Sunday, September 14, 2008

Visit from the Burtnett's and others

We were blessed with a visit from our friend's the Burtnett's, a family in the church we've recently become a part of, Grace Baptist Church of Santa Maria. We'd been trying a bunch of different churches in the Santa Ynez Valley but none seemed to click. Initially we went to a church our old pastor Josh Winans' brother and sister-in-law went to, and while we loved the fellowship, it just didn't fit. For months we tried every church we could find, getting more and more frustrated with the whole "church shopping" process, which is a sucky name in itself. Finally, we were directed by Josh to try the church his mom Tonya attended, Grace Baptist. We went for a few weeks and were enjoying it, but it just seemed too good to be true. Well, a men's breakfast was coming up and Katy really wanted to start getting involved in ministry somewhere, and I think in the back of both of our heads was the idea that we wanted Nick to be part of a church family right from the start of his walk with the Lord. So, I had lunch with Gregg Burtnett, the associate pastor of Grace Baptist, and went home blown away! This was everything we had been looking for in a church, gospel-centered, solid theology, great missions, awesome fellowship, the works! Well the next week we attended a Sunday school class which are all really more like small group bible studies, and it was awesome! Every Sunday since we come away with more confirmation that this is where we are supposed to be. This was especially confirmed when Nick was born. Our bible study put together a bunch of meals and one of the families, the Baldizon's, brought it all over. Then, to top it off, the Burtnett's came by for a good time of fellowship and they too brought a meal! Their boys were extraordinary with Nick, never giving us a moment of worry or hesitation. God is good to our family and we feel extremely blessed to have such new friends as these!




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