Where Have I Been?

I’m not quite sure if anyone visits this website anymore. I know I haven’t been live for almost two years and within that time, I feel as though I am the one asking the question, “where have I been?” To be sure, it’s been nothing existential, it’s that life has been in the fast lane. Or so it’s felt like it.

I’m not going to jump on here only to say that regular posts will now be rhythmic or on a schedule because that would be untrue. Nevertheless, I thought I would attempt to come back online to simply begin to share much of what has happened in the last 2-3 years since my departure. My hope is for you to have a pint with me as we investigate the contours of life, ministry, and everything in between.

In short, we have a lot to catch up on so grab a really good quality brew, and let’s take this in chunks.

THE YEAR OF COVID-19

I won’t get into all of the medical, social, or philosophical banter surrounding the 2020 pandemic that was and is COVID-19, but being as it has been the most recent event that we all share to one degree or another, I figured I would begin here.

2020 sucked.

2020 was deeply sanctifying.

2020 was full of unrest.

2020 was not the test of endurance, 2021 is.

2020 was more about a global pandemic, it was about navigating through seasons of life and ministry that no one had ever gone through; building the plane as one is flying it, so to speak. And the truth, no one had the right answer for the challenges that everyone faced. Plenty of people had answers; some even had decent solutions, and most of them were wrong anyway.

Two things, I’ll say, sustained us through last year and they were the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and memes.

STOREHOUSE COMMUNITY CHURCH

By God’s grace, Storehouse McAllen is doing well. Our congregation has been profoundly gracious throughout much uncertainty and while we didn’t go unaffected, one of the most blissful challenges of last year was bringing to surface areas that we needed to repent of, changes that needed to be made, and grit that must be accompanied by grace.

FAMILY

My family is doing well and we didn’t have to make too many adjustments in light of the pandemic so the transition wasn’t too difficult. There were challenging moments that we are glad are over or simply had to work through in order to find rhythms, but at this point, there’s normalcy in areas that we didn’t have answers to previously.

Still and even as 2021 is in full gear, challenging moments really put the practice of grace in perspective. Everyone wants to be godly until there’s tension; especially when that tension is coming from you.

MORE TO COME

This is obviously not an exhausting list of things that have been going on in my time away, but they are some of the most important and my hope is that if I can get some sort of rhythms, I’ll let you know more as we have a cold one. I still have yet to talk to you about the books that were read, bourbons that were experimented with, conversations that were so national that no one heard the cry of the mestizos. It’s all fascinating stuff seasoned with cynicism and sarcasm. And yet, by His grace, here we are.

Cheers.

Summer Vacation...A Recap

In June, I took two weeks off for a family vacation and it was pretty awesome. I was very happy to get some time away to decompress and spend time with my family. After getting home a few weeks ago, I have been asked why we decided to take a vacation so early into the summer especially in the middle of season where Storehouse McAllen had started a new sermon series and launching a small initiative.

I haven’t posted on here as regularly as I would have hoped so I thought I’d share what’s been going on behind the scenes with our family life.

THE FALL SEASON

As Rebecca and I looked at our calendar, we realized that we were going to be experiencing one thing after another toward the tail-end of the summer and time away as a family would be a little more difficult. For starters, Chango is starting high school this year! It’s so crazy to see him hammering out summer projects for his freshmen classes and watching him mature in academic discipline is quite a sight. In any case, as an incoming freshmen, he’s got a couple of things coming up in July and August like marching camp for band and then a week long writing workshop.

Secondly, Rebecca and I have been monitoring some areas of concern on the health side of things and we had scheduled a doctor’s appointment where the results were going to impact a couple of changes in our family dynamics in order to stay healthy so we needed to prioritize that by simply being home.

Thirdly, our step-daughter is pregnant with our second grandkid. WHAT THE CRAP. I don’t think I have mentioned that I’m a grandfather, have I? That’s another post. Well, while Savanna (who I call “Flaca”) is doing her preggo thing, I’ll be taking care of our granddaughter, Delilah, and she just has my heart so if it’s watching 2348 hours of the same movie, then that’s what we’re doing; maybe taking a walk from time to time too. Savanna’s baby is due the week Chango goes back to school so that’ll be a tight schedule.

