Israel is Coming

Hey everybody, I'm posting the text from a letter about an upcoming trip to Israel I am going on. If you are able to help out, you can send a check payable to FBCW, leave the memo line blank (for tax purposes), to me here at the church (Put my name on the envelope). The address is 11905 Hwy 92, Woodstock, Ga. 30188. Anyone who can help, it's greatly appreciated!

Dear Friends and Family,

God has been doing some amazing things in the life of my family and me as we prepare for our future serving God in ministry. After 4+ years serving at FBC Acworth, God has led us to a new place in life as we begin training for our next phase of ministry.

Through a series of crazy, unforeseen, “God-sized” circumstances, I am being mentored this year by my pastor, Johnny Hunt. This is an opportunity that not many people will get during their life times, and I am excited about what I believe God is going to do in our future. Over the next year, I will be traveling with Pastor Johnny, observing him “in action”, attending different training schools and conferences, sitting in on and observing staff & deacon meetings, extensively building my Theological Library, etc…This year is going to be an invaluable opportunity to prepare for ministry!

God has been faithful to us during this time. When we made the decision to follow God in this direction, it was a complete move of faith, primarily because of the salary difference. However, due to God’s blessings, both from friends and family & from Pastor and FBC Woodstock, and due to Dave Ramsey’s FPU and our getting out of credit card debt, and trusting God to provide where He leads, we have followed God’s leading in our lives to take this step!

One huge opportunity that has come available for me is to travel with Pastor Johnny to Israel in May! Some highlighted places we will be visiting include Golgotha (where Christ was crucified), the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, along with many other sites in Israel and Jerusalem! The cost of this trip is $2995. I look forward to the places I have read about in the Bible coming to life! As many of you know, I have been on many international trips. In fact, I just returned from my fifth trip to Russia January 15th after doing “Elvis” and ministering in many orphanages. For the past several years, God has blessed us and I have been able to pay for the majority of my travels out of pocket and have only raised minimal support. However, in order to attend this trip, and in order not to deplete a good portion of my travel & book budget, I need your financial support.

If you can help in this area, it would be a great blessing! Gifts are tax deductible.

Please pray for Lisa and I and the kids during this upcoming year! Maegan is 5, Annalyn is 3 and A.J. is 7 months old! My goal is to teach my children what it means to trust Jesus with our lives, to be willing to follow God in whatever direction He leads, and to show them that God is faithful and He does provide where He leads! I covet your prayers and support!

Sincerely,



Aaron Brookshire
aaronbrookshire@gmail.com
404-345-7008

Psychology Assignment

Right now I'm taking a Psych class and an Inductive Bible Study Class through Liberty. One cool thing about many of my classes is that we study and then compare to a Christ focused world view. Following is a post from my homework assignment. They are a response to Alfred Adler's "Safeguarding Tendencies" that insecure people use to "protect" themselves. It's not too deep because it couldn't be over 250 words. Enjoy.

Adler’s “safe guarding tendencies” are a persons attempt to make themselves look good while making others look bad. In Matthew 22:39b, we are told, “love your neighbor as yourself” (NLT), which is as important as loving God. The “safe guarding tendencies” represent behaviors that many exhibit, but are biblically wrong.

“Excuses” are listed as the most common, widely used safe guarding tendency. In Genesis 3, the Bible gives an account of Adam blaming his sin on Eve, who blamed her sin on a serpent. Both Adam and Eve knew right from wrong, but chose to do wrong, and were quick to excuse their sin on someone else! That is an example of the selfishness exhibited in the common tendency of excuse making.

The second tendency mentioned is “aggression”. These tendencies directly contradict John 13:35, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” In no way are these aggression tendencies a luxury for Christian behavior, because they treat others poorly and/or excuse us treating others poorly.

Withdrawal is the third listed behavior. Withdrawal is wrong because it often manipulates others while it inflates us. Sin can be a withdrawal method (consciously or unconsciously) used so people can be complacent as Christians and not follow God, i.e. “I’m not worthy of doing … because my relationship with God isn’t right”. Jonah used withdrawal tendencies against God.

These tendencies are obvious in the lives of many people, including mine. They don’t represent the character of Christ.

WaveRunner Anyone?

This is it. A 2007 Yamaha FX HO. 160 HP, is a beast out of the hole. We've wakeboarded, tubed and skied with it. It will do 60 mph with 2 adults on it. It's a 3 seater. It only has 17 hours, and the first 10 were the break-in period. I bought it on July 31st. It has a full 4 year warranty-after the 1 yr factory warranty, so it's covered until 2012 by Yamaha. It got the first service already ($100). I have 2 black Yamaha lifejackets & Yamaha bumper guard. Includes the trailer. 4-cycle gets great mileage. I can go from Canton to Acworth and back on around a half tank of gas. Handles unbelievably. Key fob alarm system. This thing was just under $12,000 out the door, not including accessories. I want $10,000 for it. I'm willing to pay a nice referral fee to someone who gets me a buyer!!! God wants me to sell it, and He probably wants you to buy it (without going into debt!)

Great Family Fun, etc... etc... etc...

