Spiritual Warfare (Church Planting - Planning/Formation Stage) Part 1

This has been an awesome week for Dave and I. For those of you who do not know, we have been in Ft. Myers, FL at a Church Planting Seminar put on by the Fl Baptist Convention and the North American Mission Board (NAMB). These guys have challenged us all week...and helped us pull out the vision of how/what the Lord is wanting us to do/how to structure our church plant. That will be another blog...We met some really cool people this week also...that will be another blog...

We have been under spiritual attack since before we left Panama City, FL. Dave and I have learned how important it is to have a group of people set aside to pray for specifics...that we could call at a moment's notice to pray for a specific item. Unfortunately, we did not learn this lesson before we left Panama City on Sunday...this will be something we will have to do next time we leave. We drove through a tropical storm, left our son home alone for the first time, and the stress level was rather high to say the least. Several nights I woke up at 1-2AM and my first thought was "did Shane make it home from work OK?" and so I would call him (yes, at 2AM...but that was about when he got home from work). Of course, he was either at home or on the way home, but it was nice to hear his voice and then chat with him on Facebook. At 2AM...which means I didn't get back to sleep until 3-4AM...but that's another story...

We should have seen the attacks coming and called them out as we went...Instead, we let our flesh get the better of us and we argued all Sunday afternoon as we were packing. We left at 3PM with a tropical storm preparing to make landfall later that evening. We took the "scenic" route to Ft. Myers, which meant we drove through Port St. Joe, FL; Apalatchacola, FL; and around the Big Bend of FL ... right through part of the worst of the storm. Granted it was mostly rainy and windy, but we did see tree branches fall in front of us, a couple of power lines that had been cut and were whipping in the wind, and waves splashing onto the road in some areas from the Gulf of Mexico. Sunday night, we decided to stop in Chiefland, FL about 9PM so that we could get some sleep...we were stressed out from driving in the storm. I wish I could tell you we did the godly thing and spent time in prayer once we reached the hotel...we didn't...we spent the rest of the evening arguing and getting on each other's nerves.

Monday morning we left around 9AM, since the person at the front desk told us we were about 3 1/2 hours away from Ft. Myers...boy, was SHE wrong! I think the enemy woke every living person up along the HWY95/29/19 South and told them to go driving on HWY95/29/19 South during that time...I have never seen SO MANY cars on the road as I did during that time period...needless to say we were NOT 3 1/2 hours away...we were more like 5 hours away...which meant we were an HOUR late for the start of the seminar. Now, for those of you who do not know Dave very well, he HATES to be even a MINUTE late for anything...

Monday night, Shane decided to spring on us that he wanted to get a tattoo on his right arm and a piercing in both ears...the next day! FTR, I am not opposed to tattoos or ear piercings on guys and cannot find any scripture against it...but COME ON! Shane, are you SERIOUS??? You are springing this on me at 2AM??? When I am 9 HOURS away??? I am very grateful that he was wanting our blessing, was willing to talk it out, respected us enough to listen, and has agreed to wait...I'd rather him get a temporary tattoo and fake ear piercings as a trial to see if this is what he REALLY wants to do.

I'll leave you with this for now, the Lord reminded me that as much as I love my son, that HE loves my son even more...and that MY son is actually HIS son...and that I need to relinquish control of him and trust the LORD to direct Shane's path...

Have to go...more later