for harvest.”

Then there is this amazing love that I feel for this community and church. How is it that we can love people we have only known for such a short period of time? Why do I weep when they share their stories? Why do I drive down Main Street and wonder about the host of people I see, asking God the question, do they know you?

The only way I can begin to get a handle on my feeling is to remember the moment my children were born. In that moment, there was such joy and such love, in spite of the fact that we were only beginning our journey together as father and child. We had anticipated the event for nine months, wondering what they would look like, wondering what it would feel like to hold them tight to our chest so that our heartbeats became mingled as one.

It is sort of like that for us and the Windsor family. When God first planted the thought, the curiosity about Windsor on October, 18, 2006, it was as if God conceived a new relationship. Now we are here, holding our beloved church close to ourselves so our heartbeats become as one. It is love, real love, not just for those who now call it home but the great host of people that God will connect us with here in this region.

It is great to be in the saddle!

Gripped by His Passion,