There are no coincidences...

There are no coincidences...

It never ceases to amaze me how God works. Since meeting my biological father (or bio-dad as the kids say) over a year ago, I have struggled with the fact that we have not communicated more. My wife assures me, it is simply because we are a like I am not a communicator, and he has stated he is not a communicator.  I do not have good connection with people, I don't reach out to say hi that often, I am not quite sure what to say. I am not good at small talk etc.

This includes my family and friends. it is nothing personal I am just not a good at reaching out to people. Well, needless to say this has been on my heart lately for many reasons, I want to change it, I want to connect better with people, I don't want to wait until it is too late with my kids, I want to avoid having the same lack of relationship with them that I have with my family.

I also want to build new bridges with my recently discovered biological father, but as I stated earlier he suffers from the same lack of communication. 

When I found out that my "bio-dad" had had a stroke, I called and left a voice mail to let him know I was praying for him, he called back and left a voice mail that he was doing okay. Obviously there was a bit more to each of the voice mails but that is the jest.  Unfortunately that was the end of the conversation.

As it turns out I have been praying about this for a while, and very intensely as of late, but I have not done much about it. This past weekend our church had a faith alive meeting, which I was able to attend parts of. On Saturday evening we were in small groups and one of the people was talking about God coincidences, after the meeting I mentioned having read "When God Winks: how the power of coincidence guides your life" and the fact that there are not coincidences rather they are moments when God is winking at you and saying "I am thinking about you, hang in there". We leave the small groups and go back to the larger group and I, having a few minutes, am praying about a number of things, including my perceived inability to communicate... when I look up and see my biological father, well it wasn't him, but it was in fact his doppelganger, coincidence #1.  after a few minutes I approach him and say something to the effect that I was not sure how to say this but he looks just like my father, I show him the picture and he laughs and says "wow, often people tell me they have met me before but you are the 1st one to show me a picture of us"  he shows his wife and she sees the resemblance, as do several other people standing around, including my oldest son.  We chat a few more minutes about look-a-likes and family then the conversation moves on. 

Little do I know, I am not getting the message... a few minutes later the doppelganger asks if my phone takes pictures, I say yes and he says "why don't we take a picture together so you can send it to your dad" coincident #2 or said another way, I didn't get the message the 1st time so God said it again.  As it turns out we took the picture I sent it and my father and I are continuing to agree to find more ways to communicate more often.

Still not sure what that looks like but I know, in God's time and with His help, we will figure it out.  However I do know, there are no coincidences....

peace
rh

Mission Trip Update

If you haven't been watching the news lately you may not know that Honduras is in a state of civil unrest. The call was made yesterday to say the mission trip was canceled "for now". Our prayers for the people of Honduras continue, but "for now" that's all we can provide...

Now what? my family leaves Friday to visit grandma and grandpa, that means I will have two weeks with "nothing" to do. OR SO I THOUGHT. I had just finished reading the email from the mission team when I get another email. Another church in the area is taking their youth group on a mission trip downtown, kind of like a "stay-cation" but one of the leaders is not going to be able to make it.

When I was the youth leader at our church, we often did joint ventures with this youth group, so I know several of the kids and I know the leaders really well. I sent them an email and as a result I am now going on a different mission trip :-)

I am reminded of Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

So keep checking back next week, there will be updates on the mission trip, starting Monday. The only difference is I will drive instead of fly, but we will do God's work none-the-less.

Letter is away

Well, I wrote the letter and am now struggling with outlook to get it sent out... but as promised here is the letter:

My heart for mission trips continues to grow. I have an opportunity to return to Honduras with St. Christopher's Killeen for my second medical mission trip, their 11th. During their 10 years traveling to Honduras, the medical mission team has seen just under 30,000 patients and delivered over $2,000,000.00 of donated medicines. Additionally they have a group who is helping with scholarships (free school ends at the 6th grade), and another group building structures (medical clinics, churches, etc.). You can read about my 1st mission trip here: http://downrightfaith.com/voicecryingout/?p=22

This year, July 16th - 23rd, we will be taking just over 50 people, including at least 7 doctors, 7 nurse practitioners, 10 RNs, and 8 interpreters to Honduras. Each day we will break into 4 teams, which will visit 4 villages to provide medical care for 1 to 3 hundred people per village. So during our trip we hope to attend to about 3,000 Hondurans. We will not know the exact villages until just before we arrive.

I would like to ask you to support me in prayer and financially if you can. I have experienced just how powerful and necessary prayer partners are while on a mission trip and would like to have a good, strong prayer team. You can send your commitment to prayer and donations in several ways, my mailing address is at the bottom of this email, my email address is Randall@randallh.com and you can leave comments on my blog (http://firstsamuel16seven.blogspot.com/).

I want to thank you for your willingness to help and be a part of what God is doing in this Ministry to Honduras. I will be blogging about our final preparations and if possible while in Honduras and of course a summary when I return.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Sincerely,
Randall Holahan

1816 Solano Cove
Leander, Texas 78641

randall@randallh.com
http://firstsamuel16seven.blogspot.com/

Let's try again ... again

As I look back over the last month and a half, there have been at least a few thing I needed/wanted to blog about... Meeting my biological father, learning about all the family I didn't know I had. His 3 day visit with his wife and my sister. My oldest son's summer visit. My youngest son's wound from the boat ride.... as each of these happened, along with many others, I thought I should blog about this.

