Journey of Shawn Peoples' Walk in Grace!

The last week has been incredible. I have seen God open up and invite us into people's lives. I am so excited, I do run around this Star Bucks shouting GLORY (Joe Veal'ish). I have been coaching volleyball here in Kapolei and God gave me an God appointment at the airport with one of the player's parents last week Monday. Then last night, a parent on our flag football team asked me what I did. I got to share our vision for our church and invited him to bible study. At first I thought he blew me off, but at the end of practice he asked when we were starting and told me he is bringing his wife with him. Are you kidding me? God did that and has allows us to invite other people to come over for dinner beginning next week. God has been rocking it! Today I had a two hour conversation with a man I will identify as Mr E ( he seems very influential here and I don't want to shame him). He told me about all the things he has been doing here on the island for the last 30 years. He t...

So we have been here about a month and a week. As of today I volunteer two days a week at the local rec center and help a new college bible study on Tuesday nights. As Michelle and I get acclimated to our new home area I grow more eager to see this church come to fruition. I feel like I am just starting to feel like I can engage this community. We are seeing how hard relationships are to begin here. People are very private here and are not open to new comers from the outside. In most of the churched I have visited here, this same feeling exists. Many people are not getting outside their immediate relationships when you walk into their churches. This is a horribly sad sin that is very real. Is not the church to be to most open and loving organism in the world? John tells us that Christ said we are known for our LOVE for one another. How loving is it to walk past those we don't know because of fear, busyness, ignorance and hate. Whether that is a deeply hurt sinner or someone that ju...

Recently I have been feeling alone in this journey. When I feel alone, I get overwhelmed and try to do too much. This has been a time of stretching for me. One of the things I had grown use to having something to work with when beginning a new ministry. Most ministries I have been involved in have had someone there for me to lead and then those people would reach their friends. This has been frustrating to me realizing that I have no one outside of my immediate family to disciple here. As I was praying yesterday, I came to the thought that God was the only one to create something out of nothing. This caused me to beg Him to do this again in this church start. I am realizing that it is God who brings people to Himself and it will be God that will connect me with those He wants to bring to Himself. It will be God that creates ex nihilo (I think I spelled that right, it means out of nothing) and it will be God who gets the honor for all He creates. I also have been struggling with what ...

Well, not for me, but it is Prince Kuhio day. Prince Kuhio was royalty here on Hawaii. He drafted the first Hawaii Statehood bill in 1919 and helped set aside 200,000 acres for Hawaiians to have homes. Today, I tried to get my truck registration taken care of and had forgotten what today was. I am beginning to learn that I have a lot to learn. I think I am going to spend the week in a community center and with the chamber of commerce. Hopefully I can quit being the naive out of state guy and start engaging culture through itself. Well, our first week in the house has been great. I can see that God has placed us in this house for a reason. We have already begun to engage our neighbors and our kids spent there hours yesterday playing with our neighbors kids. Our internet will not be hooked up until thursday, but this has allowed us to spend more time outside and cleaning. The house is about 65% ready, with a few more boxes to unpack and a few projects for me to hit this week. We are pr...

Tonight, Urbancrest Baptist Church will gather in several homes and hear from some of the faithful across the world. This week is Urbancrest's global focus on missions. It has always been an honor to be part of the Global Impact Celebration at Urbancrest, but this year the Lord has moved us a week before it. I struggled with this when we set this timeline to move, but I know that the Father in heaven has been faithful to teach me while I am here. I have learned so much that has caused me to lean on Him incredibly. Over 40 missionaries (the faithful) have come to Urbancrest to share their story. Urbancrest also makes it a point to encourage and love on these faithful servants of God. Many of them have been alone in this journey and get recharged with the love that Urbancrest gives. I miss hanging with our pastoral team and these great people. Tonight is a time where Sunday School classes gather with two missionaries and listen to what God has done. Many of the Sunday School classe...

Nothing ... just kidding. I actually have learned a ton in our 9 days here in Hawaii and here they are: 1. I am going to fast and my plans are not always the Lord's plans. I thought I would hit the ground running, like every church position I have taken. WRONG, I have learned that God's timing on things are better than me trying to force things. 2. God's timing is incredible and what is needed. I have felt guilty for not being in Kapolei every minute we have been here. However, God has not opened our living in Kapolei yet and through the counsel of other church planters and pastors, my job right now is to get my family settled. This has made Michelle and I have honest talks about time away from home. 3. Our finding a house and vehicle were miracles. Nothing short of it! People here have told me that we have pulled off one of the hardest things in Hawaii, finding housing quickly. Not only did we find a house but we found one that is perfectly fit for ministry. It has u...

Well, day two here in Hawaii has been interesting. We are all still dealing with Jet-Lag and the kids are begging me to get to the beach. It has rained the whole time we have been here so far. The flight over the ocean was a little rough but we made it. It has been a good two days here. We have seen a couple of houses and think we have one picked out. We will visit it tomorrow again and maybe sign the lease. We got some good new about or stuff. It will be here next week instead of waiting until the end of the month. So don't have to sleep on the floor for a couple of weeks. Something cool happened while we were looking at the house we are going to rent yesterday. This lady next door, Sarah came running out to meet us. She thought we were moving in. She has two kids, the ages of my older kids. Michelle got a chance to talk with her. If we move in, it is good to know that we can reach out to the immediate neighbors. Hopefully this weekend, we will be able to begin to purchase fur...