Sense of Relief

Man, do I feel a great sense of relief. My Dad is home and feeling good, my yard and pool are looking great, the house is clean, SOME tasks are caught up, email is caught up for the most part, and I am finally staring to get my bearings after being away almost 2 weeks.

Looking forward to being back with the congregation tomorrow after 2 Sundays out. We have a guest speaker...Galen Burkholder, one of Pastor Nelson's mentors. I am looking forward to his message. The title is "I am doing a new thing!" Pretty appropriate for us at CCF!

--Noah

Dad

Dad’s surgery this morning was successful! 2 stints were installed. All is well and they hope to send him home tonight. Thanks for your many prayers, calls and concerns. Mom appreciates it too!!

Garth

We went to Karaoke on the boat. That led to "tryouts" for the finale show. They needed a Frank Sinatra, an Alvis, a Britney Spears, a Gloria Estefan, a Garth Brooks and others. Well, I was pressured into trying out for Garth Brooks as I do like country music. I won. I was in the show. Here is the picture of me in costume. It's hard to see the big black cowboy hat I had to sport! They are lucky that I did not start preaching. You never give a preacher a microphone and 1,500 people! Smile. It was a good memory. They even gave us a DVD of the performance.

Twitter

I first heard about Twitter 6 months ago from a Pastor friend of mine. Basically it is a very fast growing program that allows mini-blogs for people to basically answer the question...."What are you doing?" in 140 characters or less. Here is the coolest part...that I just found out yesterday...with Twitter you can text message updates and they immediately appear on Twitter and on your blog!! No computer access needed. For example....many of you were waiting to hear about my Dad yesterday. I could have sent a twitter update to my blog and you could have known as soon as I did! No need to wait to get back to a computer. I have considered joining twitter for a while now, but I like to count the cost first. When I discovered that I could text updates, it was all over. I'm in!

So, look over on the right. That is updated with each new Twitter post.

To see my Twitter page or follow me, click here!

7 Practices....Great Book!

Read this book on vacation...."7 Practices of Effective Ministry." It was an outstanding book. It has been recommended from several trusted sources that I go through this book with our leadership teams. I have already ordered everyone a copy! I look forward to leading the Pastoral Team and Executive Board through a thoughtful review of this book over the next few months. Lots of great takeaways for CCF in this book. Looking forward to diving into it with other key leaders. If you want to read it, buy one and join in with us. Just let me know if you are reading it...I will pick your brain. It would be cool.

--Noah

Made some progress

Put time in the office, pulled some weeds, did some yard work, returned some emails, spent time with Dad (he will stay overnight at WHC and they will do the stints tomorrow....I will update you tomorrow), and made some progress toward re-acclimating to work and life. It was a good day.

I got something I gotta tell you about the cruise. I was in the finale show on the last night...sang in front of 1,500 people on a boat. I will post proof later. It was an embarrassing blast!

Update on my Dad

They went in this morning at about 9am to determine blockage to his heart and maybe do a procedure. They found that the blockage was pretty bad. They would prefer to do bypass surgery, but they fear that he is not healthy enough at this time. They will be running more extensive tests today and tonight and plan to attempt stints tomorrow (if they assess that the risk is low enough). That may buy him a year or so to get healthier at which point he may need to have bypass surgery. Not a great report, but we serve a GREAT God! Keep praying for Dad and all.

--Thanks!

(We are headed over to see him now.)

My Dad

Pray for my Dad! He is in the hospital right now having a procedure done on his heart. Mom should be calling in the next hour and we will likely be headed over there. We hope that the report is positive and that everything was successful. Pray that Dad's nerves stay calm. I know that he was nervous last night. Will update you later. Thanks for praying. His name is Joe Kaye (for those who do not know my Dad). Pray for Mom too!

