Failure?

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Important announcement for my friends and partners in Colorado:

I will be back in Colorado the week of October 6-10.

I would love to meet with you and share how God has been working in North Carolina. I will be hosting a missions evening —a time of sharing testimony from the mission field in North Carolina — so that you can hear how your partnership and prayers have made an impact.

Missions Evening

Friday October 10th ~ 6-8pm

2176 Dayspring Drive, Windsor Colorado

If you are not able to attend this evening but would still like to meet with me and hear more details about the mission field in North Carolina, please contact me and we can set up a time to meet over a meal/coffee.

I’m excited to visit for the week and hope that many of you can join to be encouraged by how God is at work!

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What is it about failure that frightens us so much?

We have a way of convincing ourselves that our reoccurring thoughts are purely noble, and God has a way of showing us otherwise. Personally, one of those thoughts is the fear of failure.

I will usually label this thought as a “desire to live above reproach” or a “desire to set a good example to onlookers.” It is also easy to attach a Bible verse on the tail end to support my idea (Hebrews 12:1-3, 1 Timothy 5:7). But God has shown me that—while partially on track—my fear of failure is rooted in a persistently incorrect attitude:

I still subtly believe that I have to be perfect for God to use me.

It is absolutely right to desire to live above reproach, avoid stumbling, walk in repentance and obedience to God. In fact, He commands this sort of living! But intermixing this desire with self-dependency is wrong.

I find it humbling that I have written to you all several times about how God works through broken, willing vessels, and yet I still doubt it. Even now, when things are overwhelming and the to-do list begins to pile up, I default to placing more trust in my ability to accomplish God’s will instead of trusting God’s ability to accomplish His will through me.

And boy, if anything summarizes what I have been learning in the past 6 months, here it is:

2 Corinthians 12:9

“But He said to me, ‘My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

I am weak. I am always tired. I forget things consistently. I overbook myself, struggle with communication, lead with a timid spirit, and easily bend to other people’s preferences. I zone out and miss opportunities to serve and share Christ’s love with others.

And yet, God works through me in spite of me.

At Deb’s house, I made a significant error in the rebuild process. We had been working on drywall finishing for about 2 months. I decided to prime the walls too early, and so we had to go back and patch every wall, sand everything, prime everything again, and then paint. This repair phase took about two and a half weeks, when we should have been painting and installing trim. Overall, I put us behind schedule by three weeks.

I beat myself up over it a lot. I figured Deb would be furious that she had to wait even longer to get back in her home. I also wondered if the extra time spent sanding made for poor experiences for the volunteer teams.

But God showed me otherwise. With the last group of volunteers, my team sanded, patched, and primed all of the walls. We painted the entire house in two coats of paint. And every door and window—along with trim—was installed. This was done in 5 days. And God didn’t stop there.

In the midst of this mind-blowing progress, God worked in the hearts of the volunteers on my crew. He stirred the heart of each man on my team to the point of asking what it would look like to serve God in missions and let go of control of their lives. He even led one of our volunteers to salvation.

All in a week’s work, for our God.

You want to know what part I played?

“God, you have to do something. I am weak. I messed up. I also don’t really know what I am doing. Forgive me, and for Your sake, work in this house, work in my teams’ lives, and work for your glory.”

God is teaching me not to fear failure and weakness as much. As I walk with Him, purposing to be obedient and faithful, when my weakness is on display, I find that His work is on display too. I find that when I fail and go to God in brokenness, it is a clear sign to onlookers that anything accomplished must be God’s work, not mine. And that gives Him all the glory.

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PROGRESS REPORT IN CLEAR CREEKSIDE LANDING and MORE

Clear Creekside Landing, NC is the neighborhood where we have concentrated our rebuilding efforts in response to Hurricane Helene.

• We are currently working on three homes in Clear Creekside:
  • Deb’s – Installing baseboard and cabinets.
  • Michaels – Finishing drywall/priming and painting
  • Mark’s – Finishing touches/working around other contractors
• Jeffrey has moved back into his home and has begun attending Bible study in the neighborhood.
• Cole continues to lead one of our first long-term out of neighborhood sites at the Spencer’s. They had a few feet of flood damage in their basement. The current project is drywall finishing/priming.
• Our team has scouted several neighborhoods and met with many homeowners as we continue the search for more local projects.
• Involvement and relationship with our partner churches continues to deepen!

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ANSWERED PRAYERS

• Great times of relationship and discipleship with Gabryel, who served with us for 3 weeks.
• Many volunteers that we have worked with have committed their lives to Christ for the first time sincerely or in deeper measure!
• Wisdom and skilled advice has been provided to help organize our tool systems as we move out of work in Clear Creekside.
• A calm hurricane season in the Southeast thus far.

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PRAYER REQUESTS

10/3/2025

• Pray for clarity and courage as I continue to seek God’s direction about extending my time serving with Crisis Response to long term.
• Pray for the month of October: We have back-to-back weeks of volunteer teams, adjunct staff and full-time staff coming and going. We need wisdom, unity, and focus to manage this time well.
• Pray for the growth and health of our partner churches.
• Pray for the growth and health of our team as individuals and as a whole.