Gregg Family Ministry Update - December 2011

Thanksgiving at Grandpa and Grandma's house in Grass Valley

In less than a month our family will be taking on all the responsibilities of full time ministry with  Christian Service Brigade   (CSB Ministries). This is absolutely exhilarating but as you might imagine a bit nerve racking and stressful. Were it not for God clearly calling us to this ministry the daunting enormity of it might just seem too big. However, with such a clear call the bigness of the call just makes it all the more exciting! As Jesus reminded us

"He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." -- Luke 10:2 

With the echos of a delicious Thanksgiving meal (or two) still pushing up the corners of my mouth that word "plentiful" has an especially encouraging ring to it.

We are in fact seeing a growing desire of fathers to disciple their sons, of sons to turn their hearts to their fathers, and of churches to help equip men in this gospel calling (Malachi 4:6). Don't believe me? Every newsletter I provide a story to encourage even the most "glass half empty" realists among us. If you read a little farther you'll get to this months really cool story.

The kids had a great time at Del Osso Family Farms in November!

AN IMPORTANT WAY YOU CAN HELP:

As we end this year, and look ahead to a new life as full time domestic missionaries we are entirely dependent on people like you to support us financially in this ministry. As of today we still have more than half of our support left to raise. Would you partner with us by committing to support our ministry with a monthly or even one time financial gift as we strive to help churches effectively reach men and boys for Christ?

The hardest part of our ministry: Dad's with pompoms

Brad is one of those young men poised to do great things. In a couple of years gaggles of grey headed grandmothers will be dragging their bewildered grand daughters across crowded church fellowship halls in hopes of sparking a romance. He is a godly young man and I can hardly blame those well intentioned octogenarians. But I must ask those blue haired matchmakers to plug their ears for a moment because I am about to remove their proverbial rose colored glasses.

Brad is a sinner AND he's a young man. Combine these two volatile substances and the explosion invariably produced will be lust. Yup. Even the squeaky clean kid who compliments those old grandmas on their Easter hats and is the first to volunteer to help stack the chairs at church, if he's a young man and a sinner will also struggle with lust.

Cool Reads: Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World

I gave this book to a young man last Monday for his birthday. When I saw him a week later he said he couldn't put it down. In fact he'd gotten in trouble for reading it in class.

This is in fact now one of my favorite books. I've read it twice, once to myself and a second time to my family. It took me a couple months to figure out how to even describe the book. It is part story telling, part satirical, part philosophy, and part natural science.

Let me put it this way. If you want to appreciate the world in a way you never have before, hear the most creative answer to the problem of evil that I've ever heard, encounter the quirkiness of the worlds philosophers, and enjoy every minute of it, then spend the $10 and never take snow, kittens, Kant, naked mole rats, eagles, Nietzsche, quarks, thunder storms and missing fingers the same way again! To read other reviews and to purchase the book click here for more information.