Snow

Yes we have snow. 5-6 inches of it. I have already shoveled the driveway twice now. It's not very fun but a good morning workout. I may get to go snowboarding this weekend.

Here's the Article

Here is the link to the article I mentioned a few posts back about the growing trend of delayed adulthood.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/006/2.10.html


If you are between the ages of 18-30 or work with people of that age, you really should check out that article.

Happy Thanksgiving

For as long as I can remember, I have spent Thanksgiving with my dad, his brothers, my cousins, and my aunts. We always eat a large turkey dinner, take a 30 minute food-settling break, and then hit the football field for the annual Fenton Family Football Game. Everyone plays!

This year things were different. Bennett and I decided going home for Christmas and Thanksgiving was a little too much last year. We decided to stay in Idaho for the big Turkey Day. After Dad found out we would be here alone, he quickly hopped on his plane (with my sister and bro-in-law) so we wouldn't celebrate without family.

We had a great weekend full for Heavenly Ham (from Hattiesburg), turkey, broccoli and cheese casserole, pecan pie, and football. Oh writing about it is making me feel full again and reminds me to thank all of those wonderful women who have cooked for me on Thanksgiving Day for the last 27 years! It is not an easy task. Friday night we watched the Holiday Fireworks show over Lake Coeur d'Alene from a floating restaurant.

Thanks family for the visit. And for the Mississippi family we missed- see you December 20th.

A message from the pastor of NorthStar Church.

---A message from the pastor of NorthStar Church.

"NORTHSTAR NEXT...

In April of 2003, God stirred our hearts regarding our place in ministry. That stirring led to a clear call from the Lord to relocate our family to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to plant NorthStar Church.

Under God’s gracious hand, and with the help of the North American Mission Board and faithful partners just like you, NorthStar stands today as a vibrant community of faith!

Strong leaders are in place, a growing ministry of small groups exists, building plans are coming into clear focus. Over the past four and a half years, NorthStar has experienced miracle after miracle as God has expanded His Kingdom through this young congregation. Lives have been changed, eternity impacted, and many new believers are becoming devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

Now, The Hanberrys are embarking on another chapter in our lives and ministry. I have accepted a call to become the Associate Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Olive Branch, Mississippi. My role there will include leadership in the areas of education and missions.

We will serve at NorthStar Church through Sunday, December 9th, before assuming this new ministry position. Our hearts are full of a wide range of emotions. While we are saddened to leave our faith family in North Idaho, we are thrilled at the assurance of God’s call and direction for us. We are also excited to see what God has in store for NorthStar Church. This has been such a labor of love, and we know that even as much as we love NorthStar, God loves her more! He has great plans in store for this precious gathering of believers.

Please pray for our family as we transition and please pray about your role and responsibility to continue on as a faithful partner to this ministry! NorthStar Church needs you now more than ever.

At this time, I certainly want to say, “THANK YOU!” to each and every one of you who have been a part of our lives over these past four and a half years. Your prayers, cards and letters of encouragement, and your generous financial participation have made this ministry possible. You have blessed us as a family, and words could never adequately express our gratitude.

In the coming weeks, please contact us regarding your continued partnership. Again, NorthStar still needs you! Contact information is below.

Again, thanks! We love you.

Scott Hanberry

Thanks for Praying

I got the call this morning. My sister had her baby around 3am Central time. David Brand Garner 6 pounds 7 ounces. 19 inches. Mom and baby are doing well.

pictures

Check out more of our Fall pictures

Prayer

Please follow this link to hear the latest about my sister.

She is having a baby. Maybe today maybe tomorrow. Maybe next week.

Also, please be praying for our church. There are many many needs going on. We have members facing serious illness, huge decisions, calls to missions, recovery from a broken leg, family troubles, financial difficulty and many other things that I'm sure I don't even know about. Those are different needs from different people by the way. Not just one person. So, I guess it could be worse.

