“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:22

Prayer…..that is what the Walk to Emmaus is founded on. I feel that we as a community have gotten away from that a little bit. I think we have all gotten busy and have allowed ourselves to become a little lackadaisical in this area. Ok, maybe not “we” as in “all” of us….let me just say me, I am guilty of that for sure. How many times do I sit back and think about a prayer request someone has made and think to myself, “ah, somebody will pray for them.” I have done it more than once for sure. Now make no mistake, if I tell you that I am praying for you, it is happening, but oftentimes I say nothing and then do nothing.

I am pleading with all of you to please be in fervent prayer for our community. I do not understand the decline we continue to have in our monthly meetings, our walks, etc. We had to postpone the April men’s walk until September for lack of participation. That means there will only be 2 men’s walks this year and January wasn’t full either. This troubles me deeply and I have no answer other than to believe that I, as your community lay director for the past year, failed miserably in my job.

All of my life, growing up in scouting then continuing on with my son’s scouting, I learned to always leave things better than you found them. I honestly do not feel that I am leaving this community better than I found it. I think there have been some improvements made, but overall I do not believe it is better. I began my term with this question and I will end it the same way. What can we as your servants do to make our community better? What can we do to get it back to a thriving, healthy community? Feel free to call me 806-781-6809 or email mrogles@sbcglobal.net. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Having said all that, please welcome and be in prayer for B.J. Schilling as he takes over the role of community lay director. My prayers are with you B.J. and I look forward to seeing what God does through you this year!

Love and blessings,

Chad Oglesby

19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
~ Luke 22:19-20

As we began this season of Lent, I considered whether or not to give something up. This is not a practice that the Methodist church (in which I was raised…mostly) prescribes to. I began to pray and ask God if He wanted me to give something up for 40 days. His answer was a bit surprising. He pointed out some things, some of which I have mentioned before to all of you, that He wants me to give up for good, not just 40 days. So here I am still procrastinating about those very things that I know I need to give up, just not wanting to.

How selfish I can be sometimes. I can very easily think to myself, “but God, I have given up so much already….” Then I get a not so subtle reminder of what Jesus gave up, willingly, selflessly and most importantly I think, obediently. Once again, I will travel the path the Lord has placed before me and make attempts to be better at all He has called me to be. Enjoy this Easter season with your family!!!

A couple of things to inform you of. One, we still do not yet have a new community lay director so you are stuck with me for at least one more month. Two, we have a men’s walk beginning April 10th and only have 4 pilgrims signed up so please, please get those men signed up now. Don’t wait until the last minute, do it TODAY!! Three, I hope to see all of you at Wolfforth UMC on Thursday April 3rd at 6:30 for our community gathering.

Love and Blessings,
Chad Oglesby

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Genesis 8:21-22

The earth must indeed be enduring because we have had all of the above it seems in just the last 2 weeks. As I sit here writing this it was 82 degrees yesterday and now 18 with freezing rain. Crazy weather we have had for the past two weeks. It has been much like our worship can sometimes, be hasn’t it? One day we are on fire about to burn up then just as suddenly we are freezing cold or even worse, lukewarm.

I want to encourage everyone once again to plug in at your church. Find a small group or even just another person that you trust and be accountable to them and they to you. That is what helps fuel the fire that Emmaus builds in each of us. I want to again thank Marilyn Hampton and Darris Linder for leading women’s walk #128. It was such a terrific time of testimonies at closing. So obviously it was the BEST walk ever!

This is usually the month where I would be saying goodbye and you would get to hear from and/or meet your new community lay director. Alas, you are stuck with me for at least one more month, maybe even two as we ask God’s guidance for the person to fill that role for the upcoming year. With inclement weather for two of the last three community meetings, we were not able to get that filled. Please pray with us as the board seeks to get that done and also follow God’s plan and vision for this wonderful community.

DeColores!
Love and Blessings,
Chad Oglesby

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.  ~ 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

Surrender, freedom and strongholds are three words I have heard a lot about in the past month or so. Ryan Smallwood led us through a series about breaking through strongholds, surrendering ourselves to God and finding freedom. I made a statement in last month’s newsletter about the “old” me still being in there and coming out sometimes. I know the reason that is true is because I haven’t fully surrendered that part of myself in obedience to God’s word and will for me. That is one of my strongholds.

Why do I continue to hold on to something that takes me to a place that I don’t want to be? Why can’t I just let it go and move forward? If I am being honest with myself, I believe it is because I am afraid to. See “that” guy keeps me from being hurt too deeply. “That” guy is the “tough guy” who can handle anything and give it back, in spades. “That” guy is who I have been hiding behind since sometime in the second grade to cope with bullies, rejection, etc. “That” guy is the devil sitting on my left shoulder while the angel sits on the right.

I am trying very diligently to make some more changes in my life to completely erase “that” guy. I am trying to learn to completely lean on Jesus and live out the scripture that tells me I am a NEW creation, the old is gone, the new has come! So, here is the “new” me, again, ready and willing to step out of my old shell and old self to continue to become who God is calling me to be. Praying that some of you will join me. Let’s all take off our masks and be real with one another. This is me doing that for you. Who’s with me?

DeColores!
Love and Blessings,
Chad Oglesby

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12

Happy New Year to all of you! I find since I have been trying to do this job as lay director, that God is still working on and molding me into who He wants me to be. Sometimes the way that he helps with that area is through my children. I want to share a story about a little of that growth that happened just a couple of weeks ago. To confess this, I have to give you a little bit of self history, not so much to inform you as to try and justify my bad actions, I think. As several of you know, I have been in the construction industry for many (20+) years. Now having said that, I am sure that conjures many different ideas and pictures to different people. The reason I share that here is to say that is a very rough industry with typically pretty rough people. I used to fit in with that crowd wholeheartedly. I was the guy who swore like a sailor, told and laughed at the nasty jokes, so on and so forth. God really changed my life on my walk, starting with my heart and I began to try to be a much different person. However, that old self is still there and occasionally comes out. Again, I think I share that to try and make myself feel better about what happened here….

Wendy (my wife), Ariana (17yo daughter) and myself were driving somewhere together and something happened that caused an instant anger to rise up in me and before I fully realized it, I had dropped the “F” bomb in front of my child, something I have NEVER done before then. She immediately turned to me and very sternly said, “no sir, it is not ok to say that word in front of me. You are not still in high school.” Of course I in turn immediately was embarrassed but also defensive (don’t we always seem to get defensive when we sin?) turned to her and said, “little girl, when you become old enough to tell me how to talk, we will have this discussion.” To which she replied, “I AM old enough and I AM telling you that that is NOT ok!” Well, at this point what could I do? I very sheepishly turned back around in my seat and remained quiet for the rest of the ride home. The scripture above (1tim 4:12) is her favorite scripture and she embodied it well that day. You see, none of us are perfect. None of us have yet “arrived” at that place where Jesus calls us to be, which is like Him. What I did do was pick myself back up (again), dust myself off (again) and get back on the correct path. I ask you all to continue to pray for me that God continues to grow and stretch me, even if it is through my children. I pray that all of you will have a very blessed, prosperous and joyous New Year! Join us on Jan 2nd our first community meeting of the New year!

Love and blessings,

Chad Oglesby