kylegilbert

At long last, some photos of our new hood.  I’ve also chunked in a few shots of the building at Faith Promise that I took on the way to drop my parents off at the airport today.

By the way, this move would not have been possible except for the help of my parents.  They’re amazing, and even as I type, they’re back in Fort Worth painting my utility room so it will look nice when people come to look at our house.

I also owe a special shout out to all of our friends and family in Fort Worth who did special things to make the last few weeks enjoyable and memorable.  You guys are amazing, and we already miss you very much!

Here in Knoxville, thank you Josh, Marti, and Kim for your caring attention to the details and Aaron and Jeremy for helping unload boxes.

Well, we made it to Tenessee, but not quite to Knoxville. We ended up stopping in Memphis for the night and plan to make the next leg of the trip after breakfast.

I’m in the hotel room making this post via my awesome new iPhone (more on that later), and I thought I’d share a few pics.

My daughter came up with this idea herself, and she was very proud to show me what she had done.

This girl keeps us amazed and laughing every day!

I love my neighbors, especially the “V-man” and his family, but we’ve had a little issue with a neighbor who doesn’t seem to mind that his front gate has completely fallen off.  Well, we were getting used to being able to see into his back yard, but it totally took me by surprise when I saw this the other day.

Now, I may be mistaken, but I think this was brought outside within the past few weeks.  Very nice.

So now, not only is the economy in trouble and loans more difficult to secure, but we also have an old Christmas tree in our neighbor’s back yard that can be seen from our front yard.

Some of you may think that I should be bitter about this, but honestly it makes me laugh every time I see it, and it has left me with a couple of questions:

1. Where has this tree been for the past nine months?
2. Why did it have to be in the middle of the back yard?

I think I may go set it upright before we leave town, just for grins.

The image above is the front of a postcard that I put together for Touch of Vintage last night.  I really like the way it turned out, especially close up (click image for detail).

Brynna and I needed to pick up some bread for dinner the other night, so we stopped in at Walgreens rather than having to deal with the crowds at Wal-Mart.  When we entered the door, I realized that we had a small problem.  No body told me that in October, Walgreens is transformed into a haunted house.  There were skeleton faces all over the place, and not just the innocent “Mr. Funny Bones” kind of skeletons either.  I’m talking about rotting hair and flesh kinds of creepies down several isles.

So I picked up my daughter and told her to put her head on my shoulder and keep her eyes closed – that there were some things that were kind of rude that she wouldn’t want to see.  Fortunately, I think she took me at my word and did what I told her too, and we quickly grabbed our stuff, paid for it, and headed out the door.

It’s a strange world that we live in.  It’s becoming increasingly difficult to protect the innocence of children in our society (and I know it’s worse in most other countries).

Some of you may be tempted to tell me that I shouldn’t shelter my daughter like this, but I’ll tell you in advance that I think you’re crazy.

In preparation for moving early next week, I’ve been trying to get our phones, electricity, and other utilities set up so that they’re ready to go when we get there. Through this process, I’ve noticed some discrepancies in the name of our address. Some places have it listed as Drive and others as Road or Lane.

Well, in an effort to get this sorted out, I decided to check Google Maps to see the official listing there. The image below is what I discovered. I have removed the street names to appease my wife and throw off all our would-be stalkers, but otherwise the information is unchanged.

Hmm.  I guess we can just take our pick?

You know that someone really loves you when they’re willing to help you bridge the cultural divide and give you lessons on appropriate attire for a new place.  That’s what my Pastor did for me tonight at our reception.  I accused him of just wanting to show off his arms, but either way, I was pretty surprised to see him walk into the service looking like this tonight.

My favorite part – he even tried to mess up his hair in honor of me.  Now, that’s some serious love.

Here’s a tea party that Bryn and I had the other day.  She invited the guests and set things up as shown above.  I never knew I would have so much fun with my kids!

I’ve been walking a tightrope in most of my conversations over the last few weeks. If I seem too excited about the new job I’ll be assuming at Faith Promise Church, I come across as a jerk – uncaring about the many relationships that we’re leaving behind. On the other hand, if I communicate my sadness to move away from so many friends, people think that maybe I don’t really want to go, and that there must be some hidden reason that we’re moving to Tennessee.

As a result, I have to explain both sides to almost everyone I talk to.

In addition to this, I think many people are trying to connect the dots of recent events with this change, and sometimes the result is very far from accurate. So, just to set the record straight, let me do a little Q & A:

Is this the reason the West Campus was closed down?

Please!!! You’ve got to be kidding me!

We had no idea about this position until several weeks after the West Campus was closed, and we were a bit hesitant when we first heard about the position.

Why are you leaving? Are you glad to move to Tennessee?

While this change is very challenging to us, in that we’re moving farther away from family and leaving many of our closest friends behind (not to mention that I’ve never lived outside of Texas), we feel a clear direction from God that this is where we’re supposed to be.

It really helps that one of my closest friends, Josh Whitehead, is on staff there as Executive Pastor.

What will you be doing there? What exactly is a Communications Pastor?

My primary responsibilities will include overseeing the church websites, directing PR and marketing initiatives, doing some graphic design, and working as a part of the pastoral staff at FPC.

What is Faith Promise Church like?

Most of you reading this will know my passion for small group ministry and doing church in non-traditional ways. Faith Promise is that kind of church, and they’re making an impact by reaching people who aren’t being reached through traditional methods of doing church. (They have just under 3,000 in weekly attendance, and they are on track to baptize 200 people this year. Most of those are not children).