Baptism This Past Saturday Night

I had a dream come true this past Saturday at the (pre) Easter service at FBC Woodstock when I got to baptize my oldest daughter. She did great, especially considering that I was cued out at the wrong time so we got to hang out in the water through an entire song (in front of 2500 people). The really sad thing is that it isn't the first time I've been left hanging in the baptistry. The funny thing, besides the situation itself, is that no matter how big the church or how well you plan, mistakes can happen to anyone! It was a great service. Newsong sang, the music was pretty hot and Pastor Johnny was awesome. It was cool seeing the friends from Acworth that came to show their support. I'm grateful for the childrens workers there. They did a lot to influence my kids in a positive way with the Gospel.

We went to Freedom Church Sunday morning. It was awesome! JR is a great communicator and the music absolutely jammed. I do have to say even though they had more subwoofers than we did at FBC Acworth, our band was totally as good as theirs. The subwoofers were very nice though. We couldn't put anymore in at Acworth due to concerns about the stained glass windows breaking-seriously. I think great things will happen there. It's going to be fun to watch-even from the sidelines. For people looking for a strong, modern style church, you should definately check it out!

The kids stayed with Lisa's parents last night, so it was a great night to have an "at-home" date. That may sound goofy, but I can flat out cook-which contributes to my wonderful physic. I made some killer food and Latte's (check out http://www.landofathousandhillscoffee.com/) I get the dark roast. It's amazing coffee and the money helps widows and victims from the genocides in Rwanda. AAlso, FYI, the new "Bourne" movie was good.

Waverunner weather is almost here, and the lake levels are looking good!

OUCH!!!

Pastor Johnny is out of town this week, so he gave me a few days off so that I could catch up on stuff around the house and also to spend a little time with my dad who got home from Iraq Tuesday.

This shouldn't happen, but our house, which is brand new that we moved into in January, was showing some signs of erosion on the edge of the small incline it's on. I figured, either spend a couple of hundred now and fix it properly or wait and have to bring in some professionals later. While I'm all about helping out the economy, I'm not ready to commit at that level. Anyway, yesterday I put out 100 decorative landscape blocks (the big, heavy ones), 40 of the smaller ones and a bunch of patio stones in the back. Today, I can't move. My entire body hurts. I would laugh at myself, but that hurts too. However, the front yard looks really good!

Also, I got to do a little "pastoral care" today. We (Jeremy and I) are helping the pastoral care department a little bit with some of the hospital visits. We attempted (some weren't in the rooms) 17 visits today in 3 hospitals. It took a little time, let me tell you. It was fun doing a little "pastoral" stuff again.

Sad News...A couple in our Sunday school class gave early birth to twins this past week. They didn't make it. The funeral is Saturday. I can't imagine the pain they're feeling right now. My heart hurts with and for them.

I love my kids.

I'm looking forward to the friends that are coming Saturday night for Maegan's baptism.

If everything continues to go well, I will be graduating from Liberty next May!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baptism Coming

I get to baptize Maegan this coming Saturday night (3/22) at the 6:00 service at FBC Woodstock. Should be a great service. Newsong will be singing. It's going to have the band and singers from the contemporary service. It should be a fun night. It'll be in the new sanctuary.

Answer to Prayer

Before my oldest daughter was born, Lisa and I prayed that she would come to an early understanding of Christ, that His Spirit would draw her to Him and that she would come to Him at an early age. Last night, that prayer was answered. I was able to talk with my daughter and guide her to Jesus and she gave her life to Him! It's awesome that as a 5 year old she has a better understanding of what it means to be a Christ follower than many adults I've talked to. Thank you Jesus. 1 committed. 2 to go! I hopefully get to baptize her soon.

Joel, This Blogs For You

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I have 3 big things I am praying for in my life. The first was a huge, God sized thing that needed to be answered quickly. God has answered that prayer. Go God!

It is so crazy how we can trust God to the point that we take huge steps of faith in our life, see His hand of provision carrying us through this particular journey, but still have fear and trepidation during this time that God is taking us through. It's like a big irony.

School update: Finished my first class, got an "A". Finishing up my second class this week. This is a class I am retaking from before, but this time I have a "B". GPA repair is underway! It looks like I will possibly graduating next spring!!! Heck yeah!

I went to Ashville last night to a church for a Global Focus training session. It was a cool church. It was planted in 2004. It is at a point of plateua, and they are looking for what will be their next step to go forward. They are interested in the Global Focus model to get moving forward. I hope they do it. It would be a great move for them to make.

Went to Nashville last weekend on a $600,000 motorhome. It was stinking amazing. I'm definately spoiled now in travel. It's definately the right way to travel! We're taking another motor home to Chipley this weekend for a mens conference. I hope it's a nice one!

Joel, hope is suffices your needs for a new blog post!!!

PS, I still need to sell the waverunner!

"Food" for Thought

Wal-mart gets it. Check this story out. They realize they've almost reached their full saturation in the U.S., so now they're taking time to get to know their communities and connect with them as they haven't before so that the socialogical impact of Wal-mart increases. Interesting...maybe churches should take notice. Kind of like "Breaking the Missional Code" for retail! Good principle.