Journey of Shawn Peoples' Walk in Grace!

This has been a heck of a month so far. Satan has done some great things to get Michelle and I in discouragement. First, I spent New Year's Eve, Day and the day after sick. I usually quarantine myself to the basement when sick and enjoyed (not) three days down stairs by myself. Michelle had to run the house while I was out of commission. After the weird stomach bug I had, I came down with a chest cold. On Thursday, as I was healing up, Michelle had a kidney stone attack. We went to the ER and they sent us home thinking she would pass the stone. Friday afternoon arrived and she ended back up in the ER. This time they sent her overnight to a hospital about 20 minutes away from the house, where she spent the night and had surgery the next day to take out the stone. Michelle's parents drove all night and some students helped me watch the kids. She came home Saturday after surgery, while we got Joshua to his first basketball game ever (thanks to Cliff Glenn) and Haleigh played in th...

It is no secret that we are looking for people to join us in Hawaii to start this church in Kapolei. I am still stuck on the struggle of people saying yes. For many years I would tell God yes, but then wait for Him to do certain things before I obeyed. Many times, I did not even check with Him before doing ministry. I now realize how easy it is not to be intimate with Christ and still do ministry. For many years I lived this way, not relying on what He was doing in me, but relying on what I knew to minister. At first, it was hard to go back to intimacy with Christ. I had become so reliant on me that I forgot what it was to rely on Him. Now, I cannot go a day without His work in my life. Many times I have realized that I have not enjoyed God's provision when I was not where God wanted me. How could I rely on Him, when I was not being obedient? I did not rely on Him because I was not where He wanted me to be. Intimacy brings us to that place where He pours out His Spirit and shows ...

As I sit here in Memphis, I realized that it has been a month and a half since I had written. Tons of things have happened since my last writing. First, we have decided to move our area in which we are planting. We are moving to a town called Kapolei. Kapolei did not exist 10 years ago. Today, well over 30,000 people live in this area. In the next 10 years, 12,000 more houses will go in and the University of Hawaii is moving half of their current campus to this area. The state and local governments are also moving their offices to Kapolei. Because of all the movement, they call Kapolei "The Second City". This area is growing with all ethnicities and is growing rapidly. We are going to plant a church right in the middle of it. We feel very confident about this being the area where God wants us. We had felt a wall in Kaneohe and could never find peace about going there. But now that we have turned to this area, a greater excitement has come into our lives. We are currently wa...

It has been 7 months since Michelle and I surrendered to the Lord's invitation to Hawaii. Wow, time has flown and we see more and more how God is stretching us. Right now it feels like the quiet before the storm. I feel twice as busy, with tons of things to do. However, it still feels like we are not into the big things yet. Before I know it, I will be packing this house up (when it sells), taking my children to Memphis for the last time in a long time and putting my family on a plane to begin our lives in Hawaii. Although the time is flying, there have been times where I have been tempted to be discouraged. There is so much uncertainty around us and it seems that our move is still far off. This can be discouraging, especially since my role at the church is lessen incredibly since Judgement House is over. It is tempting to get in a lull and mope about waiting on the Lord to move in mighty ways to sell our house, raise our funding and get us debt free. But I also see that this is a ...

Thank you for everyone who has been praying for us. The last few weeks have been incredibly busy. We have just finished with Judgement House at Urbancrest and saw 114 people turn to Jesus for the first time. Michelle and I are working through Launch to get ready. This week and next we will begin to send out letters to those we are connected with to raise prayer support and financial support. Michelle and I head to Lynchburg Va in November to hopefully be approved for funding through Liberty Baptist Church Planting Network. We seemed to be approved through NAMB and are waiting on the figure they are going to support us with. We are also waiting for Urbancrest to work through their 2012 budget. In the next few weeks I will be meeting with Pastors that might lead their churches to support us financially. I have been praying for 10 churches giving an average of $400 each. I have had some great opportunities to share our vision with several different churches and have seen several of these ...

As of this evening, everyone has probably heard that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc. and an incredible inventor has passed into eternity. Though most of us do not know where Steve Jobs is spending eternity, this is not the reason for this writing. In Steve Jobs I have seen the finger print of Our Creator which is in everyone. I admire Steve Jobs not only for the incredible technology and products that have been a help to have, but for one statement he made several years ago. In addressing Apple Inc., Mr Jobs made it very clear that he did not want his product used for pornography. In response, Apple has limited app creators from making XXX apps and has limited the sale of those type of apps. Though there is some apps that are porn in the Apple line up, it amazes me that a man that did not openly declare Christ as his savior but fights against one of the biggest destroyers of men and families. I have had an admiration for Mr. Jobs since he said what he did. Like many of you, I did ...

Well, this week has been a tough week. We enjoyed our time in PA with the Henz's and Community Fellowship during their Global Awakening weekend. Unfortunately, Haleigh lost her favorite stuffed animal named Ernie when we left. Fortunately, Ray went to the hotel and found it. Wheeewwww. We had exactly 12 hours to relax when we got home before Michelle and I traveled to Kettering Hospital for my surgery. Now after 3 days, I am still sore and a little tired. It has been hard to get motivated these past few days. I have been in and out of sleeping on the couch in the basement and did not get anything done that I wanted to get done. This weekend, we will begin working on letters to send out for support. We need to get some printing done this next week to get those letters out and need to begin to work on our website to give people a glimpse of what we will be doing while starting up the church in Hawaii. So this next week will be incredibly busy. On a different note, pray for Harlan a...