i hate cats. i do. if you’re a cat lover, i don’t hate you. i’m sure your a perfectly wonderful person. however, i don’t get cats. they just seem a bit arrogant and sneaky. i hate cats. have i already mentioned that? i do, however, have quite the feelings for hello kitty. see, reese light up every time she sees anything with that little white kitty cat on it, so this cat hater will make an exception just this once because been smiling all afternoon.

my mind went back to her first birthday party two years ago. there was no room full of family and friends. no streamers hanging from the ceiling. no invitations were sent. in fact, reese wasn’t even there. it was a simple little celebration with ashley, hudson, max, and myself. we got a small cake, lit the single candle, and sang happy birthday to a little girl that we had yet to even meet. that may sound a bit strange, but we were so thrilled to be getting reese that we only felt it right to go ahead and celebrate her birthday as a family. a family that she would one day be a part. that was a special time for our family, but it’s so much more so now that she’s home. so, happy birthday reese. hello kitty is welcome here. But don’t even think of bringing home a real cat. i hate cats.

do we have a roof? yes. transportation? yes. food? yes. clothes? yes.

however, my poor decisions, inattention to details, and overall negligence has gotten us to a point where we feel like we aren’t fulfilling God’s desire for our lives because we’re in bondage to debt.  we’ve had pretty bad credit card debt for a while now, so this is really nothing new, but recently God has really been showing us issues, problems, and injustices that we feel helpless to irradicate. ashley has such a desire to continue to reach out to orphans and children around the world, but financially we can’t. we would love to be able to give more to our church, but financially we can’t. we wish we could help other people to adopt by giving them money for the process (as so many did for us), but financially we can’t. we desire to be a family that can provide hope to those around us who are struggling through financial issues, but we are currently unable to dig out of our own pit. overwhelmed is a understatement. i’m embarrassed, ashamed, broken, helpless.

BUT, WE ARE PRAYING AND BELIEVING GOD FOR A MIRACLE.

this isn’t a post to feel sorry for myself or garner pity. i’ve done those things long enough.

a few things have changed over the last week. i started reading a book called Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick. it’s a book discussing how some people throughout history had have such audacious faith in God that they’ve believed God for seemingly the impossible, and God did what only He can do. this faith came not out of unbridled zealousness, but out of a belief that God is a good God that wants to use them in great ways. that’s the realization that i had this last week. God has given Ashley and myself a desire to love all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white. and if those desires come from God, i will begin believing that God is going to allow us to fulfill them. this is His big vision for our lives, so i will begin to believe that He will do what currently seems impossible to us. we’ll continue to do our part with budgets, restraint, control, planning, etc. but the hole we’re in is going to take a miracle to get out of.

so, here’s what i’m praying for right now. these are my sun stand still prayers.

1) that our house will sell by Christmas. we have enough equity in our house to pay off about half of our credit card debt, while being able to move close to the church. it’s been on the market almost a year now and not one single offer. to sell in a couple of months would be miraculous.

2) that we can have all of our credit cards payed off in less than two years. this seems absolutely insane to me, but i believe God can do the insane.

3) that we would be able to give an extra $1000 offering to thecitychurch by the end of the year. we desire to lead the way in giving at our church. giving has always been a priority in our budget, but we pray that God allows us to do even more.

i don’t know what God is going to do in this stage of our lives, but we do believe He is beginning to give us a bigger vision for our family and our church. i have to believe that He wants us to lead in these areas and not just talk a good game. i choose to believe that God is going to do the impossible. this kind of faith doesn’t come easily to me. but i choose to believe that God is good and wants to use my family for great things.

i did indeed buy a golf.  she’s a 1995 golf III. she had been living under a shed in pine bluff and thanks to the list that craig keeps up with, she’s all mine.  for a 15-year-old car, she looks pretty good. no dings, paint is nice, tires were ok.  one little problem, though.  she only wanted to run in 3rd gear. no shifting.  no fourth gear.  it was kind of like driving a go-kart–push pedal->go.  that was fun for a while.  i took her over to rick to get it looked at. rick works on Porsche’s, so i figured she’d be in good hands. well, to put it simply, rick is a genius.

once we got her running,I began to do a few cheap modifications.  tire/rims (craig’s list), tint (high school friend), etc.  nothing big, but she really began to look pretty dang good.  so, we’re pretty much ready to do a full wrap. it’s about the same price to get it fully wrapped as it is to paint it, then put vinyl graphics on it.  plus, when we’re done with the wrap, she’ll look stock again.

here’s where you can help.  the wrap is about $1400.  yikes, right?  it’s probably going to take me a while to come up with that, so i thought i’d see if anyone wanted to help by donating to the “wrap it up” campaign.  just made that up.  here’s a paypal link where you can make a donation (my email address for paypal is darenneely@gmail.com).  click on personal, then click gift.  anything will help–$5, $10, $20, $100, $1400.  i really believe this could create quite a buzz about our church.  we will take this to events, games, car shows, etc around the city to get the word out about thecitychurch.  plus, it’s my daily driver, so it will be seen everyday.  i’ve posted some pictures, so you can see the progress.

