Many of you know that last year a few weeks after I was hired as the youth pastor at The River Church the lead pastor resigned. It was somewhat of a shock, but not completely. Well, in the beginning of this year we started a team to find a new lead pastor. I volunteered to be on that team and the elders agreed that I would be a good addition to the team. I was even asked by the team to be the team lead in the search process. I had never been on that side of the process. I had spent almost 5 years being the person trying to find the job, so I used some of that knowledge as a candidate to help our search. One day I will blog about that process and give some advice to churches that are looking and to candidates that are searching.

After a about a 5 month search we ended up hiring Brad Mitchell to be the lead pastor at our church. He started almost one year to the day that I started, so we can celebrate our anniversaries together. I am still in shock that God brought us Brad, because he is an amazing person and lead pastor. I am so hopeful for the future of The River with Brad as our lead pastor and with the amazing group of men that we have on our elder team. It is so great to be a part of such a healthy church. I have to pinch myself every so often just to make sure I am not dreaming. This next year is going to be a great year of growth for The River.

About a month before Brad was coming on board while I was in prayer regarding the RiverBank Kids ministry, because we had no one that was able to really lead the ministry, During that time of prayer I felt God prompting me to take on the leadership of it. And if anyone knows me they know that I am not wired to do kids ministry. Not too mention the time it needed was way more than I could provide, but I have learned a long time ago to do what God is telling me to do. So I approached the elders and asked them to pray about it as well. They came back to me and agreed that it was the direction they felt God leading as well, so I started the process of taking it onto my other duties as the youth pastor. I switched the entire kids ministry to one curriculum throughout, so that we could beter partner with parents. That is something I believe it vital to kids and student ministry. If you fail to do that then I believe you fail as a church and a leader. We went with the Orange Curriculum in August and it has been such a great switch for the kids ministry!

Slowly I began to realize what a huge undertaking it was to do both student and kids ministry. I have no idea how some people do it. I began to fervently pray that God would bring us someone that could lead the ministry. I had a person in mind, but I left it up to God to prompt them if they were the person. Much to my surprise a few weeks ago they emailed me and said that they couldn’t shake the fact that God wanted them to lead the kids ministry. So as of this past Sunday we now have a new RiverBank Kids ministry director. I am so thrilled for the kids ministry, because I know that Maria is going to be able to take it to that next level and beyond.

It is exciting to think that I start 2011 with the sole focus of being just a youth pastor. I believe that it is going to be a great year for The River Youth and for our church as a whole. I really believe that God is going to do some amazing things.

I completely forgot to mention that at the beginning of the year my wife was hired on at the church to lead the music ministry at our church. I love being able to go to work with my best friend and the love of my life.

I am excited for our family in this new year. In June my son will start being a part of the youth ministry and that means that both of my kids will be in my youth group. That is a crazy thought but exciting for me personally as well. It is so much fun to see my kids go from being kids to becoming young adults. Hannah has been doing an amazing job at horseback riding and has a wall with a bunch of ribbons. Caleb has been doing origami (no idea where he picked it up) and it has been cool to see him create things.

This year personally I wanted to run a half marathon, but did not get a chance to do it due to a couple of things. One was my trip to Haiti that I took in April, so I missed out on the Flying Pig. Then for the next one I ended up hurting my foot that I think was a stress fracture. Oh well! I am shooting for next year to be my half marathon year.

I finally got a chance to go on a mission trip this year, which was also my first time going out of the country, Canada doesn’t count. Going to Haiti was a life changing experience and I look forward to being able to go back again. God moved in my heart so much while I was there. It was such an amazing experience.

I am so blessed and thankful to have a loving family, a great church family and to be able to live my dream and serve God in the church. It is more than I could ever have asked for this Christmas. Who needs things when you can have all of that?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I am on my way to Florida right now to celebrate Christmas with my sister and her family. Not too mention being able to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

If I were to summarize the year of 2009 in one word, I would have to say the word “peace” best describes it. For those of you who know our story, you might be really shocked by that word. Surely, after all of the events of this past year, “peace” would not be a word typically used. Honestly, though, it truly was God’s peace that brought us from a point of loss to gaining abundant blessings.

