ONLY FOUR MORE WEEKENDS IN NORTH AUSTIN!

We are often asked whether minors can volunteer to help us finish our new worship space in Pflugerville. That is so cool that families want to work together! Unfortunately, due to liability risks for our general contractor, volunteers at the new site must be 18 or above. But that's not the end of the story! There's much to be done to get the North Austin site ready for departure. Minors are welcome to volunteer to help pack the old site, etc.

Relocation as metaphor

Our current message-series, Relocation, is all about people dealing with wanted and unwanted change before, during, or after a move. So the idea is relocation as metaphor for change. We've received a number of questions about the metaphor or even how we chose the examples we did, etc.

So far we've talked about Abraham, Lot, and Joseph.

They departed from and arrived at different places.

• Abraham relocated from Ur to Canaan.
  
• Lot from Sodom to Zoar.
  
• And Joseph from Canaan to Egypt.

They relocated under different circumstances.

• Abraham had a choice.
• Lot had little choice.
• Joseph had no choice.

Abraham is mentioned over 300 times in the Bible. Of the last 14 chapters of Genesis, Joseph's story takes up all but one. So, in a single message, we provide backstory but focus on some pivotal part of the story. For example, in Joseph's case, we presented his relocation to Egypt as backstory and focused on his pivotal interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams resulting in his relocation from prison to palace.

This weekend we get Moses who relocated several times.

• Egypt to Midian
• Midian to Egypt
• Egypt to Canaan

The Egypt-Midian-Egypt part will be presented as backstory. We'll focus on the pivotal event that delayed the arrival at Canaan by decades. If you want to read ahead, you'll find the story in Numbers 13-14. See you at one of our weekend gatherings!

Miami

Spent the weekend in Florida. Was invited by Calvary Chapel Miami to speak at a singles retreat in Bonita Springs Friday and Saturday and to speak at the church in Miami Sunday morning. Had a great time. Saturday evening we were treated to authentic Cuban food at Versailles Restaurant and Bakery. Amazing! Loved it! After dinner, we sampled Cuban coffee at the bakery. It's like espresso and liquefied sugar cane. Instant caffeine and sugar buzz. Nice.

After a driving-tour of Miami and a great night's sleep, I shared the Abraham message from the Relocation series. There was one particularly poignant moment as I spoke Sunday morning. Several people in the audience wept as I described how hard it must have been for Abraham to consider leaving his extended family in Ur. These were people whose families fled Cuba. People who, all too often, had no choice but to leave loved ones behind. Loved ones they may or may not ever see again.

If you think of it, pray for these modern-day Abrahams and Sarahs. Pray that God would comfort them and that, God willing, they would one day soon be reunited with their loved ones. And pray for my new friends, Razz and Estelle Vazquez, who are doing such a great work in Miami.

Fastest growing large cities

Austin was recently identified as the third fastest growing large city in the United States. If you are one of the 19,000-plus who moved here last here, you probably know a thing or two about relocation stress. You can't relocate from one place to another without experiencing both wanted and unwanted change.

As our church prepares to move less than ten miles to our new worship space in Pflugerville, we've been thinking a lot about this. In a brainstorming session, members of our staff began throwing out names of men and women in the Bible who relocated. We stopped when we hit two dozen. Turns out the Bible is filled with the stories of people who discovered that there's transformation in relocation.

Join us as we begin our final message series before relocating from North Austin to Pflugerville. Each week we'll take a different person's story beginning with Abram in Genesis 12. Not only will this series prepare us to move north together but it will speak into each of our lives as we face wanted and unwanted change all the time.