Reality is I kept hoping the job situation would correct itself, at which point I would celebrate with a new post. Well, I guess I am tired of putting it off, I know finally, right...

I am 24 and a wake up from leaving for Mission Honduras 2009, my second trip. Truth be told I am very excited about this adventure and seeing what God has in store for us. The final packing party is coming up this Saturday.

Which reminds me of the other thing I didn't get done... sending out letter to encourage people to participate through me, via prayer, following my blog etc. I guess it is not too late. Okay that is my plan then. Tomorrow I will write the letter and then post it here as well as email and put it in the mail. That should give people time to respond with prayer requests etc before I leave in just over 3 weeks.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it is to hold me to that. If you don't see the letter here in 24 hours ping me and find out why not. You other mission, also your choice, is to keep me and my family in your prayers for the job situation as well me and the rest of the missionary team for the medical mission trip.

Let me know how I can pray for you. Remember what the angel told Mary in Luke 1:37 "For nothing will be impossible with God." but also remember Mary's response...Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ (Luke 1:38a)

Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word, Amen!

Long time no blog

As my lovely wife has reminded me a few times, I have not blogged in a while. Truth be told I have been in a bit of funk both spirituallly and mentally. I have not been worried about finding a job, we have been doing fine, however I have not, in many ways, felt as if I were contributing enough...I know silly but almost depressing at the same time.

Well, the last couple of days God has really jolted me right out of it, in a couple of ways...I had an interview on Monday, not sure where that will go but it was nice to at least sit down and talk about the possiblity of working. We have been very busy cleaning the house... for a couple of reasons (spring, too much junk we don't need/use, family visits etc.) Then today I got a call from my mom with some interesting news... she talked to my biological father and wanted to know if I would like to contact him or have him contact me...WHAT! DUH!

For those of you that know some of my story I have not, to the best of my knowledge, ever met him, I won't go into the details (as I know them) but I expected he would contact me when I turned 18, and have off and on since then spent time trying to find him. Over the last couple of years I have spend a bit more energy, and at one point thought I had probably found him but was not sure and did not know how to start a conversation.... "Hi, you don't know me, but 40 plus years ago...." In fact Jen and I just talked about it last week.

Well, our God works in mysterious and wonderful ways. He, Randy, send me an email today and I have since replied.... time will tell where it goes from here, as you know I am not the most outgoing persson, well okay at least not until you get to know me.

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. Well this was a kairos moment if ever there was one. I am very much looking forward to getting to know him, catching upon 40 years of history and then some. Thank you Lord for bringing us together.

Mathew 18:20 comes to mind..."For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them"

Peace,

Randall

Happy Birthday Son!

nine years ago today my oldest son was born! that was day that changed my life. I remember looking into his eyes and thinking how lucky I was, a healthy son. I had no idea how much my life would change.

Zach is a strong will, intense, internal young man who has challenged me in many different ways over the last 9 years. But he did something which I don't think I have ever shared with him. He brought me back to God.

At that time in my life I had been running from God for so long I forgot I was running but I looked into those innocent eyes and remembered John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son..." I knew at that moment I couldn't do what God had done, this person was only a few minutes old and yet I could not imagine life without him.

Before he was born I was bad at relationships, unfortunately this included his mother, Zach has never known a home where both his mother and father live. There are times I wonder if that was the right thing to do, if it would have been better for Zach to stay and I realize it was the only thing to do, if he had any chance at happiness and "normal"

But the one thing I knew at the time was I would always be a part of his life. His mother told me she figured I would last 2 years and then he would never see me again, if I had followed my life pattern up to that point that would have been true, I did not maintain relationships longer than 2 years. The difference now was I was tethered to my son, and this changed my life.

It has been 9 years since his birth and I still spend time with him whenever I can. His mother and I are still trying to figure out how to be parents together while apart. He has come to love Jen as a second mother, one who could never replace his mom but rather be the bonus of a second mom, there are times I am jealous of their relationship, but I know at this age it is easier for boys to talk to moms than to dads, so I am glad he has two voices of reason to help mold and shape his future.

Zach continues to grow, physically and spiritually. He is up to the middle of my upper arm, putting him at over 4 1/2 feet tall. He plays basketball. He loves life. He loves to learn. He loves his bothers and his little sister. He makes me proud to call him son. I hope he is proud to call me dad.

9 years ago today, he saved my life. I love you son, happy birthday

Where does the time go

My last post, almost a month ago, focused on living in the now. I think I have successfully done that over the last month, to the point of not keeping up with all I wanted to do.

For example, I had planned on creating a logo and challenging everyone to blog for lent, given that we are in the second week of lent I guess I will keep that one for next year :-) We usually pick up a new discipline or work on enhancing an existing one. We, Jen and I, talked about doing the love dare. unfortunately we haven't gotten to that... maybe tonight we can start.

My oldest son, turns nine tomorrow... where his time gone.

On the job front I am continue to search and have faith that God will provide. That being said I don't think I have been this busy in a while :-)

So I guess the point is to live in the now and yet to keep living and not get stuck chasing rabbits.

Now to catch up and get serious about Lent !!!