The Wait is Over... We leave on the 1st

In case you haven't heard, we have officially been cleared to leave for Ethiopia on September 1st to pick up the latest edition to the O'Neil tribe.  Mezgana Tesfaye O'Neil, (Mez) will meet his new mom and dad hopefully by the 2nd or 3rd of September.  Our trip to Ethiopia will be a blistering 9 days total putting us back here in Charlotte on the 10th of September sometime in the evening.  I want to thank all of you who have been praying for us since we announced this decision to adopt for a third time 7 months ago.  I also want to thank those of you who have financially contributed to this event.  Because of your generosity, we cleared over $3,500 towards the $20,000 it will take to make this happen.

There is so much happening in regards to Watershed these days.  More and more we are finding traction in areas of spiritual formation, justice and community.  Our being "transformed to the image of Jesus," is happening, slowly but surely in the lives of individuals as well as our community at large.  As we leave our community for a brief two weeks to retrieve Mez, I wanted to make sure this incredible development for our family does not overshadow the beauty and importance of  the larger community and mission of Watershed.

For so many of you, you are on the edge of chasing after new questions, new turning points and new opportunities in the life God is inviting you to pursue through a will and heart surrendered to Jesus.  May the weeks and months ahead find you more and more resolved to this pursuit.

For others here at Watershed, you are overflowing with the benefit and blessing of God's movement in your life.  Because you have invited Jesus into the best and the worst of your life and he's responded, you are more alive, more certain and more full of love than you ever thought possible.  It's time for you to take what you've been blessed with and begin leaking it into the lives of those who are just beginning to wake up to this same movement in their own life.

Our lives and community is laden with potential.  In the way we search after God, in the rhythms of our quiet moments alone, in the way we connect to God through a life of wrestling with the scriptures, in the manner and frequency we love, defend and serve those who are hurting, may God begin to unleash his redemptive, healing and salvific force into a broken and lost world.  

Have a great weekend.