Friday, September 12, 2008

Recent Pictures

Here are some recent pictures...our kids are growing up fast!



Bussard Update

It has been awhile since the last update (surprise, surprise). Someday I will get to updating this thing regularly. I apologize to those who think we dropped off the face of the earth.

Much has happened since the last update. We went to Tennessee, for the last time for a while, at the end of July for Pastors' College. That week changed my life and God got a hold on my heart. When I was eighteen years old, God called me to full-time Christian service. Over the years I have felt the calling to be a pastor of a church. I went to Crown College and Seminary and am finally complete with my studies (other than life itself). This Pastors' College, the Lord moved on my heart to start looking for a church to pastor. Ever since that day, we have been moving forward with that. Sarah is all for the move and we are praying for God's will and, while we have a few open doors, we are still waiting for the Lord to give us a church.

It truly is hard to be patient, because you feel that God has called you to do something, and you want to do it NOW!! But through some wise counsel, the Lord has taught me to be patient and wait on His timing. We do not know when, where, or how this will come about, but, just like with Victory, we know that God's timing is perfect. We appreciate your prayers with us as we search for a church. Right now we are working with Dr. Charles Horton who has been very kind and gracious in assisting us. We are in kind of a lull time now and are just praying for God to work.

As far as other news, Phoebe is now four years old and out of the nursery! She has started attending Sunday School and really loves it. She is also learning Bible verses and becoming a smart little girl. Jimmy is now two and starting to talk a bit, while Andrea will be one in about one month. Andrea is crawling now and pulling herself up. She is off formula and eating easy to chew foods. All of our kids are growing up too fast!

The ministry at Victory is doing well and growing. We have added people to the church and the choir (which is a blessing), and will be working on Christmas music soon (once I can get the Cantata worked out). We had the Merrill family down for meetings throughout the week at the church. If you have never had these folks at your church, you should do so. They are genuine Christians who love the Lord and preach the Word. We were blessed to have them in our home and get to know them a bit; they were a great blessing. Pastor Wade has been preaching on Revival and teaching on Genesis on Wednesday Evenings, while we have been studying the lives of the twelve disciples in Sunday School. Thank you all for your prayers for us, please continue to do so as we seek God's will for our lives and look for a church to pastor.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Pictures and More Pictures!

Andrea, our now 7 month old
Jimmy in one of his happy moments
Two beautiful girls...

Sunday School and Church...

As most of you know, we are serving at Victory Baptist Church in Boonsboro, MD in various places in the ministry. Please pray for our church, as our pastor is the only one the church can support full-time. It is worth it, of course, but it is hard for myself and our youth pastor to have to work secular employment and at the church...effectively having two jobs. We enjoy it, don't get me wrong by any means, we just need your prayers. I would like to be doing something God gave me a gift to do, because it is what I enjoy! I would like to be teaching somewhere or even pastoring (if I didn't know that God wanted us at Victory), instead of being a cable technician. Despite what I would like to be doing, this is what we are doing, while waiting on God.

Victory has doubled its attendance since this time last year...praise the Lord! We are looking for many good years ahead. I do not foresee that our family is moving on from this church anytime soon; we are grateful to have a part in this church's restructuring. The people of the church are like family to us and are great to work with. We have had many join and get baptized this year and have seen God work in people's lives. The music ministry is growing as is the youth ministry; we are very excited. Thank you for your prayers.

Please pray for Sarah's parents, who are coming from New Hampshire to visit us next week! This is the first time they have been to MD to visit and will be the first time since we have been married that they will be in our church and see James' parents. We are looking forward to a good visit with them!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Happy Memorial Day!

We had a great Memorial Day service at Victory Baptist Church! Our attendance is increasing for both Sunday School and Morning Worship, but the great thing was that a young lady was baptized Sunday! We had a God-honoring patriotic service, where our servicemen were honored and the national anthem played. For all our problems, we still live in the greatest nation on Earth. If it stops be so, it is because we failed to do something about it! Anyway, we hope your Memorial Day was a great one! No pictures this time...we haven't taken any recently!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

More Pictures

Some more pictures for you...enjoy!

Phoebe on the way back from Tennessee

Victory Baptist Graduation Party

Well, if you've never seen our back yard...

Praise The Lord!

