Journey of Shawn Peoples' Walk in Grace!

Last year on this day (Sept. 30th), I preached my last sermon in Hawaii, then we cleaned our rental house one last time as 12 of our friends drove us to the airport and we bid them farewell. The next afternoon we landed in Nashville, TN and began this part of our journey. I had no clue what God was going to do with us this past year. I had a ton of thoughts about what God would do but none of those happened. I really thought I would be pastoring again at this point and that hasn't happened. I thought we might plant another church and that hasn't happened. I thought that I would finish school and that hasn't happened (I know it sounds depressing but just wait). What has happened is God showing us His incredible faithfulness and that He always has a plan He is working us through. When I left Hawaii, it was overwhelmingly obvious that God has changed our course (not His course but where we thought we were headed). I had planned on us being in Hawaii for the rest of our liv...

     It has been a while since I have written. So let me just update you on our lives here in Lebanon, Ohio. On July 9th, I began working for an indirect dealer for Verizon Wireless called The Cellular Connection. They hired me as the store manager here in Lebanon and my assignment is to return the store back to profitability. The transition has been difficult, in that, I have not worked outside of the church full time for quite a while. However, God has given me favor and has blessed our store with some great opportunities. We are seeing God's hand in our sales and within conversations of those outside of the Kingdom of God. I have mostly enjoyed my time there(again, there have been some tough times) and learned much from God while working.      God has made me very aware of the daily struggle many Christians deal with while working full time. I have had to be very intentional with my intimacy with Christ. I also run into many people who do not share my ...

      One of the things I am learning through our recent journey is that God is faithful and He takes care of His kids. Time and time again, we will get a check from a friend or find a bill has been paid that month, as we have been without financial support. There have been days that I have felt God is blocking me from getting a job. It has started to get comical as jobs that have been offered to me don't start for weeks or months upon being hired. I am finding my God has an incredible sense of humor as I have tried to push past Him and His provision and attempt to make things happen on my schedule. Today I was offered a job that doesn't start til October ... really? Thankful that is not how I ended my day but with His nudging me to read a chapter of an incredible book by Major Ian Thomas. He used the chapter today to show me where I had been and where many Christians are walking currently.       Imagine with me the scenery of the book of Numbers as the n...

Rejection is not something we handle well. At-least it is something I have not handled well in the past. This week has felt like a week of rejection, in fact I just finished telling my wife how rejected I feel this week. Its funny how much I retreat into myself when I don't get affirmation I think I need or receive silence when I think I need an answer. I don't know about you, but usually when I get silence, it feels like rejection. If you don't know, rejection has been one of the things I dealt with greatly as a child and youth. My real dad decided he didn't want a kid and left my mom. My adopted father left with my little brother without saying goodbye when I was ten. There were many men in my life that I would attach myself to only to find them no longer being part of my life for various reasons. This has haunted me throughout my whole life. There have been many men I have asked to disciple me as a believer or a pastor only to have them tell me they don't mento...

Being in Hawaii for those 18 months reminded me of the incredible sacrifice our military and their families make to protect our country. If you didn't know, I am an ex-military brat. My dad served in the Navy and my step-father served in the Marines. I remember in High School, when my step-father had to leave us for 3-6 months on deployment. He would come back with what I thought were pretty cool stories, but now that I think through them, he went through some tough stuff. It was hard on my mom not having him around for those months and sometimes harder when he came back, trying to adjust to all the new things and rules that had been established in his absence. I have seen that last point recently with our friends who lived next door. The Hazelwoods paid a ton for their dad and husband to serve in the Army. There were tough adjustments while He was gone and sometimes tougher adjustments when He came back. My understanding is Captain Hazelwood was gone into combat for over 1 year....

One of my irritations is Christian sayings. As my wife and I talked last night about writing a book about our journey (btw, anyone willing to buy one if we write it?), Michelle told me not to put those stupid Christian sayings in our book. I know, I say stupid, but I am just being clear how I feel about them. I have such trouble with them because most of them are a flat lie! Many of them put the work of God on the essence of man or they lie about God. Here are a few that are flat WRONG! "If God closes a door, He will open a window" No where in the Bible does it say that God opens windows of opportunities. Jesus uses the word door because they are passageways to something else. Windows are letting the breeze in, helping someone escape or for burglars to break in. The devil steals and is a burglar, so maybe that open window was his doing? The only reason you will find anyone climbing through a window is because they are trying to escape whatever is in the house? "God...

     Well, it is that time again, to reflect on the past year and share God's triumphs and my failures, which became God's triumphs! This past year has been an amazing journey with God. There are times I have seen Him do the most incredible acts and there are times I have been the incredible act. Let's set the scene from last year at this time.     Our family was living in Kapolei, Hawaii, attempting to plant a church. We had just begun meeting in a dojo every Sunday and had 21 people weekly. Our summer plans were coming together and we believed we would be within 50-70 people before the end of the summer. I had been spending a bunch of time discipling college students and having Gospel conversations with people at Starbucks. Nothing was getting in our way and I felt we were going to take the world! During the summer we enjoyed guest after guest staying in our home. We found ourselves being used by God to refresh the Ortegas, after their 6 months on the missio...