Journey of Shawn Peoples' Walk in Grace!

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...

Well how big and great do you think God is? I can tell you he is a whole lot bigger than I gave Him credit for. Here is a recap of things that have happened in the last month: 1. Our monthly funding seems to be set. We are still raising support in case some of the support falls through. 2. A month ago, we only had raise $12,000 leaving us $29,000 short. Today, after our moving sale (and because we sold our van last night) we will only be $9000 short of the money needed to move. Can you believe that? I am blown away at the goodness of God. That means almost everything we need to purchase when we get to Hawaii is almost done! We saved some money on tickets and moving things. We didn't get what we originally asked for on the van, but as the person was about to barter with me, I asked God what price I should take and guess what? That price that God gave me was the exact price the family offered to us. So today, I am driving a rental van until Monday night. 3. We said farewell to ...