BRB: Be Right Back!!

Hey Friends, we are on the move! This whole week we are packing up our home to move to Indiana on Sunday. Right now as I write this I am surrounded by boxes, packing tape, and things just waiting to be placed in a box. It is really overwhelming! But we are working hard. This Saturday we are having a huge pack party and everyone is invited!! 10-2pm we will provide lunch.

Also, keep us in your prayers. We are feeling the pressure of upcoming missions trips, moving, new ministry, new environment, and finishing up and starting another grad class, all in one month. We need HIS strength, and patience.

Love you all!! We will post as soon as the internet is up and running on MONDAY in our new Apartment in Fishers. Keep an eye out, and as always, drop us a comment or a phone call.

OH YEAH!! I almost forgot...My iBook died...May it rest in peace, however I harvested it's brain, and will be uploading it's life back into my new MAC in less than a week. So tonight's post is brought to you by Danielle's Dell.

Samuel Logan Brengle journal entry

Today I am packing...or trying to pack up my office. For me this is a very difficult and emotional task. A couple of students have placed small notes, EVERYWHERE! in my office. Notes of encouragement, scripture, and song lyrics, and They are all very humbling and encouraging to me. Of course I am saving them. But as I began to pack up my book cases, I came across a book I was handed a few weeks ago, "Journey Into Holiness". As I scanned the pages I came across this journal entry by Samuel Logan Brengle that touched my heart. Wanting to become a great preacher, he began to fervently seek the filling of the Holy Spirit. For weeks he searched the Scriptures, and then he began to examine his own heart....he writes this...

I saw the humility of Jesus, and my pride; the meekness of Jesus, and my temper; the lowliness of Jesus and my ambition; the purity of Jesus, and my unclean heart; the faithfulness of Jesus, and the deceitfulness of my hearts; the unselfishness of Jesus, and my selfishness; the trust and faith of Jesus, and my doubts and unbelief; the holiness of Jesus, and my unholiness. I got my eyes off everybody but Jesus and myself, and I came to loathe myself."

I like this quote by Samuel, because as I close up and pack up my ministry here in Mukwonago, I am so honored, humbled, and in awe that God would use a guy like me. Thank you Jesus!

the Classic, Always good for a Laugh...LEMON TEETH

Saturday Night, our good friends, Steve, Cindy, Matt, Mike, Tina, and Jake took Danielle and I out to my favorite place. TEXAS ROAD HOUSE!!!! Man I love that place, and they treated us to a really fun night. Of course we were too loud, and laughing about everything...even Danielle's famous laugh came out. But as the night wore down, we broke out the lemon teeth. Who doesn't love the lemon teeth? Here are some pictures!!

PARK WALK

We recently participated in our small town,s PARKWALK a fundraising event to raise awareness and funds for cancer research in the local hospital. Danielle and I were talking...it just feels like a ton of people get cancer. I remember when I was a kid it felt like elderly or much older people were effected with cancer. but now a days, it feels like anyone can become entrenched in this battle. This PARKWALK meant a lot to Danielle and I, and we are so glad Cindy W. allowed us to come in Steve's and Matt's place. When we arrived and saw all the people walking, the sight made us very emotional. We both felt like crying...which is strange. But as the walk went on, and as we talked with the survivors, family members and friends it was encouraging to hear their stories.

God moves in such dark places. Where hope is hard to find...hard to see...that is where God shows up...and that is what we all need to cling to in this broken world.

Above is a picture of our friend Kelly and her Family. Kelly is a survivor...and a great friend. Her family is very close to us, and we have loved laughing with them!!!

Kelly is not only a survivor...she surrendered her life to Christ, and leaned on Him in her dark time. Her faith challenges mine! Thanks Kelly!!

Also, we praise the Lord for taking Sue home this year. While it was hard for us to say goodbye. We know this battle was long and hard, and going home was such a relief. We love you Lord!! Thanks for the time you gave us with Sue, her faith, love, and passion for you, is still alive.

New Email:::We Are Back up and Running with Email!!!

It is interesting how many people have been sending me emails...it is incredible how my life has changed since that first hotmail email address way back my senior year of high school!! Amazing!!

well here is my new email: pastorfreed@gmail.com

lots of laughs...and tears now adays around the Freed's. We are adjusting and preparing for our move on Sunday, June 4. We are expecting this day to be really hard. Pray for us friends...

and drop us a comment=)

Email Down! AHAAAAAHHHHH

Hey Friends, I know millions of you have...ok thousands....ok hundreds...all right....a couple of you have been trying to email Danielle and I, the last couple of days and our email has been down. Our Church is changing servers and our email is down. We will be back up online very soon...we hope!!! No email is a crazy way to live!! I seriously don't know how we all did it before the internet. Of course feel free to drop us a comment!!

look what we found while we packed!!!

During a recent cleaning out of our storage area Danielle and I discovered two very neat thing about our life...

1. Danielle has a lot of trinkets from years past. We had three large tubs full of little items that had a little story. From a crushed can Christmas decoration to a bunch of crushed pennies, Danielle and I love memories. I guess that is why we like this blog. It causes us to slow down and reflect on the memories God is giving us. When we die, and our kids burry us, they will never say we had a lot of money. But they will say we were rich with memories and friends. Thanks so much for making memories with us Mukwonago. We will forever remember how Mukwonago was the first home in our marriage, the first adventure in ministry and the our first address where we received junk mail.


