Today at church was amazing. ever have those moments where God feels so real and close? If not, i encourage you to ask Jesus to reveal himself to you. James 4:8a (one of my favorite verses) says “Draw near to come and he will draw near to you.” i could share amazing stories where that has happened (let me know if you ever want to hear them). Okay, sorry about the tangent – back to this morning at church. While Jeremy was speaking I was overwhelmed with emotion and just feeling that this is exactly what God created Jeremy for. For him to be a life-giving pastor and to lead this church. What an amazing feeling to know this is exactly where we are supposed to be. Then the worship was perfect, fit the message so well. Usually jeremy talks with Alastair about what the message is about so he can find suitable songs. well this week he did not have a chance to talk to him about it. So it was totally a God thing. Talking with Jeremy afterward and he too had an overwhelming sense of God moving and working in our presence. He said it was like he was just sitting back observing, watching God move and knowing none of it was our doing but all the work of God. Jeremy shared how he had so little time to work on his message this week because he was meeting with people (which he loves to do). and also that he had so very little notes. He felt it was a message from God. That it was just flowing out of him. Then after service I received one of the most meaningful words ever. Someone had said, “Thank you for obeying God and coming here (planting in durham). We have been blessed by it.” I shared this with jeremy cause i knew it would bless his heart too. He then said someone else had shared similar gratitude. He said, “I know why God had brought you to Durham. It was for me.” He then went on to share his amazing story of Jesus totally changing his life. and now he has peace, hope and joy. And so many other cool detail that we hope to share on our website and in church soon. We feel so incredibly blessed that God would allow us to be apart of this. I am so thankful we did not let fear and uncertainity hold us back from going on this adventure. I think back to where we were two years ago. We had just told our staff and youth group we were leaving and moving to Durham to plant a church. There were many who asked, “Why NC? Why Durham? How do you know God is calling you to this?” Not knowing all the details of how we were going to do it definetly made it insanely scary. We felt he was leading us to Durham but we couldn’t explain why. Their questions often made us second guess our decision. Doing it alone without a team was also so unnerving. But we could not wait until people decided to come with us but had to just go for it and obey His leading. I have an Andy Stanley quotation on our bathroom mirror,”What God originates, God orchestrates.” We have needed that constant reminder that God was going to take care of the details of this dream and that we needed to jump into it. Another quotation (donald miller) on our mirror says, “the great stories go to those who do not give into fear.” We want to live a great story and have thoroughly enjoyed the story He is writing thus far through us. I leave you with one of my favorite quotations ever by Mother Teresa, “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”