Eric and Leslie’s Family Blog

You’d never guess who finally pee pee’d in the potty…NOAH!! YAY!! This would actually be the 2nd time in the past week, so guess the potty training is officially beginning. Guess that means we have to be more diligent in getting him on the potty now huh?. He’s so funny sitting on the potty. I’ve told him to ’squeeze out the pee pee’, so he sits there bouncing on the toilet saying ‘come on pee pee, come on pee pee’! It’s so cute. So begins the potty training process…early stages anyways!

There are a lot of things that I have come to believe will never change because of my career choice. A few of those things include the fact that I’m destined to always receive ‘religious’ birthday cards, people try not to use swear words around me, and people will ask me how I was called into the ministry.

I enjoy telling people how God first called me into ministry. I don’t go around offering the story because I don’t want to be make it a bigger deal than it really was, but I do believe it as an amazing moment when I was at a crossroads and God made sure I made the right choice (only because I had ignored the call so many other times before, though).

I’m not going to share it here because, honestly, you may not be that interested, but I did recently have another moment of calling that puts me in the situation I’m in now. The day after coming home from a four day trip to Sherman with the sr. high youth for a weekend retreat, I received an email asking for volunteers to help the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance set up a ‘Volunteer Village’ to help continue the recovery effort from hurricanes Katrina, Ike & Gustav. Before I knew it I had already spoken to my wife, to Dr. Hogg & arranged for my mother to come down to help with Noah. Before I could even say ‘NO’ God had paved the way for me to spend a week in Port Neches, Texas building platforms, setting up ‘pods’, and putting up giant dining tents and other structures to aid in the continued recovery effort.

I’m not trying to make a big deal about the fact that I’m doing this work, but that God can call us at any moment. Coming off a long weekend away from my family, the last thing I wanted was to turn around and be gone for a whole other week. I miss my morning hugs from Noah! But when God calls we need to respond. I don’t even think I can encourage you to try to be prepared because I think the only thing God asks of us is to be willing to respond. God will call us when God needs us, and like in my situation, God prepared the way for me to be here in Port Neches long before I was called. My calendar was fairly clear, my mom was able to come down on short notice to help take care of my son, and my employer gave me permission to be gone for a week.

When God needs us God will pave the way to make it possible for us to respond!

I’m still in the middle of that trip to Port Neches, and it’s nothing short of frustrating hard work, but it has been a great experience. Who knows, maybe God will call again and I’ll be back down here sometime soon with some of you, only next time I’ll be here to stay in the village instead of building it.

Blessings,

Eric