God giveth and sometimes giveth some more

I wanted to praise the Lord, He is so good. We were blessed greatly this week by some folks who visited the Sunday Morning Bible Study last week. They thought we needed some couches to make the coffee shop more inviting... Here is what the Lord provided thru them





As I said in my last post, God has been stretching us way beyond anything we though we could endure. He has also been faithful to go thru every contortion with us. We are blown away by the grace and patience He shows and by the provision. Praise the Lord!

Does God give us more than we can handle?

This last 30 days has been very tumultuous for us. We have been as close to quitting the ministry as we have ever come and seen the wonderful blessing of our God. 2 Cor 1:8-11 says:

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, 10 who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, 11 you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many. NKJV

If anything describes how I was feeling this last month, it was that. Though I am sure our experiences were nothing compared to the stress and anxiety Paul and his friends must have been feeling when he wrote this. Still, I am thankful that God allowed it, for I know the truth now; and I know from experience how to live thru a difficult time.

As I shared with a few close friends about what was going on I heard over and over "Don't worry, God will not give us more than we can handle." I even quoted that to myself and to God as I prayed. One morning I heard God tell me "Is that what I said?" So I had to go scrambling back to the Word and check it out. Actually 1 Cor 10:13 says:

13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. NKJV

DOh! It said that God will not allow me to be tempted beyond what I am able. With a little more research I found that there is no promise anywhere in scripture that says God will not give us more than we can handle. Which makes sense because If He only gave us situations we could handle, we would never turn to Him. God uses the overwhelming things to drive us to the end of ourselves and into His arms.

Here are a few links, that say this much better than I can. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/indexqid=20071204203240AAIyoTn
http://wadeallen.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-than-i-can-handle.html
http://myderbe.wordpress.com/2006/12/12/giving-us-more-than-we-can-handle/

Its nice to know God was teaching me thru my trial... He is to be praised!

Genesis 19 links

We are going thru Genesis on Sunday morning and last week we talked about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. As promised here are some of the links I found that discuss some of the more recent archeological research on the possible locations of the five cities of the Plains that were destroyed in Genesis 19:

http://www.pinkoski.com/content/view/20/35/
http://www.wyattmuseum.com/cities-of-the-plain-02.htm
http://anchorstone.com/Sodom-Gomorrah/
http://www.bibleplus.org/discoveries/sodomfound.htm

And the award for the worst blogger of 2008 goes too...

Wow, what an honor it is to recieve this highly coveted award, I would like to thank my... what? I am out of time? (wanders off the stage...)

My task today is to catch everyone up on the many things we have been up too since Oct 3rd.

Where to begin...

For those who are interested in what life is like as a bi-vocational Pastor/Coffee Shop owner. I wake up at 4am, take a shower and head to the coffee shop and open up. I like to go in early so I can get some good quiet time, some mornings I get more than others before the caffeine fiends start showing up. Business is pretty steady until about 10:30 or so, after that I do paperwork, pay bills, order stuff, sneak some studying in or play a game. Business picks back up at about 2:30 or so and is somewhat steady until close. Denise is also busy, she shops for me, does a bunch of publishing, comes and covers for me on some days to give me a break, bakes, participates in Ladies Bible study, keeps house and helps Rebekah with homeschooling. We have Bible study on Wednesday Night, so its a long day, but the fellowship is always very refreshing. Saturday we are open 8am to 2pm so I get a few hours off in the afternoon, we can either flake off or do things around the house. Sunday is my Favorite day, we get to worship and have Bible study in the mornings until about 11am. Then its home for lunch and a nap. Denise usually scraps with friends at the shop in the afternoon and I go hang out with Sam and watch football or play games with some of the other guys. We hang out together in the evenings and get to bed early to start the process over again early Monday morning.

Speaking of the Bible Study, we have finally moved it into the Coffee Shop. Our landlord Max is such a great guy, he has allowed us to use some of the un-rented suites behind us for Sunday School at no charge. Praise the Lord!