Anyway, I probably am not going to fly home for my sister's delivery. Which means by the time I get home the child will already be a month old! We were planning on getting there a day before the delivery. The good thing is the doctors think that the danger is mostly over and she's made it past the 34 week mark. That means that little David or Maggie is basically ready to come out of the oven even if it is several weeks early. That also means that I might get a chance to hold the child because everyone else will just be so sick of it.

So if you haven't gone to Miriam's blog you should read the last couple of posts. One is from her and one is from her husband who is serving his second tour in Iraq.

Where's October?

I missed a whole month on this blog. That's awesome.

I read an article in Books&Culture magazine about the growing number of emerging adults. That has nothing to do with the Emerging Church movement. It describes the group of people aged 18-30 or so that are lingering in the adolescent stage of their lives. It is an interesting article that explores the causes and results of this change in society as well as the church's influence and responsibility toward them.

I identify with a lot about this group. I married at an older age than my parents. I extended my education. My parents helped me with many expenses after I moved out. Of course I break the mold in lots of ways, but the article more or less described my and the people I went to college with.

The most interesting thing the article had to say was about the church's need to address this population group. The church of course encourages members to abstain from sex until married. The culture however encourages people to start experimenting at a young age. In the past this was less of an issue because people settled down 2-4 years after graduating high school. Now there is an 8-12 year gap between leaving the nest and building a new one. People rarely have an idea of what they want to do as a lifetime career until they have finished college and possibly even done graduate studies. Financial independence doesn't come until well into the 20's or even early 30's. Yet the church culture traditionally expects young people to wait until they are financially independent to marry. So for Christian young adults the only answer to the tension created between culture and the church is to show strong moral discipline and self-denial in the face of increasing peer-pressure. The article asks the question of the church, "Do we need to change our expectations on when it is appropriate to marry?" This would require Christian parents to be willing to support children who get married in their early twenties even after they are married.

I wonder if the church would ever encourage such a thing. If they did, what would the result be?

Amazing ministry

Let me tell you how you can certainly be a part of something special this Christmas.

There is a need in our convention that I think everyone reading this would love to see met. The Utah/Idaho convention passed a resolution to raise money to provide one of our missionary families a new home. All it will take is about $35,000!

Here is an article with more information:

______________________________________________________________

Carpentry for Christ

- Hardens Serve the Lord by Serving His Churches

By Michael Liner, associate pastor

Salmon Valley Baptist Church, Salmon, Idaho

“I had to get a map out to find Idaho!” remarks Nathan Harden regarding his first mission trip to the west. Harden’s initial mission trip to Idaho in 1999 was not to be his last. It proved to be just the beginning of his call to serve the Lord as a faith missionary by utilizing his construction skills to bless the Lord’s churches all over the intermountain west.

It began with a few mission trips: one to help a college in Kentucky, one to Sand Hollow Baptist in Idaho, and then one to First Southern Baptist in Bountiful, Utah. The call of God became clearer and clearer as he served on short-term construction teams with and for the Lord’s churches. Harden recalls that the Father was telling him, “I want you to work for me,” during the process of his call. “Construction work was what God wanted me to do,” declares Harden. And construction it has been, as Harden has served at and with over thirty different churches in Idaho and Utah over the past almost seven years. He has also found himself in the roles of advocate, supporter, friend, and listener to many of the men and women that are on the field in remote and lonely parts of the region.

“I am continuously lining up work projects,” says Harden. He has worked on roofs, sanctuaries, bathrooms, pastors’ and church planters’ houses, offices, and sheds. He has completed new construction and remodeling. God has led him to places where he worked alone, to places where he was part of small groups of workers, and to places where he has had the privilege to lead construction teams. Harden has also been able to serve on disaster relief teams. He was able to join teams which participated in the relief effort after the hurricanes of 2005 and most recently served in Oklahoma following the ice storms.

