Issaquah, WA February 28-March 1, 2016

What a privilege it is to run alongside of my son, Carey.  He is now 14 years old and among the finest men I know.  Several days per week we drive over to our local park to do our 3 mile run (soon to increase).  Having spent most of my adolescent years running, I never would have imaged that I would be coaching and running with my own son 30+ years later.  It has been of great personal benefit to me to help maintain my own physical health (except for those sore joints that weren’t there 30 years ago!).  But the greater and more eternal benefit has been the time together.  Carey is becoming quite the runner, and he has equaled me much sooner than I anticipated.  It is a joy to me to run alongside one another and to take turns pulling one another along.  It truly has becoming the kind of “running together” in which I so firmly believe.
 
I thought about this much on our recent trip to Issaquah, WA, just outside of Seattle.  About four years ago or so, Trina and I felt from the Lord that it was time to begin taking Carey on trips with me.  That trip to Seattle in February 2012 was his first plane trip with me, and this year was the fifth consecutive year for him to make that trip with me (among the many others that he now does as well).  I was amazed to look back at the photo and see the physical growth in his life (no comments, please, on my own aging!).  But Carey’s spiritual growth has been equal to physical, and for this I am most grateful.  One large part of that spiritual growth has been not only being together and having experiences like this together, but also the people who have so invested in his life.  Pastor Vanessa Chitwood and the people at Mountain Creek Christian Fellowship (MCCF) continue to love and care for Carey in a special way, just as this congregation has for our family over the years.  My first time there was in 1994, and I have been there now more times than I can actually remember.  It has always been a special place, and now it has been a part of my son’s discipleship as well.  Mark Miller, the former pastor (who continues on various assignments for the district and still lives in Issaquah) continues to be a dear friend and it is a blessing to get to stay with Mark and Beth when we are there – it is just like home.  Mark has been one of those godly men that God has placed in our lives, and, being a retired Marine officer, gets to coach Carey in using firearms and other things that Carey loves!  (as some know, Carey feels led to be in the military).  God is so good to lead us and place people in our lives through whom He shapes us.

​We loved our time again with the church family at MCCF as I got to preach from the book of Jude from Sunday through Tuesday --- powerful and life-changing truth.  We treasure these days to get to be with people where God has placed us and to share Jesus.  I cherish these days with my family, and with my son Carey as we get to travel together.  God continues to fill my heart with thanks that I get to run together with my son in these weeks and years --- a young man who is growing also to be my brother in Christ and a man of God in and through whom He is working. 
 
Running together in Christ,
 
John