January was quite a month for us. After the holidays were over, we were left with a lot of emotions. We were certain that God’s calling was still on Todd’s life and certain that the time was drawing near for his return to youth ministry. Our biggest concern was where and when. That is, until the day Todd had to be laid off of work. I remember that week very clearly. Two days prior, I was at choir practice and a woman from our church handed me an envelope. She told me she didn’t know whom it was from. When I got home, to our surprise we found a $100 gift card for Kroger inside. Our first reaction was, “We don’t deserve this! There are so many people in the church who have lost jobs. They need it more than us.” Two days later, Todd came home with the news that after almost 15 years, his dad had to lay him off. We both knew God had provided even before we had a need. Shortly after that week, Todd and I were asked to travel down to Texas to interview at a church. Thinking this was God’s plan, we hopped on a plane and set off for College Station, Texas home of Texas A&M University. We loved the town and even more the pastor of the church. We returned to Michigan ready to pack up and head down. God had other plans though as the job was offered to another candidate.

As we struggled to grasp God’s path for us, we had to rely on trusting Him on a weekly basis. We received random cards in the mail from families in the church (some who didn’t even know us) with checks inside. God also provided a temporary job for Todd to help with on the side. He took up doing water restoration. The hours were very long at times, but the extra money helped us keep up with most of the bills and put food on the table. Overall, we had a sense of peace that God was going to continue to take care of us even when we didn’t know what form the help would come in.

After struggling for several months to get together enough money to pay our mortgage, we decided that it was time to put our home of almost 8 years on the market. It came, as no surprise to us that our home was now worth half of the value it was when we bought it. This meant we had to list it as a “short sale” and get bank approval for any offer that came in under the amount we owed. Shortly after it was listed, we had five offers to show the bank. We were excited and so thankful. Then came May.

In May, The River Church located near Cincinnati, Ohio called and asked us to come down for an interview. We were not sure what to expect and surprisingly came away from the interview with a lot of questions more than answers. We had been through that process so many times in the last 4 years and we were beginning to feel run down. We asked a lot of our close friends to pray with us, and a week later, we got encouraging news. Todd was the front-runner and the elders wanted to get a chance to meet our family. This was the first time our kids would be involved in an interview. It was exciting to watch our kids connect with other teens and children at the church and the process, though exhausting, left us feeling at ease and hopeful. Finally, in July, while on vacation in Manistee, Todd got the call asking him to take the youth pastor position.

We made plans to move at the beginning of August in hopes that our home sale would be finalized by then and also because the schools in Ohio would be starting up on the 25th of that month. The entire house was packed up and ready to go. Two weeks before we were scheduled to move, we got a call from our real estate office. They had just found out that the last of the five offers on our home had been withdrawn. We were devastated. The bank had taken so long to get the process in gear; all five potential buyers had decided to look elsewhere. With boxes everywhere, we began to once more show our home. It was frustrating, but again, within a very short period of time, we got another offer.

Our moving plans continued, and on August 10th we packed up everything we owned into our friend, Jim’s moving truck and headed down to Liberty Township, Ohio. The weather was crazy! Not only was it the hottest day we had had all summer, but we also lost power the night before and into the next morning. Then when we got near Dayton, we experienced torrential rainfall so hard that we could barely see the brake lights in front of us. At one point, lightning even stuck near us in the median! When we arrived at our rental home, we were greeted by a group of people from our new church. They were ready to pitch in and help us get the truck unloaded. Before we began taking anything out, Todd and I got our first tour of the home. You see we had never even seen the house in person. Some friends of ours who lived in the area looked it at and we confirmed the fact that they had very good taste as soon as we walked through it. Everything was emptied out of the truck, and Jim & Jeff (who also came down from Michigan to help us) headed back home.