Disclaimer (this is my personal car.  i paid for it, and i pay the insurance, etc.  this is not a “company” car owned by thecitychurch.  donating to this is not tax deductible, but i may give you a side hug.  okay, probably not.)

after calming the kids down a little, we began to wait for the slides to open.  natzi lifeguard turned the water on for the slides, slid down them a few times herself, all the while looking quite militant, then to the horror of hudson, proceeded to turn the water off and barricade the slides.  no explanation.  she perched herself back up on the lifeguard stand and continued to spread her cold war russian-like cheer.  as i looked around, i noticed all the other lifeguards exuding the same stoic enthusiasm.  i was perplexed.  these are teenagers that get to spend their summer at the pool, while getting paid.  cheer up.  your friends are watching the clock tick by while cleaning out the bathroom drain at the Dairy Queen.  you’re getting paid to set by the pool and occasionally save a life.  smile.

come to find out, i’m guilty of the same thing.  a couple of weeks ago, we loaded up the van and took the family to dallas.  i was speaking at a conference, so we took the opportunity to have a quick little vacation.  six flags, hurricane harbor, etc.  we had a great time.  or did i?  on two separate occasions, i was asked to smile by a food service employee.  one at a whataburger drive through, and one at the ice cream kiosk in the mall.  honestly, if the kids weren’t in the car, i may have picked a fight with the lady at whataburger.  so here i am at a conference, free hotel, free six flags, everyone having a great time, and i can’t muster up a smile for the ice cream lady.  i am pastor of an awesome church.  i have a amazing wife.  my kids are way cooler than yours.  i drive a dodge stratus (sorry, will farrell reference).  all of that, and the whataburger lady has to tell me to smile. cheer up daren.  you’re a lifeguard.

special thanks to the miserable crew of lifeguards in el dorado.  as for the whataburger lady, i’ve got my eye on you.

i usually just take whatever opportunities that come, but i wanted to step up my speaking schedule a little over this next year, hence the post.  so, if you’ve got some kind of event coming up (retreat, camp, revival, men’s night, adoption seminar, volunteer training, motivational training, etc.), i’d love to be a part of it.

i’m looking to schedule  two weekends/month and one week/month during the summer. click on the link below for a copy of my speaking contract, and i look forward to hearing from you.  for any more questions click on my contact page.

darenneely speaking contract

here’s the crazy part of my idea.  i don’t have a car.  you see, i sold the pathfinder to pay some stuff off, and i’ve been driving around in my father-in-laws old truck with no a/c the last couple of months.  it’s not so much the heat as the humidity.  so, back to my crazy idea.  i’m in process of trying to find someone to donate us a vw golf.  i don’t how in the world that would end up happening, but that’s why it’s my “crazy idea” and not my “makes perfect sense” idea.  so, if you know someone who wants to help us out with a car, cash, or a connection with someone who might want to help, let us know.  the truck i’m driving has no power steering, and i’m not a real big fella, so the sooner the better.

we’ve gone lots of places through the years–cayman islands, aruba, mexico, cruises, piggott. i make this a priority for us.  here’s why.  we were married before we had kids, and we’ll be married after the kids are gone.  she is my number one priority in our home, yes, above the kids, therefore, i will take care of our relationship first.  i know some of you are gasping.  ”how dare you put each other in front of your kids!” you’re exclaiming.  here’s the way I see it.  the best thing i can do for my kids is to show them a healthy marriage.  and a huge part of a healthy marriage is the one on one time spent with each other.  if your house is anything like mine, that one on one time is hard to find, so we get away.  away from the house, the bills, the church, the kids, the dog.  away.

i was talking to a friend the other day and she said that she and her husband haven’t done anything fun together since they had their daughter, their 10 year old daughter.  saddens me, really.  i don’t want our kids to look at us and wonder why we don’t ever do anything fun together.  so we get away, without guilt, without shame, and often come back without money.  she’s worth it.  we’re worth it.  so, how are you going to get away this summer?