The Lord has provided all the way. Harden left his full-time job in Mississippi to go on the road with a few tools and an old Chevy truck in the summer of 2000. To date the Lord has provided him a 22 foot camp trailer in which to live, numerous contractor grade tools, a trailer in which to haul them, and in 2004 a new Dodge diesel pick-up truck with which to pull it all.

But the Father did not stop there in His provision for Harden. In February of 2006 the Lord blessed Harden with a new family. His wife Amber and ten year-old daughter Kelly have joined him and expanded his ministry. Amber was formerly a U.S. Forest Service employee. She left her position in Salmon, Idaho, to go on the road full-time as a family ministry team.

Both she and Kelly are Idaho natives. Now they are enjoying the chance to meet new people and see more of the region. They have had the privilege of assisting with Vacation Bible Schools, helping with food preparation for mission teams, serving with evangelism teams, and have just plain been lending a hand. Amber is home schooling Kelly which affords them much flexibility as they travel from site to site. Kelly is especially gifted at reaching out to other children and tends to make fast friends wherever she goes.

“We are faith missionaries living and working by the gifts of God. We rely on Him for everything. He has taught us to seek His counsel on everything,” remarks Harden. Support, equipment, and gifts typically come from the Lord through the churches and associations where they have been or are serving.

They are not being supported by a mission board or organization, but they are relying on God’s provision through His churches. Pastor Mike Palmer of Salmon Valley Baptist relates, “Nathan has blessed our church tremendously. He has completed numerous projects, especially the detail, finish work that is so time consuming and takes special skill and tools. A few years ago we began to realize that Nathan did not have health insurance because he was not able to afford it. We also recognized his need for a cell phone in order to continue to minister effectively. Some of the churches that he has served partnered together to make these basic needs a reality. Now we are asking the Lord to provide health insurance for the rest of his family.”

If you would like to contact Nathan Harden for information about his ministry, to see whether he might be able to serve your church, to inquire about scheduling a work project, or to get contacts for reference, contact him at his web/blog site www.nathan.svbc.us. If you would like to help support the Hardens and their ministry, contact Salmon Valley Baptist Church in Salmon, Idaho at (208) 756-3324, Pastor Mike Palmer, or Pastor Michael Liner .

Hilltoppers

My high school mascot was the Hilltopper. The mascot pictures looked more or less like the big horn sheep pictured above. We saw these last April on our way to Chalis, Idaho.

I don't think they have these in Mississippi

What ALL pastors in Idaho are like

I have found the blog of a friend (the kind of friend that you've only had a few conversations with, but know that if you ever really got to hang out that you could still be friends) who is also a pastor of a church in Idaho. His blog has an interesting mix of reaction to culture, interesting trends, spiritual insight, and contemplations of the human experience.

It is called Bridge Bloggin'

Check it out.

OK OK OK

So here's some great news. At a meeting with the zoning commission our church got approved for a special use permit. That means we get to build a church in a R-1 zone. There were actually some neighbors who complained about the placement of the building so we are repositioning it. I think they may wish it had been left the other way but whatever.

What all that means is, the city government has given the nod for us to move ahead with the basic plans we have submitted. I'm not sure what the next step is other than raise about $500,000 more dollars! Please be praying that each move our church decides to make is strictly according to God's plan.

Also, please be praying for a group of high school students I've started meeting with. One of our students has orchestrated a group of teens that are interested in learning all about the Bible, but might not be comfortable going to a "church group". Pray that there will be continued interest and that our conversations will be meaningful and fruitful.

AND, pray for Globe Outreach. There are a lot of changes going on with that ministry. We have added some partnerships overseas and are building some strategic partnerships in the US. You can watch www.globeoutreach.org for details as they become public.

Finally, we have a couple of unspoken prayer requests for you to lift up when you think of us.

And by-the-way, if you have any questions about what's going on here that we're not answering on this blog or in our occasional newsletters, please feel free to ask in an email, comment or phone call. We want our supporters to know that you are very much part of this ministry. We are daily supported by God's people praying and providing for us.