Redskins and the Church Plant

Woohoo! The Redskins are in the playoffs and looking good! :)

And on a more spiritual note, we just got done with another planning meeting for the church plant. There are sooo many details to still be worked out and a lot of unkowns but it is exciting to think about how God is working now and will be then. Who knows what exact stories we'll have to tell in 10 years, but no doubt the central theme will be the faithfulness and goodness of God! They will be stories of his grace, provision, strengthening, guiding, drawing and so many other things.

It is official!

As of December 24, 2007, the older of my "little" brothers Bryan is engaged to Genevieve Schaaf! Congrats guys!

His Faithfulness Displayed

I chose the web address for this blog (HisFaithfulnessDisplayed) because I believe that it really summarizes God's actions in my life...whether I'm aware of how or not! Each step in my life from the day I was born into a Christian family, was personally drawn to the Lord and saved at a young age, got my first deer (and others since =)), had good highschool jobs, was helped to get a good degree and offered an opportunity to get my masters degree payed for, have been shown favour in career progression, have been blessed with a good church and opportunities to serve, enabled to buy a house, and many other small and large things have all been evidences of God's favor and kindness. Despite my unfaithfulness and sinfulness he has been faithful to forgive, faithful to love, and faithful to bless well beyond what I deserve. The line from the song Always Forgiven, "all you have shown me is grace, love, and mercy" is really true.



Honestly, though the above is totally true I need to grow in cultivating an awareness and gratefulness for it. However, my hope is that this blog will point to the truth of his faithfulness and kindness and serve as an encouragement and reminder to myself. I also hope that it will encourage you as well because the same God who has and will continue to show me faithfulness is also at work in the same way on your behalf! What a blessing that we all serve a God who is actively working in our lives and the functioning of the world to bring forth a superb plan much greater than we can work out. Even in the hard times, we can rest in his sovereignty.



One recent example of God's faithfulness has been through my work situation. I had been blessed to have gotten a relatively new job that was a big improvement from the previous with a company. Things were going well and there seemed to be some good potential for future advancement. However, for various reasons it just didn't seem "right." Long story short, one day while on a jobsite in downtown Charlotte inspecting some work I was sitting down during a slow point just kind of praying in my head about my job and life and asking God for direction...and right in the middle of that a friend I new from another company happened to be walking by so I said hello. We ended up going out to lunch and it turned out that he was very disappointed that I had taken the job with this other company because he was hoping he'd be able to hire me, and though I was pretty intent on staying I listened to his thought for why I should join him. After taking some time to speak to some of the folks within his company and to pray about it and seek some counsel I finally decided to come on board not totally sure of what i was getting myself into but sensing it was the Lord.



Now I have been with the company The Shaw Group for a month and a half and it really seems to be a great fit! The work is more interesting, it is more pay, the hours are better, the environment is nicer, and I think there are more learning and advancement opportunities. Who knows how long I'll be here or what will happen in the future but for now it seems like it is just what I needed. Two examples...it has helped me to be able to throw more time into preparing for the church plant and helped make it possible to acquire my new house. How kind of the Lord to provide!



Here is a picture of me off to our company Christmas party last week...I think at 800+ people it was the largest party of that type I've been too!

The first day of Christmas break

Today was a busy day...at least after I woke up. I had today off, so I got a chance to sleep in a little which was a big blessing! However after waking up it was off to dismantling the counter tops and then help the installers put in the new granite counter tops. I think they look great...and I'm realizing now I probably shouldn't just state it but also give you a picture. However, I'm sitting comfortably in my bed, getting ready to turn off the light...so sorry guess not this time =) After getting all that in place I went shopping for new faucet, and a bunch of plumbing supplies because the under the counter sink we had installed hung much lower and had different spacing that the old one. I got those installed tonight and at least so far there are no leaks...which is a good thing as plumbing can be finiky sometimes!


While I was out I did take a little bit to swing by Kohls and pick up a few pairs of pants/shirts and I also swung by my house. They have made some good progress since the last time I was out. It apears that all the electrical and water supply is installed and that they have been inspected, the roof has been shingled, the fireplace installed, and the windows and doors set. I do have photo's of that, so hear you go:

From the kitchen

The upstairs bonus room

Moving forward

Things have been stiring in the Detwiler household. In preperation for the move to Mooresville, we've started the process of getting our house ready for sale. Not a quick task when you've lived in the same place for 17 years. Thankfully we had recently had our roof replaced, upgraded all the windows, and painted the house so that didn't have to be taken care of. But, inside there are walls to be painted, carpets to be replaced, and things to neaten up.

Just my room, the smallest in our house (with 4 doors and a window), that functions as a music studio, office, and of course a bedroom needed lots of work. In fact after hours and hours worth of work, and multiple trips to the storage area this is what it looked like:

Thankfully it is looking better now after getting my room painted and being able to put the remaining stuff back. However, I think I will be missing my desk which I moved off to storage to create a more open look in my room for sales purposes. For now at least, my bed will be my office! :)

Next week we are having the carpets and countertops replaced...then the house will be close to ready!

The Beginning

And so it begins...after not having blogged for a while, I'm thinking about resuming for two reasons. First, there are so many things going on and changing in my life, that with all the things going on it is hard to keep up with everyone here, not to mention my relatives and friends throughout the country. My hope is that this will help keep in touch. Secondly, I find that purposefully putting my thoughts down in a blog on things the Lord has been speaking to me, or doing in my life is a very helpful process for me personally, regardless if people are reading it. Though I do hope that it is also encouraging to you as well.

Blogger seemed to be a bit more "professionally" oriented site, so assuming I like "blogger," I will do my best to periodically post some thoughts and I'd love to hear from you along the way.

For those who are interested in seeing older posts you can link to www.xanga.com/jmdetwiler