Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
December 10th. This is our 20th wedding anniversary. Vileen and I married in Omaha Nebraska with all of our good friends and family surrounding us. Our singles pastor Dennis Franck, the first pastor for both of us when we started walking with the Lord, married us which was a great pleasure.
After our wedding, we jetted off to Hawaii for our honeymoon. We were miraculously given a week at the Hyatt Waikaloa as a travel agent trade off and enjoyed every minute of our time there. It was glorious!
The next 6 months were spent adjusting to a brand new life together. I can’t say it was always glorious but the Lord prevailed in our life and helped us to establish a solid foundation for our married life.
I never knew love before in my life like the love I have for my wife. This kind of love transends lust, fondness, physical pleasure – it is deeper than all of that. I am grateful that the Lord has trusted me with marriage since I messed up my first marriage so deeply.
Tomorrow, Vileen and I will travel to Nashville Tennessee. We will be engaging in the “Country Christmas” events surrounding the Opryland Hotel. We received a gift from a friend that provided for our trip that allowed us to have this time away. We are so grateful to the Lord for His goodness to us.
Well, here’s to another 20 years of God’s grace!
Tags: anniversary, john and vileen, opryland hotel, prayers, smid
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Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Phew! God has provided for us! We received financial provision at just the right time. Things were getting a little slim around the Smid household. I deeply appreciate your prayers and thoughtfulness. Keep praying for our finances and God’s wisdom as we continue our pursuit of developing Grace Rivers.
We are praying about some more long term plans for our financial needs and how God wants to direct our path.
Pray for:
Wisdom for John and Vileen
Financial provision for our personal needs
For Bart Green (ghost writer) and my book project
Tags: Bart Green, book project, financial provision, prayers
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Monday, September 1st, 2008
Grace Rivers Develeopment
Your prayers this week have definitely been heard! As of Thursday I discovered a practical plan of how to establish the ministry of Grace Rivers. After meetings with advisors some things really became clear for me.
I also had a very productive and encouraging meeting this last Saturday that laid a foundation for what Grace Rivers actually can become!
Please read through this entire letter to find out exactly how your prayers are being answered.
Last week was very productive for Grace Rivers development. Thank you so much for your prayers. I have contacted six men to ask them to consider being part of the initial “Steering Committee” for the development of Grace Rivers. Five of the six have already confirmed their interest and I have set up meetings this week with each of them to further discuss the plan of the Steering Committee. I can’t tell you how encouraged I am to have these particular men walk alongside me in making Grace Rivers a reality.
A man named Todd Posey contacted me about six weeks ago to see if I could help him develop a ministry within his church that would set a place for more authentic and honest relationships. Todd and his wife, Ann went through the Radical Living program at Love In Action about five years ago and really wanted something like this for their church. This initial phone call has ended up in hours of meetings and phone calls with Todd. Todd has become my right hand man, helping me greatly to develop Grace Rivers. He has experience in marketing, business, budgeting, and inter church relationships. He definitely brings to this project the experience and personality that merges with mine to help fill in the gaps.
On Saturday, Todd, Scotty Bollinger (Word Creative, my web designer) and I had a five hour brainstorming session to talk about what Grace Rivers really is designed to do. Out of this time together we developed a rough draft of a mission statement.
Grace Rivers is a worldwide ministry actively stirring the body of Christ towards healthier relationships and spiritual growth by helping people become more honest and real with themselves, others and God using biblical principles, resulting in a more passionate response to fulfilling The Great Commission.
Grace Rivers is a model of communication, tools for healthy relationships, and teaching materials to support its model. I can see it working in virtually any church to help implement the mission statement we drafted. It can be implemented into small groups, topical groups, home groups, Bible studies and also includes a recovery model for the needs of those who are stuck in destructive life patterns.
The wonderful thing about Grace Rivers is that it is not designed for recovery, rather for practical Christian growth and discipleship. This allows for less of a stigma for those wanting to join a Grace Rivers group with all of the benefits and depth of honesty of many recovery groups. The exciting thing about this is that many more people might find significant Christian growth through Grace Rivers.
The other component of Grace Rivers is the outcome of dramatically increased spread of the gospel. I hear from the world that the Church is full of hypocrites and dishonesty. Well – Grace Rivers addresses these concerns by helping us take our masks off and get more real. The byproduct of this is more effective relating with others outside the church.
Please pray for:
• My meetings with the Steering Committee members this week
• Meetings with staff members of Central Church here in Memphis this week
• Further development of the foundation elements of Grace Rivers – I want to do this RIGHT!
Tags: Development, mission statement, prayers, steering committee
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