Our first few weeks in Ohio were tiring for sure. I was determined to get the boxes unpacked and Todd wanted to get right into his new position. We were so blessed by the people at The River. They brought us meals, offered to help in anyway they could and some of the ladies even invited me out to coffee! Hannah made several friends almost immediately since she was now of youth group age. We even have a family from church living two doors down who has a daughter the same age! Caleb probably had the hardest time adjusting. He didn’t have any interest in meeting other kids, which was very unusual for him. He stayed inside and told us he would make friends when school started. Well, school started two weeks after we got here and both kids had the opportunity to go to separate schools for the first time.

Hannah now attends Liberty Junior School, and is in the 7th grade. She is still in band and plays the flute. She has really blossomed this year and I think junior high has been a great experience for her so far. Caleb attends Woodland Elementary and is in the 5th grade so he now gets to experience being one of the older kids in his school. He has a great teacher named Mr. Caulfield. He also has a teacher that assists him in reading, which has really made a big difference for him so far this year.

In addition to school, the kids both have new activities they have never experienced before. Hannah found a stable not too far away where she has horseback riding lessons. To help pay for the lessons, she also has been working at the stable cleaning out the stalls. She absolutely LOVES working with the horses and seems to really have a knack for it. Hannah also got FREE braces in November! I was checking out a website for a local Orthodontist because they were hiring office staff and I came across the contest on their home page. I decided to enter because Hannah was actually supposed to get braces back in April but was unable to because we couldn’t afford it. It was such a wonderful surprise when I got the call that Hannah had won!!!

Caleb is now an official Cub Scout and hopes to move up to Boy Scouts in the coming year. He has been on a few outings and is preparing to make his first pinewood derby car. He is hoping his grandpa in Michigan can give him some help. Caleb has also made several really good friends. They play together almost everyday and usually are upstairs playing some sort of video game. I think he is finally feeling at home now.

Todd has settled nicely into youth ministry down here and I have also embraced several ministries. I have been serving with Todd as a small group leader with the teens and youth band coordinator; as well as being involved with the music ministry and even getting several opportunities to lead worship. On top of that I am also working at The Children’s Place part time. We have all grown to love southern Ohio.

Though we still have obstacles in front of us, one being our home in MI that is now in the process of foreclosure unless another buyer comes forward, we are certain that God’s peace will get us through them. We are so excited as God’s plan continues to unfold and really can’t wait to see what 2010 holds for us!

Merry Christmas!
Todd, Kim, Hannah and Caleb Porter

The week that we moved down here our new church was doing vacation Bible school. That gave us a great opportunity to meet some people at the church and to see people in action. It was neat to see people helping one another out and serving.

The church found me a great place to have for my office. I found a nice desk at Ikea as well. And despite the fact that we have gone there quite a bit since we moved down I insist that I am not addicted. However, I must admit that I was thrilled when I saw that there was an Ikea only 15 minutes from our new house.

Speaking of our new house, I am still in awe of how amazing it is that we have found such a great home in a very nice neighborhood. We are only 5 minutes from the church’s building and close to the kid’s schools. My daughter has a friend in her grade that also goes to our church only 2 doors down from us. My son has slowly began to make friends, which is a good thing because he really misses all of his buddies from our old neighborhood. It is nice to have a house where people can come visit and we can also have a group of about 20 parents come over. Our landlord is very nice as well.

I have already started making friends with some of the local youth pastors and they are a greta group of guys. They had organized the Unight Event before I came down, which was an amazing time for the teens to sing songs to God, listen to an amazing speaker named E.J. Swanson and then walk around Lakota East High School so that they could pray for their school and friends. How cool is that? I look forward to getting to know these guys better and seeing the amazing things that God can do.

We are also blessed to have an amazing group of elders at our church who are helping steer the ship while our church looks for a new senior pastor. Yes, you read that right. Our senior pastor resigned last week. I have been assured that my job is safe and that the elders believe that I am the man for the job. So during this time of transition the elders are going to be sharing the load and making sure that the church keeps moving forward. It is so peaceful to us knowing that God has entrusted this church with these five very competent men. The ship may be rocking in this storm, but knowing that Jesus is there in the boat is bringing us peace.

