“Losing family obliges us to find our family. Not always the family that is our blood, but the family that can become our blood.” ~ Finding Forrester
Last week marked ten years since our family arrived in Bluffton. Lisa and I with our (at the time) five children arrived to a new home and community. Leaving the mountains of North Carolina was difficult for the incredible beauty that always surrounded us there and continuously revealed God’s Glory. However, I’ve told many then, and still believe today, we were given a winning lottery ticket when we arrived in Bluffton.
Looking back, these years have been some of the most rewarding of our lives. This is an incredibly satisfying vocation with the privilege to preach a Gospel that so radically transforms people’s lives. I’ve also been greatly blessed to work with an incredible staff and a Godly man in Fr. Chuck Owens, and I feel so thankful that the Lord has surrounded me with such a great cloud of witnesses. I’m also immensely thankful for my wife Lisa who has supported, challenged, and loved me through all of it. There are many days I arrive home weary, carrying the weight of the brokenness and sadness of people’s lives. Lisa has made our house a place of happiness and healing. The images that often come to mind are how J.R.R. Tolkien described the House of Elrond.
“His house was perfect, whether you liked food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or reading, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Merely to be there was a cure for weariness. … Evil things did not come into the secret valley of Rivendell. … It is a place where travelers find their clothes are mended, and so are their bruises, their tempers, and their hopes.” ~ The Hobbit: A Short Rest
Lastly, my life has been so richly blessed by you, God’s people, who have been drawn to The Church of the Cross. Look how God has used all of us to accomplish ministry for His Glory!
“Surely the Lord is in this place…what an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!” ~ Genesis 28:16-17
