It’s interesting where life takes you or rather, where life follows you. A slow leaving of a place is difficult, not unlike the long, grinding ride to the top of that first hill of the rollercoaster. Tonight we sit in what will be our house for the last few days of living in Austin, TX. We leave next Tuesday morning for the island of Maui, to a new house, a new direction, a new world. A new season in a land with none. What do I expect? God. That’s all. I just expect God. I don’t expect Him to do a certain thing or to manifest a particular way. I just expect God. It’s not a pilgrimage to find God. The finding has been done. It’s a pilgrimage to a deeper walk in the secret place under the shadow that heals. That experience has been very real for me in recent months. The reality of those surprising supernatural intellect boggling encounters is undeniable and has forever left me changed. This is ...(long pause)... The realization of a dream. The awakening of an inheritance. The hand reaching out to lay hold of the mantle left behind. The answer to the prayer of another. The grateful recipient of new life to things once thought dead. I’m 33 this year. How significant that the year of the resurrection of Jesus Christ would be the year of mine as well. If the Son of God became the Son of man so the sons of men could become the sons of God, then I contend for the fullness of the standard of Christ to be manifest in our day. May it be so from Austin to Maui. Austin has been a home for us and a good one at that. We have family (both spiritual and literal) here. The blessing of being a minister in your home town is that you learn to do it without honor. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially when your home town is Austin. This city epitomizes cool in every carnal sense of the word. The music is great, the food is fantastic, and the people are generally friendly. A hill country sunset can soothe a sorry day like not much else and every other cantina serves the best salsa you’ve ever tasted. Every place has it’s negatives and I’m glad to say that Austin has fewer than most. Perhaps one day we’ll live here again. Traci would like that very much for this town is all she has ever known as home. Despite it’s destination, this move has been difficult for her. She deeply loves her family and has an amazing bond with her sisters and can quickly be overwhelmed at the thought of change. I admire and marvel at her for being willing to do something new and wonderful and exciting. She’s a disciplined and diligent woman and God knows I needed such a creature in my life. The fact that I fell in love for one so unlike me still leaves me saying, "Thank you Lord." She has dared to not only let me dream, but dream with me. She is truly a marvelous woman and I love her with all of my heart. I’m blessed to have lived where we’ve lived. I’m blessed to be going where we’re going. I’m blessed to have incredible children who are so excited about all of this. I’m blessed with parents who have given me faith in the God who invades the impossible. I’m blessed with friends that have become the brothers and sisters I never had. I’m blessed with the thought of the future. Tonight, I’m a blessed blessed man.