Yeah I said it!

Just thought I would let you in my mind a little more and let you know about my twitter account. If you don’t know what twitter is they are little thoughts in 140 characters or less thru out the day. I have tried to write them (or tweet) to tell collect my thoughts, encourage others, quote people, and let you know what is happening in my life. If you have a twitter account you can follow me @pastordwilliams. If you would like these thoughts sent straight to your cell phone as a text all you have to do is text 40404 and in the body of the text write: follow pastordwilliams. Then BOOM!!! These tweets will come straight to your phone thru out the day and you will be blessed.

Here is a sample what I have said the past two weeks:

“The best thing we can do for our ministry is be connected with Jesus...if not we are just giving people ourselves.”

“God hears our silent prayers (Neh 2:4). Pray to God thru out your day today...he hears your heart.”

“Sins of omission often go unnoticed and under the radar...Have you been repenting from these type of sins?”

“We don't lose a passion, we replace it with something else (Rev 2:4).”

“Expect opposition when you pray and then pray through the opposition.”

“Today Laura and I have been married for 8 years...I love her more then ever!!!”

“Here are some scriptures on prayer:

Lk 18:1; Rom 12:12; Eph 6:18; Col 4:2; 1Thes 5:17; 1Pet 4:7.”

“Jesus wants your affection. He is always giving you His.”

“Satan hates church planters...Please be praying for me and my family.”

“Here is a challenge: Don't ever give an answer without prayer.”

“Went to harvest riverside today and was brought to tears when a lady next to us started praying loudly to accept Christ.”

“If God told you to do it then just be obedient.”

“Your life matters and God delights in you (Zephaniah 3:17).”

“God moves in response to fasting and praying (Neh 1:4). This may be hard for you but try fasting this week...a great way to seek God.”

“Visit www.fitforthefield.com for streaming audio on church planting. I am loving being here!!!”

“Prayer is sometimes the easiest thing to give up in our schedules BUT it must be the most important thing. Don't give it up today.”

“Love is always more powerful then rules...Always!”

“You think and talk about what you love. So what is consuming your thoughts and what are your words telling you?”

“Repentance is a good thing. We should constantly be turning to Christ.”

“Thank u Jesus for the great weekend. I would also like to thank Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, & Huntington Beach for hosting.”

“If you are a slave it doesn't matter how hard you work...you can work really hard and that won't free you. Embrace Grace!”

Life on Campus

Here is what life looks like for us here on the Bible College Campus:

Schedule: Classes begin at 9am Tuesdays thru Fridays for Daniel and me. The ladies here meet up for Bible Study, prayer, and accountability every morning which has been a wonderful, unexpected blessing! There are between 5 and 8 women depending on the day. The guys have classes until 12:30 every day, and we all meet up for lunch with the campus staff. The food has been surprisingly good! Our kids even eat some of it! The guys have a break with us until 2pm, then go back to class until 5:30pm. The kids and I generally go back to our room during the afternoons for naps, laundry, and air conditioning!! It is HOT down here! :) (97 degrees today, I think?) We all eat dinner together in the evenings again and have free time in the evening. Fridays and Mondays are free days, with Sundays being different each week. We will be visiting various churches in the area on Sunday mornings, and the guys will have some time with the pastors during the afternoons. 

Dorm: We are living in a single room, single bath, and one closet dorm right next to three other families in similar rooms. We all share a patio area where all the kids can play while we sit and visit together! It is a great set up! We were a little concerned at first because our room didn't have air conditioning, but we just had that fixed and are now much more comfortable. I was a little worried about how our kids would do moving from home to my parents' house to hotels then to the Bible College, but I guess I worried too much. Last night, when we brought the kids home after a worship service we put on for some high school service here on campus, Jeremiah walked in the door, plopped himself on the bed, and sighed, "Ahhh, Home, Nice, Home." :) They are just fine.

Spiritual Life: We are both being fed and challenged here. The Lord is stretching us and teaching us so much--thus far, it has been very focused on prayer. We have also seen a great spiritual battle going on as we pursue these things of God. God is at work here, and we are very certain that this is where He has intended for us to be for this stretch of time. God is good, and is keeping us in His care.

Prayer Requests:

-Protection from the enemy for us and our children

-Strength for Daniel as he tries to absorb a great deal of information in these classes

-Patience and guidance for us both with our children

-Physical strength and healing for various health issues

-That we would glorify Jesus in ALL of these things!

The Journey

Our drive south to the Calvary Chapel Bible College was a great blessing for us. We planned ahead to leave the day after Mailey's 2nd birthday party and took 8 days to get down to Murrieta, California where we will be staying til mid-July. Our close friend, Jessica, made the trek down to northern California with us, caravan style, since she has family there and our trips worked out at the same time. We all stayed the first night in Eugene, Oregon, then on to our friends' house in Redding, California where we love to go and stay as a family. We left Jessica there and she went on to see her family. We stayed for four days in Redding, swam in the pool, relaxed a little, and then drove south to Monterey, California and enjoyed the great blessing of the ipad for the kids, since we got stuck in traffic and they got to watch cartoons in the backseat! We visited "the carnival" in Santa Cruz then hung out in the adorable town of San Luis Obispo for an afternoon. We made it to Ventura for Sunday morning worship at Reality Ventura, Britt Merick's church. He wasn't there, but we were so encouraged by the message from the Reality pastor from San Fransisco. The worship was also a great blessing to us! We had one last night in Laguna Hills before finally arriving at the Bible College Campus in Murrieta.


For those of you unfamiliar with Calvary Chapel Bible College, let me tell you a little bit about it. :) Calvary Costa Mesa purchased the Murrieta Hot Springs Resort several years back and converted it into a combination conference center/Bible College for students. The whole campus is basically still set up as a resort environment with gardens, hot springs, swimming pool, prayer chapels and hidden places for quiet study, prayer, and conversation. There is also a small man-made lake with ducks, and a "beach" front where our kids love to play with their shovels and buckets. We are very spoiled in the beautiful environment where there are about 15 guys doing the "Fit for the Field" church planting program. Five of these guys are married and have their wives and kids here with them--more on that later. :)


We arrived here at the Bible College on Monday, June 13th and met the group that we will be basically living with till we finish up here in July. We had a family BBQ and pool party and met Pastor Kevin Fitzgerald and his wife Amanda from Ireland who are leading the course. We had a little bit of time to visit, then settled into our room.


We are living in a dorm facility with our kids in the same area as the other families. Jeremiah and May are in twin beds, and Daniel and I are sleeping in two twins pushed together in the middle of the room. Hey, it works! We have our own bathroom with a shower only, so our kids have taken to bathing outside in a plastic tub. Again, whatever works!


So, we got settled, and classes have begun, and the journey down was completely covered in prayer. We are so thankful to have made it safely with relatively few bumps along the way! God is so good!

 

 

My pastor is black

Just had a student send me this rap song he wrote for me to tell me thank you...and I love it!!! It is called MY PASTOR IS BLACK. It is really encouraging to see fruit in your life as you abide in Jesus and point people to Him. I know that some of you won't have people write you rap songs for serving the Lord but I do know He delights in you and how you point others to Him. So be blessed as you listen and YES I am black:)