--Noah

Back Home and Out of Sorts

We are home! Vacation was GREAT!!!! Lots of "husband and wife time" and lots of fun! We really went for it. This will probably be our last vacation without Davis (and other kids), so we partied hard! Glad to be home, though! Thrilled to be with Davis!!! Reality hit hard when we pulled in. My yard is out of control, weeds everywhere, our pool is half-opened where I left it when we got the call about Brayden, behind on emails, lots of catch-up to play, and Tricia and I were both remarking that we feel out of sorts and out of place. I know that will fade away, but the last few weeks have been so crazy. Gotta chip away at it. A little reorganizing and reprioritizing and we will be set!

I am SO THANKFUL for a tremendous Staff and church and a Family that is out of this world! They are so on top of everything and so supportive. Man, the staff is trying to kick me out today and I just got back. Smile. They want me to go be with my Dad. I will tell you about Dad in the next post.

Glad to be back in the Blogosphere! (Funny fact....we hit a record high blog hits 2 days before I left for the cruise and a record low while I was not blogging during the cruise. Glad you took a break while I did!)

--Noah

Having a Blast

We are having a GREAT time cruising. Friday we were in Puerto Rico, yesterday we were in St. Thomas and today we were in British Tortola. We are doing lots of resting, relaxing and really enjoying being together. Tricia and I have needed these moments. We miss Davis very much, but we are really at peace that he is in great hands with my parents. They are such a blessing! Missed being at church this morning. Well, just wanted to say hello. We have started our 2 day sail back to NYC!

Love!!

Mourning into Joy...Thoughts from Raleigh Airport

OK, how about an update. Why not? We have nothing else to do since our flight home is 3 HOURS DELAYED!!! We asked God to let us get here in time to catch our flight. He did what we asked him to. He just did too good! We made it here to Raleigh at 5pm for our 5:40 flight only to find it very delayed. So, I will give you an update from the airport.

Miraculous day. Isaiah 61:3 was lived out in a real way today with Jake and Michelle. It says this...unto them that mourn in Zion, He will give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness...that he might be glorified. The memorial service was like nothing I have ever seen (I made it through without crying...wept up until I spoke and right after). Definitely broke the mold. Real, honest, worshipful, celebratory, equal parts tears of joy and tears of pain. At the end of the service we opened up the room for a time of response to God. People lit candles, nailed their feelings and prayers to the cross at the front of the room, took communion, worshiped, and made new and renewed commitments to God. Check this out. Jake's older sister has been running from God for many, many years. She came back to Christ today with her whole family standing around her. Unbelievable moment! They left the funeral full of the Joy of the Lord. Is that not a miracle?!?! Here's what I told the congregation as I invited them to respond....GOD WILL BE GLORIFIED THROUGH THIS! The number one form that he wants this glory to be taking on is for his kids to turn to him. Why not let the glory begin today! And it did!

We serve a wonderful God! I wanted to leave you with this testimony before I jet. Jake has already called me on my cell this evening. They are sitting around laughing and enjoying being with family. I know there are tough days ahead, but God is already turning their mourning into joy!!

Get ready Davis, it is going to be a late night...because WE WILL BE HANGING OUT WHEN WE GET HOME!! I don't care what time it is! I don't care if we pull an all-nighter! We will all recover. We miss this kid like a lost leg.

Being Personal

I know I am writing a lot tonight, but I have a lot to get off my chest before I can sleep. This whole thing has been a whirlwind for Tricia and I. We have felt amazingly close these last few days, but there have also been some dynamics that have made this a really difficult experience for us. Let me be personal with you. Here are some of the difficult personal dynamics to this whole thing:

• It was really, really hard to leave Davis, but we felt that we had to! We just knew that we could not provide Jake and Michelle the care that we needed to if Davis came with us. We also knew that it would be wildly difficult for them to see Davis after having just lost Brayden. Even though we know it was the right thing to do, we have missed him so much it hurts! You know, when you hear of a tragedy, you want to go hold your kids. Well, we left ours! So difficult! I feel like a jerk for even saying that because what we are feeling is absolutely no comparison to what Jake and Michelle are feeling!
• To add insult to injury, we have had a vacation planned for 9 months...scheduled to leave o Tuesday from NYC on a cruise and planned to leave Davis with my Mom and Dad. We knew that he would have a blast with his grandparents, and that we needed this for our marriage (yesterday was our 6 year anniversary). However, now we have been away from him for 3 days dealing with the death of a baby his age!! It is just so complex. We are gonna miss him so much! We called and tried to add him on to the cruise, but it was impossible.
• We could really use your prayers for tomorrow! We will help them pick a burial plot at 9, get to the church at 10, service at 11, drive 300 miles to Raleigh, NC, and try to hop a 5:40 flight to BWI (that we will barely make in time), land at 6:30, be loving on Davis until 10:30, packing, getting up and leaving at 6:00am Tuesday for NYC! Now, breathe. Please pray that we make our 5:40 flight. If we don't, we have to take the 9:30 flight and miss all time with Davis. Those 4 hours with Davis tomorrow evening will be worth 4 million dollars to us!
• I thank God for a great staff and a great church! I know everything has been and will continue to be fine & dandy at the church until I am back and back in action on June 19th! They don't need me anyway. :-)
• Something cool...1 year ago Tuesday is when Tricia's dad passed away. She told me tonight that this has been the greatest thing that she could have ever done. Pay back what she received a year ago. Comforting the grieving! I wish you could have seen my wife down here these last few days! Take charge, leader, organizer, calling the women together to accomplish and do all that needed done. Tricia is a strong leader! Yall better look out for her as she matures and grows in confidence. She is coming at ya! Awesome heart! I wish you knew the half of it!

Alright, I am tired and going to bed. I doubt I will post tomorrow. We leave Tuesday. I may not post for a while. I really don't know. If I do, great! If I don't, bye bye until June 19th! I will be laying in the sun!

Love you all so much!

--Noah

Seacoast Rocks!!

Seacoast Church (Summerville Campus) is their home church here in SC. You may remember my site visit here a few months back that I wrote about. Anyway, this church has been an amazing display of how the body of Christ should work! We are staying with a family we have never met! There is enough food at the Michelle's parents house to feed the state of South Carolina, the Pastor and Staff have been amazingly supportive, and the care has been tactful, sensitive and timely. Great Church!! Just wanted to give them a shout out in the midst of this whole thing!

Baby Brayden

Jake and Michelle said many times today that they wanted many pictures around that celebrate his life. Tomorrow at the funeral, instead of a casket with Brayden it it, there will just be a memorial of pictures capturing his life at the front of the worship center at the church. We will be placing all focus on his life, not his death. Here is a good picture of the Brayden that we celebrate!

Some things that God has been showing me...

There are a few things that I feel like God has been showing me over the last few days. I want to capture them now and share them or else I am afraid that I will forget them. My mind is spinning right now as it is.

• Phillipinas 4:7 has new meaning for me. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Sometimes we need peace to come and replace our need for understanding. This has been one of those times for Jake and Michelle. I have been asking God for a peace that replaces their longing for understanding! We lack understanding when tragedies like this happen. There is no explanation and there are no answers to the many questions that Michelle and Jake have tonight! So, since there is no way to gain human understanding, divine God, grant peace!
• Brayden went from love to love! Born into a family of love, lived 17 months of love, and was ushered into the courts of a God of love. Brayden skipped the awkwardness of adolescence, the pain of a teen break-up, the identity crisis of the twenties, the mid life crisis of the forties....he skipped all that crap. He went from love to love. He never knew the pain that we do!
• I have heard it said that the goal of every parent is to see their child make it to heaven. Well, if that was true for Jake and Michelle, they reached their goal and they beat many of us to it! Brayden made it to heaven on Friday.

Do you want to help this family?