We thank the Lord for all his blessings He has given us this week. I found that my new schedule at Comcast is the one we were praying for and starts this coming Monday! This will be a blessing to our family, as it gives us a more normalized schedule and will allow us to help more in the church and our Sunday School class.

I want to thank the Lord for the country we live in and for our soldiers who fight for us. We live in a nation that is far from the Lord, but not lost. I believe that we need to stand as Christians and fight for our rights, especially today. We cannot just sit by and allow the nation die while we wait for Jesus to return. I expect Him to come back any time; but what if He does not come back during this generation and we pass a destroyed nation on to our children because we did nothing?!? Politics is not the answer, of course, but we do still live in this nation and should be the Americans and patriots God expects us to be!

Right now we live in a nation that is shifting from Humanism to Nature Worship! If you do not believe this, look at the rising oil prices and all that is being done in the name of "Global Hoax, er, Warming"! We are allowing the enviro-wackos take over the policies of the nation and cause our lives to be miserable. Do you know why? Because they are willing to stand up for what they believe in (however wrong it may be), while Christians (and conservatives in general) sit around and complain! It takes two minutes to pop up Internet Explorer and email your Senator and to encourage your friends to do the same! How far is this going to go before we wake up and actually do something about it?!? Ask yourself that question...and the following...
  1. Do I want the government regulating my thermostat?
  2. Do I want to be paying 5.00, 6.00, 7.00/gal of gasoline in the future?
  3. Do I want my heating bill to go up 300.00/yr because of a Cap and Trade System?
  4. Is it really that bad to misplace a few caribou so we can get our own resources?
  5. Why do we buy oil from people who hate us?

I think these are valid questions, because they have been brought up by our three candidates for the presidency (except 4 and 5). We have to do something folks...how far does it have to go before you do...?

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Thank You To All!

We had a good, but tiring time in Tennessee and hit the ground running again when we got back to Maryland! Sometimes you can still be tired and have a good time, but it is good to have a couple of days to relax mid-week.

I was given the opportunity to preach last Sunday and the church gave us an ice cream social to celebrate my graduation. I want to thank everyone at Victory Baptist Church for their love and support for our family. We have been greatly blessed by helping in this church and look forward to the upcoming months (and maybe years), as the Lord allows. We really do not know how long God wants us at Victory, but we have a feeling that it will be a while yet. The Lord Jesus did not start His ministry until He was thirty years old, and I agree that most believers need to help in a church first, then start their own ministry. Not everyone can pastor a church right off the starting block! We also believe in leaving people behind to take up where you left off (aka: Teaching Others Also). I am not leaving Victory without training someone to take up the music and carry on from there; it is not biblical to do anything else!

I would like to thank everyone too who was praying for my upcoming schedule change with Comcast. As of right now, I am going to a Tues-Sat 7:30am-4:30pm shift, which is awesome! This will allow us to do so much more in the church and get some rest during the week! Having a day shift will allow for us to go to nursing home services once in a while and actually be at Sunday School gatherings. It may open up some other things in the future as well. This shift will take effect on 05/25/08; please continue praying that all continues as planned.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Master's Graduation!

After four long years, I was finally able to walk for my Master of Ministry degree. I thought that it took longer to become a Master of the Ministry, and that it did not come from academic studies, but oh well. I told some other folks, at least I am not a Master of the Divinity, at this point. The world would be in lots and lots of trouble. Borderline heresy aside, we are back from our trip to Knoxville, TN.

We arrived on Saturday Evening and stayed with Bob and Joyce Westervelt until Wednesday Morning. The entire trip was busy, tiring, but very worthwhile. We got to visit with many friends (very briefly most of the time), here some great messages, and graduate (which is the reason we went down!). God has truly blessed us with some good friends that we hope to keep for a long, long time. Here are some pictures from the trip. Thanks for looking!

Contemplating the meaning of mulch...



My wonderful, supportive wife


Bob, Joyce, Phoebe, and Myself at their house



Graduation Video

As Promised...

Recently we were in Knoxville, TN for a brief visit, and I was confronted by a few friends about updating the blog. Well, here we go again! Now that I know people read this blog, we will keep it regularly updated. Sorry for the huge gap in Bussard history and thank you for keeping up with us! Here are some new posts, as promised!