Laurel and I finally watched The King’s Speech last night.  Totally worth the wait.  Geoffrey Rush was ‘sublime’.  I loved his suits.  Loved the way he would stand kind of off-kilter as the camera faded.  Loved his demand for equality and friendship.  Loved his confidence.

It was actually the perfect movie for me to watch after preaching on Making Disciples.

Geoffrey Rush is an example par excellence of disciple-making:  he invests all that he knows and has experienced into the King.  He multiplies the fruit of his own labor into the life of someone else.  Rush knew WHAT he could do for the King and he knew HOW to bring transformation in the King.  Rush was faithful.  He was present.  He was available (but on his own terms–  ‘my house, my rules’).

To be honest, we would all love to have a Geoffrey Rush in our lives–  what an incredible gift to have someone who is contending for you and able to bring growth and change to your life.  I am thankful that I have a few Geoffrey Rush’s in mine.  I also have the privilege of being a Geoffrey Rush to others.  I love coming alongside folks and cheering them on.  You can too. Into whom are you pouring your life?  Don’t miss out!

Kathy Kenyon has just been hired as our new part-time Parish Administrator.  She will be managing our facility and managing the suite of partners who take care of finances, payroll and benefits.  She brings to the job a wealth of experience in real estate and office management.  Most recently she was working for a local builder as the liaison between clients and the contractor.  Those skills of listening and implementation will serve Restoration GREATLY in the coming months.  I am so thrilled to have her on the team.

The Hankes got their residential permits on Monday. Thanks for praying.  We literally no longer have a roof over our heads.  Excited to see this thing go!!

Andrew Thompson, our APEX coordinator and chairman of fun, was recently accepted into a post-baccalaureate program at VCU in Richmond.  Andrew feels called to be a physician and this program is the next step in his pursuit of matriculation at medical school.  I am so happy for him!  And so bummed for Restoration!  Andrew will be moving to part-time on July 1 and then leaving our staff team on August 1.  Over the next couple of months he will be finishing the school year with our APEX ministry and then coordinating various social and outreach activities for the church in July.  Andrew has been a great gift to our team.  I am going to miss him a lot.  We hope to have a new director of youth ministry in place by September 1.

Vestry is meeting tonight to synthesize what we have been hearing during this season of prayer and discernment called The Next Chapter at Restoration. Next Tuesday, May 24th, we will have a significant parish meeting to talk about what we think the Lord is calling us to next.  If your calendar is free, I hope you will be with us on May 24 at 7:30pm.

This is an exciting time at Restoration.  We are trying to faithfully move forward one step at a time.

Keep praying.

The way is becoming more clear.