Thanksgiving 2020
I wanted to take a moment to share with you how amazing God has been this year and to publicly praise and thank Jesus for this year. For all of us, this has been one for the books. Crazy right? But through it all, I’ve seen God’s faithfulness in new and unbelievable ways.
I wouldn’t go so far as to thank him for Covid but I’ve seen him move in ways I’ve never seen before. Take the initial shutdown back in March. I can’t tell you how miraculous it is that we went from nothing to having a live stream almost instantly. Truly a miracle.
We discussed doing streaming many times at PBCC but we always thought it was way beyond our ability and required skills and technology that we didn’t have.
Now, I’ve been in and around technology all my life and I worked in theater with the Kings Academy and others for many years. So, I know how badly things can go without the proper planning and preparation. I’ve experienced the maxim that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. When you don’t anticipate all the ways things can go wrong, something bad happens and you will find yourself panicking to keep things going. This has been true in every technical aspect of my life.
Yet, I can’t explain how quickly we got up and running and how well things have gone without attributing it to God’s hand. We should not have been able to do what we’ve done. It’s a miracle.
Add to that, that within a month, due to shelter in place, we were not able to have anyone at the church. Everything had to be over Zoom. But, it turns out that my wife, Lynda, is also comfortable with both technology and theater so we could both be running the live stream together. And since we were in the same house, we could do it together at the church. Amazing! And a miracle.
Then, as the shelter in place relaxed a little and we could have more than just me and Lynda at the church, my son Alex, who has training in theater, was able to help us establish procedures and training for the different roles as we brought more people into the production side of the live stream. Again, none of us ever thought that this combination of life events would combine to enable the live stream. Well, God knew! It is truly amazing how God orchestrated this confluence of events such that He was able to bless his body through us. I thank God for using me and giving me a direct view into how he uses the people and things of our world to further his kingdom and bless his people. Truly humbling and inspiring.