Merry Christmas from the Stines
Merry Christmas! I hope that all of you have had a wonderful time on the birth of our Lord Jesus! God is so good…
Bless You,
David, Taryn, and Isaac
Archive for December, 2006
Surviving The Holidays?
Holiday weekend is here and I have some family members coming in town. Don’t worry they are great people to have around the holidays… My mother in law who is fantastic (Debra “aka” Mai Mai - Pronounced ~may-may~) is going to be here today and she is bringing Taryn’s Great Aunt Ed Mead (Aunt Ed.) They are both so great to have around especially during the holidays.
As for Church, I will be speaking tomorrow night at LateNite as I conclude the helpful series entitled “Surviving the Holidays.” Tomorrow night I will be talking about how to overcome the Christmas Chaos. We will also have a bit of Christmas Chaos in our service as we take Santa to a whole new level “Insanity Santa” is what we are calling him for this service as we have a special (Very Special) mid service visit.
This weekend we should also have some great services at church as we reflect a little more reverently at our other weekend services. We do also have a special Christmas Eve Service that I am looking forward to at 5:30pm Sunday Night. If you cannot make any of these services, be sure and catch my podcast for your Christmas “Reflections…”
It is going to be a blessed weekend,
Don’t Worry You Are Going to Survive!
Back in Jacksonville…
Here is Isaac in his stroller that he has now covered NYC and Virginia Beach in. He has been a real trooper through all of our travels over the last two weeks.
We started out in Virginia Beach, Va at Regent University where we went as a family to my Dissertation Defense on December 6th. “I passed!” It was a great experence and I am appreciative of my Dissertation Committee which included: Dr. Tjiong, Dr. Umidi, and Dr. Charles Travis. Thank you again for all your help in this huge project.
After much celebration we then traveled to NYC in order to spend a few days seeing the city as I have desired for some time to introduce Taryn and now Isaac to wonderful city. We were able to see the tree and all the great people who crowded the streets and the stores everywhere we went. We had the opportunity to stay at a landmark hotel in the process of seeing the town. We stayed at the infamous Waldorf-Astoria at 301 Park Avenue in downtown Manhattan. I was also able to see Marble Collegiate Church which is where Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (Author of Power of Positive Thinking) spent 50 years preaching the positive message of Jesus Christ. I was able to spend some time in their prayer room which I will remember for some time. Go God!
Then, after sending Isaac and Taryn Home, I went on to Astoria Queens to NYSUM (New York School of Urban Ministry) where I met up with our EDJ interns and was able to minister throughout the city with them. One particular stop was the Brooklyn Teen Challenge. This is the originial teen challenge that was started by David Wilkerson back over 50 years ago. I am excited to say that we were able to minister to a full house at this site…
Other than this I am still unpacking from my trip and expect to get back into the swing of things this week…
Dissertation Defense
It has been three years, maybe thirty years in the making… This is also one of those things that I truly never thought that I would be doing. It helps me to keep remembering this, because it is only by God’s direction and might I also add, by His Grace that I have come to the end of this massive project.
This week I ask for your prayers as I finally defend my doctoral dissertation…
I will be traveling with Taryn and the little “I-Man” (Isaac) up to Virginia Beach to present my dissertation on the EDJ college as a model for training future ministry leaders. I am very excited as I will be giving a presentation first, then answering questions on the dissertation project. Please pray for me as I will be delivering it at 12 noon eastern time on Thursday December 7th. Thanks again for the prayers,
Go God,
David
