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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

On To The Next Chapter...

So, it's completely official now. My family and I are embarking on a new chapter in our lives. I've been diligently researching medical school, and what it takes to get there. It's a long story, but we've got lots of time. In case you haven't seen it, here is the letter that I wrote for Sugarloaf. It says it all:

January 30, 2007

Sugarloaf Community Church
1401 Old Peachtree Road
Suwanee, GA 30024

Dear Sugarloaf family,
You may have already heard that I am no longer on staff with Sugarloaf Community Church, but I wanted you to hear that officially from me. Don’t worry; everything is fine! Our family is happy and healthy as ever, and God is so good to us. The reason for our departure is as simple as this: the Lord is just taking our family in a radically different direction from what we ever would have imagined. Doesn’t He have a way of doing that sometimes?

It had become increasingly evident in the last year that the direction that God was taking our family was changing. Boy, is that an understatement! I won’t go into all the details, but the bottom line is that I feel God leading me into a career in medicine. This is something I have had a strong desire to do since high school, but God has His own perfect timing. With His help I hope to use that kind of expertise, whatever form it takes, in the mission field. As you know, I have traveled around the world while at Sugarloaf, and have seen the needs of the world first hand. I sense that Lord has work for our family to do there, and we just want to be obedient to His call. Not too long after I accepted Christ (at age 30) my consistent prayer was, “Lord, use me wherever, however, and whenever you want.” Now is really where the proverbial rubber meets the road.

There is NO way that I could ever say in a letter how much Jamie and I adore the people of Sugarloaf Community Church. You are part of our family. We have laughed, cried, served, and grown together over the last 5 years, and we will never forget that. Make no mistake, we love you!

We have so many friends at SCC, so we hope to continue those relationships which have come to mean so much to us. Please don’t hesitate to come by, or give us a call, or an e-mail! Also, you can keep track of what’s up by periodically checking my Blog at http://www.billsims3.com. I promise I will try to keep it up to date.

Again, I love all of you, and I wish you all the very best in the Lord.

Many blessings,
Pastor Bill

Enjoy the winter wonderland tomorrow morning, and be careful out there!

Monday, January 29, 2007

He Cares

SO much to talk about, but now that it is about midnight, I think I will forego any long discourses until later.

I've been thinking a lot lately of how God takes an interest in the smallest details of our lives. One of the passages in the Bible, which has given me great comfort is:



What is the price of two sparrows-one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. (Matt 10:29-31, NLT)


JESUS said this. Think about it. Of all the millions of creatures; sparrows, horses, dogs, cats, duck-billed platypuses; God knows when even one of them dies -- and He cares! We are the apple of His eye; the pinnacle of His creation. How much more does He care for us?! If He has the hairs on our heads numbered, does He not care when we are down? Does He not care when we have upheavel in our lives? Does He not care when we feel far from Him because of our own misguided actions? The answer to that question is in Matt 10. He cares more than we can know.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Races

Signed up for the "Run the Reagan" half-marathon today. I'm very excited about that. Last year I ran it, and it was COLD, but I did get a personal record (2:07)! The temperature didn't matter; I enjoy running in the cold, that is after about a mile when I warm up. I'm going to use it as a training run for the ING Georgia Marathon in March. That should be interesting...

Come join me on one of these! I promise it'll be lots of fun.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Times, They Are A Changin'

OK, so Blogger support finally responded and fixed the problem I was having. At least they did respond! The funny thing was that I received a request to do a short survey on my support experience. I got a good chuckle from that one. The even funnier thing was the question regarding the response time. Too bad it was multiple choice instead of free-form text. Then again, this IS free!

A lot of changes are going on in my family right now. I am no longer on staff at the church where I served for a bit over 4 years. However, the Lord is giving us a vision for the future that is exciting and doggone scary at the same time. I'll talk more about this in future posts. In the meantime, please pray for us!

For now, I think I will try to make some money in my area of expertise -- computer systems design, administration, support, etc. It'll be good to get back to that for a while. I actually did miss it, surprisingly enough. That shouldn't really surprise me, since my Dad originally got me interested in computers very young when he purchased a Texas Instruments 99/4A. It didn't have a monitor, you just used a converter box to connect it to your TV. I started programming BASIC (on the TI 99/4A, it came on a cartridge kind of like an Atari cartridge) at age 12. Just thinking about it brings back a ton of memories.

It's late, I think I'll go to bed.

10 PRINT "ZZZZZZZZZZ"
20 GOTO 10

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Tech Support Ain't All It Used To Be

In the old days, technical support was all about HELPING the end user. I think Blogger must have forgotten that. I still haven't got a response from their technical people, if there actually are any (the only way you can contact them is through an online form). So, I e-mailed a bunch of folks to let them know of my new address, http://www.billsims3.com.

If it has been a while since you checked the site, then welcome back! I hope you will come back and enjoy some of my random craziness. I redesigned things a couple of weeks ago, and I hope you like the new setup.

Here are a couple of quotes I came across that you can ponder. Enjoy, and come back soon!

By three methods we may learn wisdom:
first, by reflection, which is noblest;
second, by imitation, which is easiest;
and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
--Confucius

If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
--Dolly Parton

Amen, Dolly.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Crazy Pills!

I'm so annoyed. Computers are supposed to make life easier!

My blog is messed up right now, and I have had to contact support to get it fixed. Who knows how long it will take, but I decided I would go ahead and post some stuff.

The good thing is, I will have my own domain name once all of this is fixed -- http://www.billsims3.com. A lot more flexibility once it's done.

This is completely random, but lately I have felt like Mugatu in the movie "Zoolander". I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Happy New Year!

It's been a while, huh.

Well, 2006 is over. I don't know how it went for you, but mine was quite an interesting year. 2007 promises to be even more eventful, if I have my guess. Is that good or bad? We shall see.

Today I started the book "Ruthless Trust" by Brennan Manning. I have a lot of big decisions to make in the next few weeks, and this book has already given me a sense of peace about what is coming. I am learning more about what it truly means to TRUST the Lord with all of our lives. It's funny, but one of my prayers in the last few weeks has been for clarity. Maybe I was praying the wrong prayer. In chapter 1 of Ruthless Trust, Brennan relays the following story:

When the brilliant ethicist John Kavanaugh went to work for three months at "the house of the dying" in Calcutta, he was seeking a clear answer as to how best to spend the rest of his life. On the first morning there, he met Mother Teresa. She asked, "And what can I do for you?" Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him.

"What do you want me to pray for?" she asked. He voiced the request that he had borne thousands of miles from the United States: "Pray that I have clarity."

She said firmly, "No, I will not do that." When he asked her why, she said, "Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of." When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, "I have never had clarity; What I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God."

My biggest prayer for 2007 is NOT for clarity, as it seemed to be in 2006, it is for TRUST.