One of the sadder aspects of ministering in a military town is that people come and go alot. Even though our little Bible study is only a few months old we have already had to say goodbye to Gareth and Irma Burkinshaw. The Burkinshaw's had a very harried October as they completed the CH-47 (Chinook) course, Renewed their wedding vows on the beach in Destin, FL and packed for a move to the frozen wastes of Ft. Drum, NY. We will miss the good times we enjoyed with them worshipping and fellowshipping for the few months they were here. Keep Gareth in your prayers, he will be deploying to Iraq soon, leaving Irma to brave the bitter New York Winter. Stay Warm Irma!

Gareth, Irm and Avah

I asked do ya? They said they did, everyone cheered and then we ate :)

A common site, senior citizens on the beach in Florida

While we said goodbye to one couple also said hello to our son Nathan. In November, Nate moved down to be with us in Enterprise. While the circumstances of his move south weren't the best, we missed him terribly and its wonderful to have that "whole" feeling as a family again. We are getting the full effect of that wholeness with four of us crammed into a 2 bedroom townhouse. Though it was suggested, we didn't banish Nate to the garage. Instead he has claimed the Living Room as his bedroom. This required me to move my computer upstairs and squeeze in between all Denise's crafting stuff. We are adjusting in that uniquely Lane way to being around one another again. Nate is making new friends at Enterprise High School and is looking forward to a second Varsity Soccer season in the spring.

I think that covers the big stuff, I keep telling myself I will be more diligent about keeping you all up to date.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers, God is doing some wild and sometimes scary things in our lives these days. It's not easy here, but when my eyes close and my heart settles in those few moments before I drop off to sleep I know He is with us and continuing the work He started. I will praise Him for His greatness, I will lift up His name as the only wise God who sees the end and knows the best way to get there. Our desire is to walk more closely and live more fully in the center of His will and work here in Enterprise. In this we will not be moved.

We are open!

Ok, we have been open for 2 whole weeks. I know I should have posted this 2 weeks ago but its been non-stop for us. Business is growing each day but will need to grow a bit more for us to actually live on our sales. For today the rent is paid and we are eating at least three times a day so Praise the Lord!


We are learning the ropes of running a business which is very different than running a church :) Fortunatly we have lots of people who love to give advice on what we should be doing. I think that if you offer advice you should fund it, but I keep that to myself most of the time. I loved the customer that told me we should have flat screen tv's (I think she meant more than one) to watch while customers wait in line. I am trying to decide whether that was a comment critical of the wait or a loving bit of advice from her lengthy travels and experience with the coffee shop trade. I will assume the latter and add it to the list of improvements.


Seriously, we have really enjoyed the times that people wanted to hang out, drink their coffee and chat. The one aspect of having the shop that I was looking forward to is building relationships. We do have a growing list of regulars that we get to chat with each day. I pray that grows into neat opportunities to share God's love and His Word with them.

Who wouldn't love coming to work with this beauty every day?

Bek's favorite job is cashier, which she excels at.

Pray for our Inspections tomorrow

In God's perfect timing we are ready for inspections, we have the health department, City Engineer (building inspection) and the Fire Marshall coming tomorrow. Please pray for grace and favor as we go thru these inspections. After we pass we can then apply for a City of Enterprise Business permit and then we are in business. We are so excited :) Here are some pics of the finished place.

Welcome to Boldly Going, can I help you?

The study table, brewed coffee and snack prep area

A view from the back corner

Top secret coffee prep area with classified equipment and ingredients-shhhh!

Call me if you need a description of this room

The office and storage room beyond.

Things are happening FAST now...

I am sorry for the lack of posts this month, we are in the final phases of getting this shop up and running and we have been putting in some long hours. Here are some updated pics of what we have been up to.