2. We discovered that John was moonlighting as Batman. more like creepyman.

You won't beleive what we saw!

Church signs always have cleaver things to say, like...."CH__CH, What's Missing? U R" here is one of our favorite church signs!

IN THE HOUSE!!

In our Student Ministries [CrossRoad Ministries] we have small care groups called LIFE GROUPS. Now don’t be mistaken these are not Bible studies or book studies, they are cell groups where students come together to join their lives in deep community. Each LIFE Group is facilitated and led by a LIFE COACH, which Danielle is one. She has a group of 12 girls that show up to our small apartment on Arrowhead Dr. for a LIFE GROUP, and each week is different, sometimes it is creating an intimacy map, or reflecting on a different Fruit of the Spirit [Gal. 5] or tackling life issuse and sharing burdens or victories with each other. Either way, I only catch a glimpse of it, because the group really cares about each other, so they hold tight to the policy what is said in the group stays in the group. However….
This past Monday, Danielle asked me to get the tarp out of the garage because she was going to be doing some tie-dyeing….IN THE HOUSE!!! Let’s just say, I was really nervous but also very proud. You see Danielle is an awesome LIFE Coach. She totally knows what it means to coach students to become the Christians God has created them to be. Here is what our LIFE Coaches committed to be in the lives of students…

Encourage:
___Through healthy adult relationships between students and adult LIFE COACHES we hope to encourage students in their daily spiritual journey from adolescence to early adult hood. Encouraging them in their unique S.H.A.P.E. and personal call on their life.

Empower:
Providing students with the tools to…
___REACH OUT to their friends and family in evangelism and servant leadership.
___REACH IN with specific elements of the Christian LIFE: DO – KNOW -- BE
___REACH UP with a heart of worship in all that we do.

Invest:
___To offer creatively designed programming focused on providing students with opportunities to use their gifts to serve to the Lord in their world.
___To provide literature, web content, and music that will strengthen and excel their spiritual growth.
___To Provide a place specifically designed for their generation to gather together in a family style atmosphere that gives acceptance, comfort, and challenge in their spiritual growth.


Well, our LIFE Groups are going to be something we miss a great deal about CrossRoad Ministries. but the philosophy and desire for deep community is something we will always strive for. And if you were wondering, after the night, Danielle said tie-dyeing in the house, was really scary, and decided it was a once in a life time fun thing to do. But probably would not attempt it again unless it were outdoors!

Subscriptions

Recently I was thinking of getting a subscription to another magazine called HOMILETICS, when I realized, Danielle and I get a ton of magazines. Currently we are getting, GROUP, RELEVANT, RADIANT, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, READERS DIGEST, O [buy it off the shelf], Mental Floss[subscription just ended], OUTREACH, BOOKS AND CULTURE, WESLEYAN LIFE, AND OF COURSE the TRIANGLE. But I have pictured my favorites for you to see. Here is why we get so many magazines...

TOP 10 REASONS TO Subscribe to Magazines!!
1. Easy read: Most articles are quickly written to be quickly read. They quickly get to the point, share the information and leave with a little smarter, in about five minutes.
2. Most Magazine articles are the gold minded from larger books. For example, most of CHRISTIANITY TODAY articles are excerpts from much lager books, that go on and on. but an article is quick and to the point.
3. A Magazine is fun, great pictures, interesting places, and quick humor.
4. Magazines capture current cultural trends faster then a book. A book takes months if not years to be polished and published. A magazine has only one to two months to reprint itself.
5. You can share an article with a friend much easier. For me to photocopy pages in a book would be time consuming, but with a magazine I can copy an article and pass it around to my friends.
6. Magazines are specific and purposeful. When I open OUTREACH magazine, I know what I am going to be reading about.
7. Cheaper then a volume of books. I recently got RELEVANT for my friend Pat for 6 bucks!! you can't beat that!!
8. Who does not love to get cool mail!!!
9. They make great gifts!! and cheap!!
10. They go great in a bathroom.

Bonus Reason: Stay Relevant with the times with current culture magazines

Well just a thought..enjoy your magazine subscriptions!!

BABY GOT BOOK!

I love this VIDEO!! You have to Check this out!! Danielle and I bought the DVD!! You should too!!

NEW HOME

Well Danielle and I were in Indiana this past Thurs, Fri, and Saturday looking for a new home. After searching and seeing EVERY apartment complex in the area we finally decided on Sand Creek Woods Apartment right off 116th street. We really loved the area and the complex offers a community pool, hot tub, indoor half court basketball/volleyball court, and a work out gym. Also each apartment has a garden tub and wood burning fire place. We are so excited about this new home!


Also, Danielle and I will be able to adopt a new family member. A precious little dog. We have been wanting a dog for years, and with a new apartment comes the ability to adopt. We will be sure to share all the pictures with you!! Keep checking into our blog as we will update you our friends and family with our adventure. Our move in date is set for June 4. Continue to pray for our family here in Wisconsin, as we make this transition.