And finally, I’ll be guest preaching at other churches in Texas for friends in the month of August so I’ll be doing a little bit of traveling and driving. Needless to say, August will be pretty nuts and this is, in a nutshell, why we took time off as soon as Chango was out of school.

WHAT DID YOU DO ON VACATION?

We drove. We drove a lot.

Our vacation started off with the bouncing around of a few cities and it was all great. It was just a lot of driving. Rebecca and I started our time by driving to Ft. Worth, TX where we had to participate in an assessment with Acts 29 where pastors along with their wives come in and check in on how we’re doing and ask a bunch of questions to assess our spiritual and emotional health. Overall, it was a great experience and I’m very thankful for Acts 29.

Following our time in Ft. Worth, we made a pit-stop in Denton, TX to visit with friends over some drinks to celebrate the end of a season, the assessment, and the time away that we were about to embark on. After cocktails (and then coffee), we drove back down to Austin where we met up with Rebecca’s mom to pick up Chango and spend a night in Austin as we prepped to head to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We made some stops along the way, like hanging out at Yellow House Coffee in Lubbock which is always a great place for coffee. It was good to stretch the legs and play cards over really good coffee. Once we got to Albuquerque, all I wanted to do was sit in the quiet. We were able to get an AIRBNB near the Sandia mountains and all I wanted to do was listen to the wind and not talk for a few days and my wife is so awesome that she gave me that time as soon as we got in.

Rebecca works a couple of days out of the week and she wanted to get some more intentional one on one time with Chango so they hung out with friends, ate together, and visited a bunch of local places in the city while I sat outside in silence. It was great. I really dig Albuquerque because it’s quiet for a big city, not too different from Valley culture, and I love the mountains and better weather (no humidity). We stayed in Albuquerque for about 10 days and it was well spent; whether sitting outside in silence or learning more about Dungeons and Dragons with Chango or having a family dinner out in the city, it was perfect.

Once we left Albuquerque, we traveled back down to San Antonio. I got another day of silence while Rebecca and Chango hung out with Flaca and Delilah. We all grabbed dinner, made plans to attend our friend’s church (The Well Community Church), and make one last trip to IKEA and finally head back to the Valley.

Obviously, I’ve left out a ton, but it was a great time away and it was certainly needed because to be honest, I am not the most faithful at taking intentional time off. It’s something that was addressed during the assessment, but also something that my staff frequently reminds me of. I’ll talk more about the path to pursuing spiritual and emotional health later, but I hope this settles some of the questions we’ve been getting. And thank you so much for praying for me and my family while we were gone.

I am also extremely grateful to my staff at Storehouse McAllen who held the fort and especially Nano who did some amazing work in preaching the word of God to the people of God while I was out! If you haven’t listened to his sermons, you need to. i hope this is the first of many posts as the summer moves along and I hope that you’re enjoying your summer too!

RECOMMENDED READING

• The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World by Peter Scazzero

THE Garage Sale!

I've mean to post this earlier in the week, but simply didn't get a chance. So, without further interruption, I'm stoked for this weekend! We're going to be having a Garage Sale at our church (Logos Community Church) this Saturday in an effort to raise funds for a family who's in the final steps of their adoption process! Legally, I can't post any names or where they're at in the process, but I'm sure you can use your creativity. 

In any case, we're really excited because it's going to be a pretty epic morning. We'll be selling everything from appliances to furniture, clothes and toys, and plenty more. We have already had several people approach us to donate items to sell and we've been extremely grateful. Additionally, we're organizing it in a way to help your shopping experience more convenient :) 

Here's the info for Saturday followed by a few things, should you feel led, that you can do to help: 

1. The Garage Sale: Saturday, July 23rd | 7:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. | Logos Community Church (2700 N. 10th St.)

2. Donations for the Sale: If you would like to donate items (clothes, furniture, etc.), you can drop them off at Logos Community Church on Friday (7/22) between the hours of 10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. as we'll be setting up. 

3. Monetary Donations: if you would like to donate financially, then please email Marco (marco.logos@gmail.com) with any inquiries on monetary donations. 

4. SHARE: One of the biggest things that we've seen for this Garage Sale is people sharing it constantly on social media. Please help us spread the word by sharing this event on your personal social media outlets! Here's the FB Page: GARAGE SALE