The Golf Course Road church family officially welcomed us to Midland Wednesday night with – what else? – an ice cream social featuring Marble Slab sundaes! Carrie-Anne and I spent the better part of two days down there looking for houses, eating lunch with the GCR ministers and staff, moving some boxes into my new study/office, and, most importantly, finally getting to personally meet more than a hundred of the good people at this very good church.
GCR live-streams a monthly “Family Update” hosted by Ryan Rampton from the worship center. It’s a 45-minute conversation intended to keep the congregation in the loop on important church news and developments, especially as it relates to changes within the ministry team. So it was a blast to do the Family Update live, in person, on the stage in that historic sanctuary. You can see the entire video with Ryan and me and a special cameo by Carrie-Anne by clicking here.
It was really good to see Amber Weems and her girls there Wednesday – familiar faces in our brand new setting. It was such a blessing to participate as Charlotte Siemer put on our Lord Jesus in baptism. It was fun to make so many connections with all these brand new people. We met the self-proclaimed deacon of coffee who has promised to provide my Diet Dr Pepper on Sunday mornings, Tod Brown’s sister who may have once dated a minister friend of mine in Amarillo, Trish-like-Fish who claims to be the shortest woman at GCR, and lots of generous people who are truly thankful and ready for us to move in and get settled with them there. Carrie-Anne and I feel very warmly welcomed and received by this church family in the middle of the West Texas desert and we can’t wait to experience all that the Lord has planned for us together.
The latest development on our housing situation is that we do have a signed contract on our house here in Amarillo. Praise the Lord! We signed the papers yesterday and should close on it before July 22. We’re selling it to a wonderful young couple with three really young kids who have lots of energy. Everything here is perfect for them and it’s working out really well for us, too. As for Midland, we’ve seen 29 houses and feel like one of them might be a possibility. Maybe. The housing market down there can be really discouraging. But we’ve got good people looking out for us and a faithful Father who is providing for us every step of the way. So, we’re not panicking. No way.
My new email address is allan.stanglin@gcrcc.org. Yes, that’s right, both names – two opportunities to misspell the address so I won’t receive your message. You can email me anytime or, of course, just comment on a post on this blog. 
Peace,
Allan
Is there a silent “r” in there somewhere?