Just Behind A "Little"

Hi Everyone,
It just occurred to me to check my blog for the date of my last posting. OH MAN! It was the end of July!

Face Book
Well you can blame it on Face Book. Or I can blame it on Face Book. I was a "late comer" on FB but I love it. Found and reconnected with so many people from my past. What an incredible way to keep in easy touch with those you know and love, no matter where they live in the world.

What about Twitter?
No, this is where I draw the line. I am pretty positive that nobody really cares that I am riding the train to go grocery shopping or taking out the trash. I'll spare everyone that stuff in my life.

The last month has been absolutely crazy busy but I love it. It is almost 1:00 a.m., I can hardly keep my eyes open but have decided to "wing it" and post something for all of you that don't see the stuff on my Face Book Wall. Wouldn't want to leave you out or anything.

So the "winging it" part is that I'm going to take a few minutes to update you. And leave with a promise to really put a more adequate posting up next week sometime.

In short here is what's been happening and it's all good.

Europe Advance (Church Planting Project in Europe)
Continue to work with Pastors Sabaastian from The Netherlands and Desmond from Zurich. It's moving slowly right now for my part of the activities but the other two guys are busy doing what they need to do right now. So it's all okay. My "turn" and work will kick in soon.

Christian Men's Network
I was the keynote speaker at a regional leadership meeting in Solingen, Germany for CMN last Saturday. My message was to encourage the other 60+ men and pastors to see and develop the gifts and callings in their children. I spoke on my First Step Ministries, Kids Prayer Program and how it had the potential to grow and influence children to have a deep relationship with our Heavenly Father.

We had men from Brussels, Finland, The Netherlands and of course Germany attend the one day event. I was blessed to meet a lot of new pastors and men that are not afraid to openly love and serve God.

John Maxwell's EQUIP "Train The Trainers"
Thursday afternoon, I'm heading down to Zurich, Switzerland to attend this trainers meeting. An American from Maxwell's ministry in Georgia will be training us to be able to go out and raise up pastors using John Maxwell's time tested principles. It should be great.

Rhema Bible Church Bonn, Germany
This has been my overseas church since I arrived in Germany 7+ years ago. This summer I volunteered to step in and help teach every other week in our children's church. During summer, everyone is out of town on vacation so the extra help was needed and a blessing for me and them. Since then, I've signed up to become a regular teacher with the 6-12 year olds. They're learning. I'm learning. We're all, always learning aren't we. It's been fun and a blessing.

Church Summit near Vienna
In mid-October I am planning on attending a meeting of a new group of English speaking International churches. This group has a number of churches throughout Europe. They are new to me, so I was excited to get the invitation and meet new people. It will increase my network. I don't know much more about it but will post something after I return.

Doing the Stuff
In the mean time, I've been working on the photos I took at these meetings and promise to post them shortly. By that time, I'll have the Zurich photos ready also. Continue to work on and improve the 26 weeks of Kids Prayer Program curriculum. It seems never to be ready or not need some little improvement.

Summer in Germany
WOW!!!! God answered my spring time prayer for a warm and wonderful summer. It has been amazingly beautiful, warm, with limited rain. You "almost" welcomed the rain the few days it came. "Almost" is an operative word.

Got a lot of summer time bicycle riding in this year. It was great. Only the last few days have been overcast but still warm in temperature. This is okay with me. Warm weather, yes, "This too shall pass," usually by November. But by then, it will have been a wonderful memory to hang onto when the temps drop to the 40's and below with constant rain or drizzle. Let's not think about that right now. I'd rather live in denial.

So Blessed
Yes, I'm a geek. Always have been, always will. So this year, I've been really blessed with some important geek tools of the trade. So far, The Lord has blessed me with some neat but important tools of the "missionary trade". I got a new Dell laptop that is a real "race car" for not much money. My seven year old one was not and could not keep up. Bless it's darling heart, it tried but how much can you remember has changed in the computer world in seven years or seven weeks.

I was also blessed to get a new Canon 50D digital camera with a couple of good usable lens. I've had cameras in my hands since I was 1o years old. If you've known me at all, you know that I click, click, click all the time on every trip I go. I've worn out two digital cameras before getting my little Canon PowerShot two years ago. It continues to be a little work horse but the new "real" 50D just warms a photographer's heart.

Just the other day, I was blessed with a new 22 inch monitor to use with my laptop. I love my laptop but when you're working with PhotoShop, MS Word and my audio editing program, it just didn't have the "real estate" needed to work.

Why am I telling you this? Not to brag, you know me better than that but to brag on my Heavenly Father. Sometimes when things or circumstances are the darkest, things are about to change and the sun really is going to come up in the morning. You just can't quit. You have got to stay in the fight or you really will loose and never see the victory you set out to have.

This stuff is wonderful but it is still just stuff. Yes, it makes my life and work a lot easier but it is just stuff. But God even cares about our stuff and to help us do better, quicker and easier. Hang in there and never, never give up on your dream. It will come to pass.

So this is an extemporaneous blog posting. I'm not going to look back and start correcting, editing and tweaking. I will spell check it, that's easy to do. But I'm moving on to "Save" and the push "Publish Post" buttons. I kinda like taking these "writing risks".

Love you all. Will catch up later. Check out my Face Book page or add me as a friend. It's under Larry Blakeslee / Germany

Blessings,
Rev. Lawrence Blakeslee
Missionary to Europe and Asia