The flooring guys started two weeks ago. We decided to go with a stained concrete floor. they had this huge grinder that ground the floors down to a base level

After that they cut "tile marks" into the floor, you can see Tropical Storm Fay moving in outside...

and then it was back to polishing, at this point that old concrete slab felt as smooth as marble

Finally the stain was applied and there was more polishing, the final steps involved 3000 grit diamond "blades." Don't mind all that drywall and concrete dust, we were told we couldn't get the floor wet for a week.

With the floors done it was time for the wall guys to finish up the walls and install the counter tops so we could start painting.

The plumbers also returned and got our sinks, mop sink and bathroom hooked up.

Mike Birkey from Cactus Creek Coffee spent two days down here getting all our equipment installed, he is a truley gracious man. We had to immeadiatly cover all our new toys while the wall work and DUST continued to fly.

Meet Tommy our contractor

Our Signs were installed on Wednesday evening while we were at Bible study, it was a neat surprise.

Is that not the bluest sky you have ever seen?

After 3 very long days we got the painting done and Tommy's guys started getting the trim up, we are very pleased at how nicely all the colors came out.

We still have alot to do with all the finish work, clean up, furnishing and inspections but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Lord, you have a very nice coffee shop, and we appreciate all the grace and provision you are pouring out on us thru this process. We are learning to trust you, wait on you and most importantly give our expectations over to you. Your will be done...

Nate turns 18

Last Saturday was Nate's 18th - Happy Birthday buddy.

To celebrate the occasion Denise and Rebekah travelled up to North Carolina to spend the weekend with him. They took all the fixings for a celebration dinner. Here are a few Pics from that dinner:

Nate blows out the candles in his coconut creme birthday pie.

Nate singing lead for the "Rock Band"

Nate and his adopted little sister Gabby opening presents

Nate and Bek enjoying the evening

It seems a good time was had by all, sadly Mom and Bek had to leave the next morning. They will return in two weeks for the Fayetteville Academy game. See you then...

Sunday morning study starting August 10th

Before we arrived in Alabama, we decided we would attend the Calvary Chapel in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida on Sunday Mornings until we felt like the Lord wanted us to start our Sunday morning fellowship. I knew with gas prices near $4 per gallon we wouldn't drive the 90 miles each week so the plan was to watch their live internet video stream on the off weeks. In a litte over two months we have actually only gone twice. Never the less, we (the Lanes and Blakleys) were enjoying our Sunday's in their living room worshipping together and breaking bread afterwards. A few weeks later the Edlers joined us and the first church problem offically reared its head. Each week we had six adults, one Rebekah and SIX kids under nine. After two weeks we decided to start a rotation to teach the kids (was it our desire to minister to them or just keep them quiet? The world may never know.) Thus the Calvary Chapel Enterprise Sunday school program was born. We may not be a church, but we have Sunday school - lol!

I knew I didn't want to offically start "church" until we had enough people to minister to all who would be coming. I figured we would at least need some basic nursery care and an elementary age Sunday school class (got that one) not to mention a PLACE to meet. As usual my expectations and God's will collided. After we had to improvise last week when the Sunday morning live feed just vaporized I decided to pray about starting this week.

My other main issue with starting "church" was a time issue. Preparing to teach 2 times a week has a rather hefty time committment. We will also be opening up the coffee shop soon and to be honest I have no idea what that is going to take out of me. As I tried to calculate six 14 hour work days, study time (12-20 hrs) and then the actual time spent teaching (2 hrs) I came up with about 106 hours per week. So as I started whining to the Lord about this He reminded me that I can do all things thru Him and that His provision is not limited to financial matters.

So with that in mind I see a green light and the door is open... I didn't come all this way to turn back. Keep us in your prayers.

P.S. For Jodi and Laura, I got this cool thing today.

It's a digital voice recorder and I will be able to post up the Genesis study and after the first 18 chapters you will be able to pick up where we left off in Bible 101 - Promise kept :) You can go here for my audio archive, there is not much there yet but it will be coming soon.

More progress...

