Wanting to beat the Thanksgiving crowd we left Southern California late last night and arrived home this morning …2:30am to be exact! We had a great visit with family. Good food! Lots of laughs and good memories! As our families grow, each visit gets harder and harder to leave. After a visit with my brother and his family, we took off into the night to catch the 99. During the drive home you get some thinking time, and I kept coming back to the last words of my “good-bye” with Sandy, my brother’s mother-in-law…”Enjoy life.” Those words, so simple, yet hit me like a ton of bricks. Let me explain. Sandy and Lloyd are missionaries. Lloyd is a contractor at heart, and so he uses his gift by building churches and orphanages overseas. Sandy loves people! When you walk into her presence you sense the love of God flow out of her. She always looks for ways to serve the locals wherever she is at. This couple has traveled the world and impacted so many lives! Including mine! I had the opportuni

I love this time of the year! Thanksgiving week kicks off the holiday season! So many memories and so much to be thankful for! The day my parents brought my brother home and I held him for the first time. Going to McDonald's with my grandfather as a little boy. Christmas day at grandma and grandpa's house. The day I gave me heart to Christ. My wedding day. The birth of my children. I could go. Each memory is like a stone of remembrance. In the Old Testament it was common for people to put up a "stone of remembrance" that shared an event that took place on the site. We do the same today, they are called historical markers. About a month ago I was traveling to a soccer match in the foothills and came to a single road out in nowhere! It was a small town with about five or six homes. It was odd to me. Where did this little town, no bigger than a football field come from? As we drove through I passed a landmark! I had to stop and read it, I was really curious. Come to find

con•fi•dence: full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing I love to see the underdog rise to the top. I think we all do! Gideon was an underdog. In the first week we see the fear and his belief in the lack of ability, drive him to God. We see Gideon test God by making sure that it was God and not him thinking these farfetched ideas. As we see Gideon receive his answers, we begin to see a different Gideon. A Gideon, who is filled with confidence. A Gideon, that is not full of fear, but full of belief that God will do what he said He would do! The “mighty warrior” that was proclaimed back in Judges 6:12, starts to come to pass. Confidence #1: “Belief in the power of God” “Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’” Judges 7:17 “Watch me!” “Follow my lea