With each new year we have the opportunity to reflect on the year we have finished and Hope and Dream about the year that lays ahead.  I thought I would do some of that with you and see what your thoughts are.

2009 was a year of peeks and valley’s!  We continued to grow at a ridiculous rate.  Each new family who has come and joined our community has taken my breath away.  They come with their gifts, talents and abilities as well as their pain, their history and their fears.  And some how God is taking all of it and weaving together a tapestry that inspires people to follow him.  It is a rare gift and a humbling reality to be a part of.

But there has also been sorrow.  This year we lost two family members to cancer, Joe Zarr and Ashley Souba.  Their death sent shock waves through our community and the entire community of Batavia.  Also Charlie and Johnny, two of our elders were both diagnosed with Cancer.  Charlie’s was opperated on and he has been given a clean bill of health.  Johnny has just undergone his fourth chemo treatment and will have his first scan since being diagnosed on the 14th of this month.  I expect good news.

In all, like our lives both the ups and downs have caused us to grow and I pray, God to be honored through us.

In this coming year we will have a new set of challenges.  We are starting to fill up our current facilities, we will be taking on the responsibility of an office space and I have just gone full time again for the first time since coming up here to plant the church.  With each new family comes greater responsibility and weight, but they also bring the answers to what is lacking in our body.

This year more than any other we will see new inidivuals and families being set free to pursue the true passions of their hearts for God.  New small groups will form, greater ideas and creativity than ever before and as each one of us add what we bring God will give us the clearest picture of what He is calling us to become and where He would have us serve Him this year.

I am confident of two things, last year was amazing, and I will never forget it, and this year is going to be one to remember.   I want you to experience it with me, but it will take you  committing everything you have to the process.  Be daring this year, through your whole heart into your pursuit of God and his purpose for your life.  Make this year like none so far.  Who knows, this could be your best year ever.