Recap Story

Well...who'd of thought we'd actually do this blog thing. Amanda wants me to tell our story up to this point so those who we haven't talked with in a long time can hear it.



So....it all began back in 2005. I had been a part of the singles group at Dallas Bible Church for a few years when Amanda and Amy started visiting the group. Pretty quickly after they started coming to the group we all felt pretty comfortable hanging out together. Amanda, Amy, Mike and I all started running at White Rock Lake and the four of us became pretty good friends. At the beginning of the fall I started to think there might be something between Amanda and I but I wasn't sure and since I was finishing up at Dallas Seminary I didn't know exactly what to do. After talking with Mike I decided to see if Amanda was interested in seeing if there was something more there.

In October of 2005 Amanda and I started dating and pretty quickly after that realized we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. In March of 2006 I asked Amanda to marry me and thankfully she said yes. We were engaged for 5 months and got married August 6. Amanda had always wanted an exotic wedding on the beach so we got married at Horseshoe Bay on the beach. It was a great time with family and friends. Following the wedding weekend we spent a week in San Diego having the time of our lives before the craziness began.

Upon graduating from DTS in December of 2005 I still hadn't received a church offer and we had decided that we'd like to start our lives somewhere different than Dallas. Thankfully one of my good friends Dustin offered me a job working for him in Phoenix, AZ so we decided to take a chance. Four days after getting back from our honeymoon we had packed our cars to move them and some stuff to Phoenix. Since we didn't find an apartment we felt comfortable committing to we moved in with Dustin and Laci for 3 weeks while we searched. Once we found a place we flew back to Dallas to pack up the rest of our stuff and drive a moving truck back to Phoenix.

Now that was a crazy trip! The next night was the big Ohio St. vs Texas game and I really wanted to see it so we basically drove through the night (3 hours of sleep) so that we could be back in Phoenix within 24 hours of leaving Dallas. It was alot of fun but very tiring! Living with Dustin and Laci was alot of fun but it was also nice to finally find our own place. Since we got married it had been 5 weeks since we stayed in our own place for the first time.

While in Phoenix we both had the opportunity to meet some great people and make some friends that will hopefully last the rest of our lives. I worked for a dealer of Cingular/AT&T products and Amanda worked for a WORKspaces (a Herman Miller dealer) doing office furniture project management and design. I really believe God used this opportunity to start our life together on the right foot.

Finally... almost 2 years after finishing seminary, God opened a door for me to go into full-time ministry. In late August of 2007 we moved once again. We are now in north New Jersey and I am the Young Adults and Small Groups Pastor at Hawthorne Gospel Church. This church has a long and storied history and it is such a blessing that God has given me. Amanda has been able to continue her work as a Project Manager for WB Wood NY. She is working in NYC, and learning how to commute on a higher level - trains, subways.....it's different but she enjoys it. NYC is a whole new beast!

Right now we're living in the churches missionary house on a temporary basis until we determine where we would like to settle and plant roots! For those of you not familiar with real estate the northeast is very expensive - to say the least. It is definetly different living up here but we are starting to make some friends and the church staff is alot of fun. Ministry is alot of fun but don't kid yourself by thinking everyone loves pastors. God is faithful and continually teach us things. We look forward to our future here and we hope this blog will allow you to also be apart of our journey.

We'll try to keep this updated as often as possible. Talk to you soon!