I’m Confused, What Happened?!

Here’s a quick ministry update for you. Many of you may be seeing what God’s up to with us this year and wondering why, considering what happened last fall.

Let me clear up the confusion:

In September, 2015, following a major case of tunnel vision on my part, both Cristine and I were buried in stress, so we called a round table together to ask some prayed-up outsiders their feedback on the tension we were experiencing.

They listened prayerfully and replied as lovingly and bluntly as we’d asked. Their conclusions were:

• “You’ve been faithful with the calling God had given you.”
• “You AND your wife are clearly exhausted.” and
• “Now is the time for you to lay this ministry down and pursue a full time job to bring stability to our financial situation.”

I felt like Abraham being asked to lay his son, Isaac, on the altar as a sacrifice. With deep grief, I obeyed their counsel.

But, God… WHAT?!

Within mere weeks of me beginning an active job search, I got an email regarding a command performance of “That Day” at a church in Alpharetta. “What?!” I thought. Over the next 2 months, I secured a part time job and performed at Midway Community Church for a capacity crowd of about 300. WHAT?!

God helped us reach hundreds of people with the message of eternal rewards and even finish the year much closer to “even” than we’d ever have imagined. NOT ONLY THAT, but from that performance we received two bookings for That Day – one for this summer (August, 2016 in Manassas, VA) and another for the most recent performance this past April. This April’s engagement at Greater Heights Baptist Church brought the That Day message to over 500 people over the course of 2 performances! WOW!

The Greater Heights engagement gave me opportunity to teach Clean Slate, the “what next?” of That Day over the course of 3 weeks, to the Greater Heights Baptist Church adult Sunday school leaders and we covered a LOT of ground between this day and That Day!

An Abraham Moment?

The more I’ve talked to wise men, the more I’ve seen this agreement – though God never promised us we’d receive our Isaac back, our obedience to lay the ministry on the altar was required for its redemption. The more willing we’ve been to answer “Yes, Lord! Now, what’s the question?” the more opportunities have opened for us to do this work. Praise Jesus!

State of the Union & What’s Next…

This month, Cristine:

• is leading our children in summer homeschool studies, holding a very, very light “external” discipleship schedule
• has lost 60 lbs. to my 40, for a total of 100 lbs. of combined weight loss (more on that later!)

Aarron is:

• Serving at a part time job a few days a week
• Holding a light schedule for discipleship & coaching
• Spending the bulk of time preparing for August’s That Day road trip to Virginia (and possibly Tennessee!)
• Developing the Clean Slate Workshop Leader’s Guide and Workbook editions and
• Keeping an ear open for God’s next call.

Together, Cristine and I are preparing to release some video discipleship content as well as new custom tracks for the Stay in the Word mobile app.

I hope you’ll keep us in prayer this summer and we look forward to whatever God has next, one step at a time!

in Christ,

AP