My Desire

Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced ; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, "Here I am, I have come-- it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart."

Psa 40:4-8

Houston transition prayers

Please be praying for us as we transition to Houston. Here are some things that I feel like God is leading me to pray about.

1. A spiritual home. We're looking for a church family in Houston where we can experience spirit-led worship, develop deep relationships, and have opportunities for ministry.

2. A physical home. Finding a house in the Sugar Land area has been more difficult than we thought. Pray that God will provide a home that is good for us.

3. Protection for our marriage. All these changes and close interaction with my family may cause stress on our marriage. Pray that God will strengthen and protect our marriage.

4. Pray that we will be a positive influence on our parents in our interactions with them and also salt and light for them. Pray for protection against any negative influences we may experience.

5. Pray that we will seek God first and that He will give us strength during the difficult times.

6. Pray for wisdom and consistency as parents and that we can impart His ways on Sophia and that Sophia would grow up to be a beautiful woman of God.

7. We really feel God has called us to do what we're doing. Pray for God's blessing and God's purposes to be accomplished.

Blessing and Confirmation

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Eph 3:20-21

Praise God! Earlier when I thought God was leading us to go to Houston, I wasn't completely sure. I was more like, "God, I sure hope I heard you correctly." One of the things we were praying is that if God is calling us to move to Houston, that he would 1) confirm it and 2) prepare the way.

God has done both. In terms of preparing the way, God has blessed us in so many ways.
1) Grace getting laid off. Grace was going to quit her job. The drawback of that is that she had to pay back her signing bonus and relocation, since she didn't work there two years yet. Instead of Grace having to quit, she got laid off instead. This was a blessing, since we didn't have to pay back the signing bonus and relocation and got a package on top of that.

2) Selling our house. We sold our house in one weekend, had 4 offers, and got above our asking price. That's God's grace.

God also by His grace confirmed us moving to Houston. We had a missionary from our church share at our small group. After he shared, we prayed. After the prayer, everybody split up and started eating desert and chatting. When everyone split up, he came up to me individually. I had seen him at church, but we had never talked 1:1.

When he came up to me, he said two things:
1) God is pleased with you heart of worship.
2) God is going to bring something new into your life; don't be afraid to leave the old, just obey.

Later on I found out that that missionary is gifted in the prophetic. Wow! What grace God has shown me to give that missionary a word to speak to me. Worship for me is the main essence of the Christian walk ... to glorify God in worship, to "connect" with God, to lavish our love and praise to God ... and to have Him say, He is pleased. Wow, that's God's grace.

You can interpret "new" and "old" in many ways. I took the new to mean moving to Houston and joining my parent's company and the old to be leaving Austin and my current job behind.

For me, the entire process of moving to Houston, has been a step of faith in obedience.

Not Easy / Three things

When we were taking Hope 201 in the fall, there was one class dedicated to talking about when we're following God, it's not always easy ... there are difficult times and suffering. However, God uses those times to transform us and develop us to people who can reflect His glory.

After that I class, I was telling Grace that I don't think it's going to be easy to join our parent's company.

• There are also challenges associated with working with family --- being close as a family and yet maintaining professional work interaction.
• Challenges of working for your own company --- making wise business decisions, creating innovative products, and staying ahead of the competition.
• Learning the business, while growing the business at the same time.
• Stress on our family and marriage with all the changes.
• Balancing work with everything else, especially with a little baby.

After processing through this all, I feel like God has impressed on me three things:

1. There is calling in joining our parent's company. I feel like there is a greater purpose - more than just joining them and working in the business.
2. It's not going to be easy. There are the challenges of owning your own business, working with family, and potential stress on our marriage.
3. There is going to be blessing in all of this. I'm not exactly sure what this blessing is, but I feel like there will be blessing in this.

On the move

Wow, it's been about a year since we first comtemplated joining my parent's company in Houston. I remember having lunch w/ Cliff last fall and talking to him about this.

This year is my 10 year anniversary with IBM. When I first joined, I didn't think I would be there that long. It's been a great journey with IBM. It really is a great place to work --- there are a lot of great people to work with and IBM cares about and takes care of their employees.

After 10 years, I feel like I've done what I want to do at IBM. I went from verification, to verification team lead, to development, to development team lead, to release lead. I think if I were to stay at IBM, I would definitely want a change.

I was thinking and praying through two different things.
1) Joining IBM China. IBM is ramping up a software development group in Beijing and are looking for experienced software developers from the US to help develop that team.

2) Joining my parent's company, which is in the enhanced oil recovery business.

When I started praying through this, I had more of a peace about joining my parent's company than I did IBM China. That was very interesting b/c I always wanted to go to China, learn the language and the culture, and also see how the church is in China.

The timing seem right to join them --- a lot of different things are coming together.

• Our project at IBM wrapped up at the end of May.
• I'm at the point in my career at IBM where I feel like I've done what I want to do and it's not easy to go to the next level.
• My parents business has grown to a point where they need help. There's too much stuff for them to do everything well.
• Grace's materity leave ended in May, so it was a good transition point.
• My parents are getting older and I desire to spend more time with them.
• I have a desire to be a witness for them - to be salt and light for them.

After talking to Cliff about all of this, he encouraged us to 1) move in the direction of joining my parent's company, if we felt God leading us to do that, 2) Seeking God and asking for his confirmation.