I am also in shock over how good the Michigan Wolverines did this past Saturday. They played a very good Western Michigan University football team and beat them soundly. I am looking forward to seeing what they can do when the Irish come to visit on Saturday. It is always a good rivalry game.

Last year, Michigan lost to all 3 of their biggest rivals for the first time ever and I don’t see that happening again this year. It was nice to see them win their opening game for the first time in 2 years and I hope that this year we can maybe also win our last game of the season for the first time in a long time. My prediction is that they will go 8-4 this season. GO BLUE!!!

I love being able to take my daughter out on dates and we don’t do it as often as I would like. However, I take advantage of every opportunity to do it when I can.

It is fun to think about how our relationship has changed over the years. When she was a baby I told people that I couldn’t wait until she was a teenager and most people looked at me like I was nuts. (I am!) What most people don’t understand is that I know how to relate to teenagers, because that is what I do for a living. I enjoy spending time with them and investing in their lives. I don’t get children but I love people who work with children, because I know how hard it is. So for me I am enjoying seeing her become a teenager and I am loving being able to talk with her about life.

It is neat to think about the possibility of getting back into my career as a youth pastor at the same time that my daughter will be moving into the youth group. I know it won’t be easy for either one of us, but I am excited for it to happen and see where God takes it.

I am so proud of my daughter and I know that she will grow up to be an amazing women just like her mom. But boys be warned, because she is my pride and joy.

Obviously that is my son on the left and my daughter is on the right. My son is full of energy and my daughter has more of a quiet grace about her. So while my son keeps us entertained with his antics my daughter is just going about her business. My wife even at one time said that our son was the funniest person she knows and she does have a point, because he keeps us in stitches.

It is crazy to think that my daughter will soon be entering the realm of junior high, and it freaks me out at times when I look at her and I can occasionally see that look of becoming a teenager. She will always be daddy’s little girl but it is good to see her growing up, especially since she likes to act grown up a lot of times anyway.

When we redid our bathroom my wife bought these little plaques to hang over the kids towel hangers and they couldn’t be more appropriate for the two of them.

My daughter is filled with faith and is such a faithful person even at the age of 11. If you ask her to do something she is more than likely going to follow through with it. Now she is only 11 years old, so it isn’t always the case but generally it is the case. She is, I believe, a picture of faith and I am very proud to have her as my daughter.

My son is full of joy! And that is an understatement. There is very few times in his life when he doesn’t have fun and enjoy life. As it says on the plaque, he does find joy in the everyday. About the only times when he doesn’t is when his mom and dad “ruin his fun”, but isn’t that what parents are supposed to do anyway? I believe that my son is the picture of what joy should be, because I think sometimes we can take life way too seriously and we need to find joy in the moments that we have. I am so proud to be his dad.

Those are my kids and I am so happy to be their dad. I am excited to see them grow up and become teens, then young adults, and then parent’s themselves. I hope they never lose the distinctive that makes them who the are and that they become all that God wants them to become.

Not only that, but I believe that we as a family grew stronger in our faith and closer together. It was really neat to see the kids share in reading the Christmas story from the book of Luke before they opened up their gifts. It was also great to see their excitement each night as we lit the candle and would do our reading from the Family Advent book. And the book had some great activities to do and some extra fun facts as well. I highly recommend that book as well as doing Advent at your home next year for Christmas. Below is a picture of our wreath on Christmas Eve with the Christ candle lit.

At first our kids were kind of shy about doing this, and then they just took off and really enjoyed themselves. They were even somewhat competing to see who could get to the person who needed something first. Of course they were told not to run and act crazy, which they did a good job of not doing. I was really proud of them and it warmed my heart to see them so willing to serve people like that.

We also have given some canned goods and other items at our church that will be passed out to needy people in our area. We have some other ideas of ways that we as a family can help people that we plan on doing as well. Between doing those things and celebrating Advent this year in our house I do not feel that Christmas is just passing us by like last year, but that the richness and joy of the season is grabbing a hold of me and my family.

So what are you doing to make Christmas special to you this year?

HT to Adam McLane.

Isn’t she beautiful? I know I am biased, but I think the photo proves my point. I LOVE YOU, SIS!