The Holiday Plans (and a lot of Pics!)

NO HURRICANES!

Hurricane season has come and gone (almost) and we have been spared a significant storm. In fact, even the power grid has been working well this fall and I only had to fire up the generator one time. This Sunday, I'll be preaching on Philippians 4:10-20. This is Paul's quintessential text on contentment. It's been good for my soul to dwell in these words from God this week. We have not quite reached Paul's level of contentment, but we are learning to trust the Lord in every situation. Some days ministry seems to be abounding, other days we can feel significant lack. We have experienced God's provision for our family this last year in amazing ways, and at other times we are feeling the tightness of financial need. In it all, we are learning "the secret." It is a powerful truth that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! Below are some highlight pics of the fam from the last months.

PREACHING & PREACHERS

If you know me, you know that I love preaching. I delight in God's Word and especially take pleasure in the exposition of His Word to the church. One big piece of our vision is to be a church that trains others for ministry. In these last months, this vision is already experiencing fruit.

• I have been training a man in our church for eldership, and he will be commissioned to this role for Table Church in the new year.

• I led a preaching & teaching workshop for the Youth for Christ teachers. We studied the book of Jonah together and discussed how to teach it to this generation of youth.

• I organized a WordPartners workshop in partnership with some other churches here on the island. I didn't get to teach or participate too much in this one because it was all in Spanish, but I was overjoyed to be a servant to what God is doing with local churches here on the west side of Puerto Rico. The pastors and lay leaders explored understanding and preaching the book of Ruth.

• I'm also investing in some men in our church with more honed reading and counseling. Currently I'm walking through 3 different books with different individuals: The Imperfect Pastor by Zack Eswine, Emotionally Healthy Discipleship by Peter Scazzero and Unceasing Worship by Harold Best.

HOMESCHOOLING CO-OP (aka CHAOS!)

Maria's homeschooling co-op has been active, intense, and fruitful. We've had about 15 to 20 kids at our house every Thursday to take part in multiple extra-curricular activities. I'm teaching about 10 of them to play the guitar. The fall has been full of stress and excitement. All the kids look forward to Thursdays. Maria has put in SO much work to make this happen and she's done an incredible job! All the feedback from the group has been positive. It's definitely not all been easy though, so we're praying about the sustainability of it all for the future. Enjoy the pics!

SOCCER CLINIC

The soccer clinic that we led on the Coast Guard base in September and October was very successful. We had about 30 kids total coming out to play every Wednesday. After each practice I was able to give a 5 to 7 minute devotion that highlighted the character of Jesus. Some of these kids are not coming from Christian homes so it was a blessing to be able to proclaim the gospel to their listening ears. We are praying that the seeds sown will bear fruit in their lives.

TABLE CHURCH

Table Church has been gathering on Sundays since January. It's almost been a full year! We have a consistent core group of people. About 70% of the church are coast guard couples and families. The Lord has added to our church a handful of people through the fall. One particular joy for me is that a couple young guys stepped up to lead worship every Sunday. They are doing a great job leading us in worship to Jesus. This Christmas our family will be visiting family in Michigan and multiple people in the church will be leading the services in my absence. It's a testimony to the Lord's provision that we are at a place where my presence is unnecessary. The church is so much bigger than a person or personality and I'm grateful that even in this early stage of our church plant I've already got men and women I can rely on to continue what God is doing.

That's a good update for now. The pictures can tell the story of the last few months better than I can. Thank you for your prayer support and your financial generosity toward what God is doing here in Puerto Rico! If you want to follow more of what Table Church is doing and what I'm doing personally below are multiple ways to peer into our practices and perspectives.

• Watch and Listen to the preached Word at Table Church

  • This year I preached through Titus, Proverbs, Philippians and a Lenten series on the Cross of Christ.

• Watch my Youtube Shorts on Reading God's Word

• Read my posts on Substack

We're approaching the year end and so I'm going to start communicating our financial needs for the church budget of 2026. We've got some exciting things happening next year that I'll be posting about soon. If you would like to partner with the gospel-centered, kingdom-advancing work of Table Church, you can give an offering through the link box:

Give to Table Church

HOLIDAY PLANS

After a year and half we are finally coming home for the holidays. Maria and I are ready for some rest and the kids are crazy ecstatic about being with their cousins and grandparents for the Christmas season. We will being spending the month of December stateside with the purpose finding rest and refreshment before returning for another year of kingdom advancement by the grace of God.

• Please pray that we have safety flying to the States and back.

• Please pray that we are refreshed in the Lord with family and friends in Michigan.

• Please pray that we get to experience a White Christmas with snow.

  • (This request is from our kids) :)