When you watch a child taking their first steps there is something that clicks within you. You can’t help but to smile, clap and cheer for the child. You can’t look away; the moment draws you into it like a magnet.

Tonight Isaac took nine steps. During Kimberly’s Bible study, Isaac let go of the couch and walked to her. It’s on now. Life is about to get even faster because you know what’s next – that’s right, running.

On rainy nights like this one I have a tendency to sit in my office, stare out my office window, and reflect. Tonight before I called it a day, I did just that, and my reflections tended toward my uncle, back home, and my early driving years. There were at least a half dozen times when I was an early driver that I found myself beside a rode somewhere with some kind of automotive difficulty. This never caused alarm for me, because I knew if I could get to a phone, I could call my uncle and he would drop whatever he was doing, whenever to come and help me. One time he even happened to be driving by when I had broken down. There is a sense of peace to have family that will stop whatever they are doing to help you when you need them. So thanks Bruce. You don’t really appreciate that until it’s not there anymore.

Today, Kimberly took my car into Frederick and left me with the urban assault vehicle (i.e. mini-van). She called me this morning and asked, “is it ok that your car is smoking?” No, smoke does not always billow from the hood. I met her in Frederick and drove it directly to the mechanic shop and she drove the van home. Now, as I was praying that the car would make it to the shop, the thought went through my head, “how am I going to get home?” Through the engine's knocking, blaring lights from the dash board, and dense smoke cloud, I made a phone call.

I still have a family; it may not be biological but it is just as strong. I knew of a Daybreak church family that lived close by that would loan me a truck. They dropped what they were doing, came and got me at the shop and took me to their home and loaned me their car. It is a great feeling to know that my church family will help me and my family in this way. It probably is not a big deal for them to do this, but for me it was huge. So thank you; they know who they are.

After 11 months of growth Kimberly and I realized that Isaac needed a haircut. While I usually cut the boys hair with clippers, Kimberly was not all that big on that idea. So for weeks we have just let it go, and go, and go. Toddler’s hair doesn’t tend to grow everywhere, so Isaac was really showing his roots with what can best be described as a mullet. If you are not familiar with this hairstyle, the idea is to look professional and clean cut in the front and wild and crazy in the back.

Anyway, the whole crew ended up at Respite this past Saturday. We had several new families, new volunteers – overall it was a great day. To top it all off there were hair stylists (who specialized in mullets, by the way) there volunteering their time. They offered to cut anyone’s hair, so we sat Isaac down.

The reason I mentioned this is because Isaac’s first haircut was done in the setting of ministry. We were there to serve the Lord and others; there were others there to serve as well. We had a need met; they had a need met – isn’t this how ministry is supposed to work?

Acts 4:32-35 “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. ³³With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. ³⁴There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales ³⁵and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”

As a church Daybreak will prayerfully break ground this summer. As we are putting together architectural drawings, site plans, etc…we have come to realize that this project will be a very expensive process. So, I suggest that there are still other options still available to us. For example . . . recycling . . .

Some entrepreneurial person in Alabama said, "why not go up?" simply brilliant! Alabama has a whole another idea of code requirements.

A few weeks back I ordered a doll kit from www.Doorposts.com and when I received it, I knew that I would not be able to put it together. It was all in little pieces, and let’s face it, I am no seamstress. I asked a lady in our church to put it together and today I got it back. It looks awesome! She did an amazing job on it. It looks professionally done – I really mean it.

The doll is a normal looking doll with normal hair, beautiful dress, etc… but when you pull the dress up there is another doll on the bottom. The other doll is a pig with a raggedy torn dress. I am looking forward to teaching my children (especially Hannah-Grace) about the true meaning of beauty. The kit also came with a book, “Beauty and the Pig.”

I am planning to take about a week to read through the material and begin using the doll with the book to start teaching my children. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The Bible verse that is the focal verse is Proverbs 11:22 "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion."

It is such a blessing to have a church family that can help me with stuff like making this doll. It was such a blessing to me for her to make this for us.

Tonight our small group met at the FMH emergency room. We put together little yellow plastic bags (complete with Daybreak logo), filled with candy, apples, water bottles, pretzels, and various happy meal toys. We then went through the emergency room and offered these bags and offered to pray with people. Who hasn’t been to the emergency room, having rushed out of the house (because it was an emergency) and have had to sit there for hours with nothing to eat or drink, or even do.

We saw some people who had visited Daybreak months before and disappeared into thin air. I do have a new theory about people visiting and not coming back to church. It’s not that they didn’t like us, they are just still waiting in the emergency room!

C. was able to pray with a woman and talked to her for some time, and I and D. were able to pray with people as well. So overall the event was a great success. All my kids also went. Joshua was cool with just holding the bags and handing them out to the rest of the team. Caleb and H-G were racing against each other to see who could hand them out the fastest. Isaac was well past his bed time, so we had to keep the stroller going at all times. All of them (except Isaac) kept sneaking candy out of the bags, so we are going to have to discuss why we were giving it away.