We are home!

After 12 days, 39 cups of tea and 11 changes of underwear (yes, I had to double up one day due to bad packing!) Jordan and I are home! We had an incredible time on our ministry trip to England. The first seven days were spent assisting Darlington Baptist Tabernacle (check the church out at www.crbt.org.uk) with some community outreach. The pastor, Gareth Evans, has only been at the church for nine months so he is still in the process of laying the leadership foundation. He has the most incredible heart! Jordan and I stayed in his home for the week. The late night tea ( I finally broke down and asked for some hot chocolate!) with him was so encouraging.

The best part of the trip was experiencing it with my son. I have been on countless trips with groups. It's always refreshing to see God speak into their lives through the ministry experiences. But to be right there with my son while God is speaking into his heart was the best!

God confirmed some things in my own heart while away. I can't wait to share them with you over the next couple of days.

Pray for the Kid Connection staff. They hate it when I leave for extended trips. They know I will have too much time to think . . . and thinking leads to dreaming . . . and dreaming always leads to more work for them!

where's Keith

You may be wondering where's Keith. I am leaving for England in a couple of hours on a mission trip for 10 days. My son Jordan turned 13 yesterday so it's our first ever, father/son, rites-of-passage mission trip. I am so excited! I believe it's moments (a ten day moment in this case) like these that continues to lay the foundation in our kids lives. Pray for us. Pray specifically that Jordan will see that God is bigger than he ever imagined! And pray that he continues to grab hold of his OWN faith and not just his parents' faith.

I am not taking my laptop with me. If I did I would be so tempted to "get some work done" during the down moments. God kept telling me to focus on Him and Jordan.

I am going to try to borrow a computer to keep you updated on the trip while we are away. That's not work since it's a way of sharing our lives together!

family friendly service

We had an INCREDIBLE moment in the life of Pantego Bible Church with the family friendly service. I think it was a taste of heaven! Young and old worshipping with one another. The body of Christ laughing with each other (and even laughing at themselves!). Never in my life have I seen a church service with people kissing on camera, high fiving one another and even doing the now famous "rump bump!" If you missed it check it later this week at www.pantego.org.

I love being a part of an expereince designed for the entire family! I am thankful to minister with a pastor, elders and a bunch of people at a great church that values the family!

YOU ARE THE BEST!

messed up plans

We had the perfectl evening planned. My family was getting together with a family from our home group and we were going to the waterpark for the church-wide get together.

Then it rained!

And rained some more.

The kids were fussing and scared to death they were going to be bored (they firmly believe that my sole purpose for existance is to make sure they don't ver get bored)!

We were spontaneous (doesn't happen much in the Smith household). Ordered a pizza and rented "Where the Red Fern Grows." Although the book is a classic, I don't think it was ever nominated for any academy award. And the special effects aren't quite up to the expectations of the younger generation.

Right after Big Dan and Lil' Ann were buried and the red fern sprouted, I take my daughter upstairs to tuck her in. She gives me a kiss and says, "Dad that was fun tonight. We need to do it more often."

As I walked down the satirs, I asked God to let it rain more often.

The Beginning

I have always wanted to Blog. The Blog Master said it would be "my personal diary. My daily pulpit. My soapbox. My own breaking news outlet. My own memo to the world."

I didn't want all that! It all sounded too much about ME! I wanted something for US! God keeps drawing pictures (I do better with crayola pictures than I do with books with big words!) in my life. And all the pictures have people in them. Of course, the pictures have God in them, too!

The pictures look alot like the stories in the Bible. They are all about people. And God! They can't be separated. That's why I wanted a blog about US.

If God has designed US to share life together, there are times I wish US could be together more often. When US (messy grammar, but sharing life together can be messy sometimes!) are together we are encouraged to be more like GOD!

So the E-Project is about using the internet to draw even more pictures about YOU, ME (that's US) and GOD! I hope you will be encouraged!