God Is Delighted

I grew up in Southern Baptist churches - 1st Baptist of Marlin (18 yrs), Seven & James Baptist of Waco (4 yrs), 1 yr in Austin, 2 yr in Waco, Green Acres of Tyler (5 yrs), 1 yr in Plano, 2 yrs in OKC, Colonial Hills Baptist of Tyler (5 yrs), Hampton Road Baptist of DeSoto (15 yrs) and Ovila Road Baptist (3 yrs) - 56 years in the Baptist Church.

Then MaryAnn and I moved to NW Washington - Lynden, Washington is our physical address although we live out in the county. Everyone, I mean everyone told us we would have a hard time even finding a church to attend. Instead, what we found was a thriving Christian work that was much stronger than anything we had experienced in our lives.

Last night we saw 35 people baptised in our Saturday night service - 1400 people in attendance. The three services today saw 50+ people baptised. You realize that the Southern Baptist Convention gives special recognition to churches with over 100 baptisms in a year. We have already done that many and it is only February 15th.

God is delighted and I stand in awe of what God is doing in the world that we are so unaware of. He is so in control while we fell we are so helpless. God is awesome - I hate that word because it is so overused but HE IS AWESOME.

I count it all joy to be where I am and to be privileged to see His mighty work.

Next weekend is an event called Arrows Out. It showcases Christ The King Church work going on around the world. There are workshops, seminars and worship for anyone interested. Believe me people will be attending to equip themselves for the work ahead.

God is so good and He delights in seeing people come to salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.

I pray for each one of you daily.

Joel

I See You Dad

Homer Lester Baker, one of 9 children, one or two of whom died as children. He was my father and later my dad. He was 5 feet 11 inches tall with white hair and hazel eyes. His arms and neck were tan all year long from being outside but his body was white. He was a powerful man with lots of upper body strength and big hands, worn by hard work.

He was missing a lot of my early childhood traveling as a salesman. But then he came home and sold for the Lone Star Gas Company in Marlin. The gas company used to sell gas ranges, yard lights and even gas grills. From there he started teaching at South Junior High School in Waco and finally at Waco High School. He was a math teacher and that was his great gift in life. But he always wanted to be rich because he had a great longing to give his family what they wanted.

I remember his hands because they were big and had worked hard but also because he would message my legs at track meets between race to keep me limber. It really embarassed me when he did that but in hind sight it was wonderful for him to do that for me.

My dad loved me very much and looked to me to be successful where he had not been. He was also proud of me as the person he thought I was. I saw him this afternoon in my minds eye. His eyes were striking but also sad. My dad was not happy and I suspect he passed some of that along to my sister, brother and I. He didn't mean to but we as parents pass lots of things we don't realize we are passing to our children.

Another thing he passed to his children was his perserverance. I thanked him for that today.

I hope I see my dad again soon. I really miss him.

I love you dad,

Jody