There is more progress to report this week, despite a slight delay due to flooring issues we are on track again. Tommy and his crew are knocking out the serving area dividing wall and finishing up the back office, bathroom and storage area. We will be priming the walls today and meeting with a second flooring guy to get the concrete floors stained and sealed up. Hopefully by the end of next week the walls will be painted, floors done, trim nailed up and plumbing connected so we can get the coffee making equipment installed. God is so good! We are hoping to be open by the last week in August.

Keep praying please!

After going back and forth about installing cabinets, we finally decided to put up a "serving wall" and use the stainless steel prep tables you see in restaurants. They are much cheaper than cabinets and the health department loves em.

The cash register and ordering area

The serving and prep area

Finishing up the back office, bathroom and storage area

Bathroom floors patched up and ready for fixtures

The plumbers are plumbing HOORAY, hooray!

A quick update, I am guessing you know what is happening here right? Yes at long last the guys with the droopy drawers have shown up to get some pipes installed.

This is the mandatory employee bathroom I had to install for the employees I don't have, but its ok because I love the health department and I love making sure plumbers don't go hungry.

Someone was having fun with their shiny new jackhammer, I bet the lawyer next door decided today was a golf day.

I swear they had to cart this dirt in here... I mean seriously, where did it all come from?

another pic to take up valuable Internet bandwidth

I was actually impressed with what they got done today. When Ray the plumber told me it would only take two days I thought "yeah right" but tomorrow I may have to think "gee mister plumber guy, I'm sorry I doubted you." There is still work to do outside to hook up the drain lines to the sewer and there are water lines to run and a water heater to install but things are moving right along and I am stoked about that.

Go Plumbers!

In the news...

I wanted to put up just a few links to some articles I have been following on worldnetdaily.com.

If you were unaware, there are some subtle moves going on in our country, the UK and in Canada to criminalize our faith and God's Word. Christians are being attacked because of what the Bible says about homosexuality. Homeschooling and parental rights are being attacked. Traditional marriage is being redefined. So far most of the action is happening in isolated pockets of California, Colorado and some north eastern states but I'm sure that it won't stop there.

I didn't post this to start a petition or organize people into a political action campaign, just to inform and encourage people to pray. I have been praying for our state and local leaders here in Alabama, that they would be filled with wisdom and grace from the Lord to;

• Protect our freedom to meet together
• Pray publicly
• Teach the Bible publicly without restrictions
• Worship openly
• Peacefully share our faith with others

Let me quote from 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 :

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. NKJV

Prayer is powerful.

I am not against petitions or political action, I applaud those who can do it in a humble and Godly manner. I am just not cut out for that sort of thing. God says in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that the healing in a land comes from:

• A humble heart
• Prayer
• Seeking his face
• Repentance

Let me encourage you towards simple obedience and trust that God can and will do what He says He will do... Amen?

Oh, here are those links...

San Fran Catholic attack results in lawsuit
'Gay' man sues Bible publishers
Legislator: Law allows banishment of Bible
'Religion in private' OK, declares ACLU
Criminal crackdown targeting Christians
Biblical message now criminalized
Christian photographers fined for refusing same-sex ceremony
Government to pastor: Renounce your faith!
Guv strikes state's gender-specific restrooms
Cover up! Locker rooms going coed
Transgender lobby to intimidate petitioners
Voting rights challenged in 'coed showers' lawsuit
'How-to-be-homo' seminar canceled
Class for kids: How to be homosexual
Parents warned of 'hate speech' during 'gay' promo
Crackdown on biblical speech challenged
Superintendent's orders to worried dad: Butt out!
Citizen revolt forces vote on coed showers
Dad challenging 'manipulation' of kids
Judges: 'Gay' exposure OK for kindergarteners
Judge boots parents from son's schooling
'Gay' lessons violate civil rights, man says
Parents urged to boycott homosexual indoctrination
Student told: 'Leave your faith in the car'
California ripped as 'too queer for school'
2 more 'sexual indoctrination' bills vetoed
Christian-education push goes to states
Sexual indoctrination bill vetoed
Hundreds rally to threaten Gov. Arnold with 'veto'
Gov. Arnold urged to cancel sexual indoctrination
California Christians urged to yank kids
Gov. Arnold tosses school moral codes
Dobson: Tell Arnold to halt 'gay' agenda
California ripped as 'too queer for school'
Judge orders 'gay' agenda taught to Christian children
'State interest' argued in teaching homosexuality
'Gay' groups: We have rights to your children!