Perhaps you know Jake and Michelle and you want to help or perhaps you do not know them, but you want to help. There are two main ways that you can help them:

1. Pray fervently for them!! Not just today and tomorrow, but for weeks and months!
2. Send them a card with money in it!! They are stressed about finances, paying for a funeral, medical bills, neither can afford to miss work but need to for a while...they just need financial help. They have such a heavy load to carry that the last thing that they need to is to be worried about money. So, I am shooting straight with you here...if you know them or not and you feel led to help...send them money to:

Made out to: Jake & Michelle Zieg
Mailed to: 117 St. Awdry St.
Summerville SC, 29485

Tired Mind, Thankful Heart

Stealing a few minutes away at the end of an emotionally exhausting day to get my thoughts together before bed.

Today was tough and amazing all at the same time.

It was tough for many reasons....the main one being that we went with Jake and Michelle to see little Brayden's body for a final private viewing. The experience cannot be described with words. If you have done this before, you know what we experienced. If you have not ever seen a baby casket with a baby in it, there are not words to explain it. Period. I will say this. we knew and felt that people were praying.

Today was amazing in many ways too. God's strength and grace evidenced itself throughout the day. We knew there were moments that were humanly overwhelming and then they would be followed by moments that were divinely orchestrated. That divine intervention came today in the form a laughter a few times (nothing better than seeing Jake and Michelle smile) and in the form of encouraging words and thoughts that were shared that we knew had to be from God himself!

Tomorrow will be beautiful and difficult. The church was prepared by many helping hands tonight and the service plan for tomorrow feels really led of the Lord. Me and their Pastor Phil will be sharing leadership of the funeral service. We both KNOW that the Lord will be glorified through this tragedy, so we want it to start right away. We will be inviting people to respond to God tomorrow. Please be praying. I have a sense that as difficult as this will be, there will be a very strong sense of the presence of God with us all tomorrow...especially with Jake and Michelle.

--Noah

Tragedy...PLEASE PRAY

At 7pm last night, I received a frantic call from our friends in South Carolina, the Zieg's. Jake Zieg and I have been friends for 24 years. Jake and Michelle are 2 of our closest friends in the world. Last night, their son Brayden (born 2 DAYS before Davis) accidentally got out into their back yard, climbed into their above ground pool and drowned. This is one of the saddest situations that you could ever imagine. There are no words!!! We are here in SC (after a late night flight and 300 mile drive), helping, pouring ourselves out, meeting their needs and crying out to God for miraculous strength for them. PLEASE PRAY! Pray for peace that passes all understanding...because none of us have any understanding right now. How could we? The funeral service will be Monday. Pray especially for Jacob and Michelle and their 3 year old son, Nathaniel. Michelle is 2 months pregnant with what would have been their 3rd child. Dear God! Oh, how they need you!

Seeing God Today

There were 2 particular moments that I really felt like I saw God today:

1. The first was sitting with Lisa Savoy at a Nursing Hospice Center in DC. As she sat in her wheelchair barely able to move her arms enough to get a cup to her mouth, she shared this with me....I will paraphrase...."Nothing, absolutely nothing will ever cause me to doubt our God, the one true God. Only a real and powerful God could have made the human body in all of its greatness. What a network it is as he intended it to all work together. Losing my bodily movement has proven how amazing the body is and has solidified my faith in Almighty God!" Are you kidding me?!?! I want to weep just typing this!
2. The second was at Small Group tonight. I saw and felt the presence of the Lord as 9 people sat around a table tonight pastoring and caring for one another. Listening to each other. Challenging each other. Proclaiming faith and hope to each other. It was genuine and real. And I just sat there and watched and listened and thanked God. There were caring for each other and for me! How cool is that?!?! Day by day, I am more convinced that life change happens in circles, not rows! (We had Small Group at a new couple's house....on their deck backing to the woods. It was a great night.)

Visitations

There has been a growing list of people that I have wanted to go visit over the last 2 weeks, but of course not a growing amount of time with which to do it. Well, I have dedicated this day to be a day of visitations. I will be from DC to Upper Marlboro to Laurel. I look forward to seeing our oldest member, Mr. Yip, Lisa Savoy and others! Funny thing about visitations is that you go intending to bless these folks and it is almost always the other way around.

--Good Day to you!