I can't post...Yes, I can!

Well, today is Jonah's 6th birthday. We're planning on celebrating it "Star Wars"-style. He wanted a cake that looks like a "ballcano" (his pronunciation of Volcano) and has Anakin and Obi-Wan having a lightsaber duel on it. It is quite funny that he grasps that, as we have not let them watch Episode 3. Anyway, Dina did an amazing job on the cake and I'll post some pictures of it later today or tomorrow on our homepage. After the birthday celebration with my family, we plan to head out to Old Settler's Park for some good old-fashioned fireworks. (We alway tell Jonah that they shoot off fireworks in honor of his birthday every year. How long will we be able to keep that ruse up, before he gets wise to us?) :-)

We also were able to get a free trampoline for the kids from Craigslist. It has a hole in the middle of the bed, so we're either gonna have to get a new bed or see if we can get this repaired. Either way, the kids will love it.

So, Dina and I are again grappling with everything that is going on in our lives. Sometimes it feels like I am in a whirlpool, swirling around in confusion. Our church struggles are only compounded by my work struggles. Dina helped me identify last night that I really struggle with an "I can't" spirit that causes me to set goals and then immediately torpedo them because I feel like they are unattainable. I need to really seek within myself and my desires, and then seek the Lord heavily over the next few days to figure out what I want to do over the next couple of years and then pursue it. No matter what obstacles appear to be in the way.

The first small sign of conquering the "I can't" spirit is to pursue finding or starting an emergent cohort here in Austin. I strongly desire to find a person or a few people who are walking the same journey that we are to converse with. We are definitely in a state of "disembedding" from the traditional church system and seeking to find something new that better models what Christ intended for the "church" to look like here on earth.