Psalm 131

As time for our shop opening is getting closer I have been struggling with our lack of funds to get everything completed. It seems like every morning I have been getting a little anxious and then I remember to pray thru Philippians 4:6-8 and God has been faithful to bring peace. I feel kind of bad that this has been a morning by morning thing for me, like “where is my faith Lord?” but He is gracious and patient and on Friday I felt like He really blessed me in my morning devotions.

LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern
myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me.
2 Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever.
NKJV

At first I was a little mystified by this Psalm (tell me I'm not the only brick in the kingdom please). I didn't understand why David used a weaned child to be his example of hope and trust in great and profound matters. It seems like a nursing child is the better picture of being totally and completely dependent. So I asked the Lord what was being communicated here? He reminded me:

• A weaned child is no longer drinking milk.
• A weaned child has grown a bit and is no longer a baby.
• A weaned child is ready for more solid food.
• A weaned child has seen the faithfulness of his mother and should be able to trust her as she introduces more challenging things, like meat.
  

Slowly I started to understand that He was telling me that I was the weaned child, that I have grown and am ready for more challenging things. He reminded me of His faithfulness and provision in the past that has met all my needs so far. His direction for me is:

• to calm down and quiet my soul
• not worry about great and profound things that I cant understand
• put my hope in Him because he is faithful
  

God is so good. I wanted to share this with you guys so you can be encouraged like I was.
Praise the Lord!

Construction progress

Praise the Lord we are back on track with construction on the coffee shop. After a long wait for the city engineers approval and a re-bid from the plumbing/electrical contractor we are moving forward again. Our contractor is dry walling and has started framing. Here is this weeks update...

Drywall near the front door is taped and has its initial mud coat.

Framing around the office/storage area

Bathroom and mop sink area

Storage closet

Keep us in your prayers as we get closer to opening up, we have so many things to do. I am praying for:

• Wisdom to know how to schedule all these tasks
• Ability to do a few things we have never done (like purchase kitchen equipment...)
• Provision to get the work done and equipment purchased without using credit
• Grace and Patience to wait on the Lord (see the devotion on Psalm 131)

What brings you to our State’s Capitol Jenny?

Ok so this post is a bit out of order but…

On July 1st Nate came for a visit. He flew into Montgomery’s regional airport. He was actually supposed to fly in on June 30th but due to the airlines continued woes with scheduling we had to wait an extra day for his arrival. We figured that since we had to drive all the way to Montgomery we may as well see a few of its sights.



To be honest I didn’t know Montgomery was the state capitol – doh! As we drove downtown I quickly realized where we were. We stopped in front of the capitol building and got a quick pic and then went across the street to see the “First White House of the Confederacy.”



Unlike most historical sites this one was not well maintained. I guess the old adage about the winners writing the history books is true. Thus is the fate of the capitol of the losing side. Anyway, it was actually very interesting and had many more artifacts than the more “politically correct” sites I have seen.

With the time we had left we moved onto the Church that Dr. Martin Luther King pastored at. It was around the corner (irony alert!!) and very well maintained. It is still in active use but we couldn’t go inside unless we paid to go through one of the hourly tours. We didn’t have time to wait so all we saw was the outside.

Finally we arrived at the Airport which was much larger than I expected and picked up Nate. Hug, Hug, Kiss, Kiss and we were on our way to get some dinner and head home.