Hello everybody…

It’s been a few days since our last post and I do have much to tell. We just returned from a trip to South Florida and had a great time with our friends at Flamingo Road Church. Full details will be posted tomorrow.

Also, right now I am still in full swing setting up the Integrity Consulting Group – Technology and Business Consulting for businesses, non-profits, and churches. I received my Packet 8 VOIP phone today so Impact Clay and Integrity Consulting Group have an official phone # 904-746-4258.. The VOIP phone has a lot of cool features for a small business including auto-forwarding voicemails to your email which can also be listened to on a Smart Mobile Phone..

So what’s the prayer request?  Please continue to pray for our family as we transition. Pray that God would help us fully discern the difference between the Good opportunities that may lay before us and the GOD opportunities that lay before us. Pray for Impact Clay, the God First Business Network, and for Integrity Consulting. Pray and ask God to help us discern if He wants us to be in full time ministry sometime now, in the near future, or sometime way in the distant future.

Thats a lot to pray for…

Thank you all so much for your kind words and encouragement. It has meant a great deal to us.

God is Great – His Word is True! and Yes it works in our lives! 

PS – Terry Storch started blogging again www.terrystorch.com

Tomorrow night (Tuesday March 6th) we are heading to arena downtown to watch the Jacksonville Barracudas. The puck drops at 7:05pm. It should be a good night of gratuitous violence.

If you want to come – see you there!

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Dear friends, family, and church family please forgive my silence over the past few days. As you might imagine our family is attempting to process all that is involved with our pending transition. As I am sure you may have already heard, and as difficult as this is to say – after much prayer and reflection, it has become clear that the race marked out for us is no longer in full-time ministry at Celebration Church. I want to assure everyone that there is no sin involved in our transition on either side and there are no hard feelings between Pastor Stovall and I. If rumors arise, please do your best to silence them.  I encourage you to speak nothing but life giving things about our departure. Mary Jo and I would be crushed if Pastor Stovall, the church, or our images were tarnished in the public eye after all the hard work that has been done over the years by each of you to make Celebration such a great success.

The fact of the matter is that we part ways as good friends who see church life and structure through slightly different lenses. Our differing approach to a number of core philosophical issues has at times caused a great deal of stress for both of us. So, after much prayer and discussion we mutually agreed that it was time to for us to explore God’s next steps in our journey.

Please also be assured that Pastor and Celebration Church are doing the right thing in taking care of our family during this time of transition and intend on doing so until we find meaningful employment.

In looking at scripture there were times that believers disagreed, sometimes fervently on issues and had to part ways, but usually that was so that both could reach more people for Jesus. I truly believe that will be the case. I’m am reminded of the saying that God sometimes has us here for a short time, sometimes a long time, but always the right time.

Many have asked, what are you doing next. With Pastor Stovall’s blessing, we will continue to pursue Impact Clay and the God First Business Network. We may attempt to do some technology, business, or church related consulting, but other than that, God has not revealed what the next steps of our journey will be.

I want to encourage everyone to continue to be in attendance at church this weekend and in the weeks ahead as details of the transition will begin to be shared. I know that Pastor Stovall will be coming out to preach on Wednesday and during the following weekend Pastor Rick Bezet one of the churches presbyters will be joining Pastor in speaking in Orange Park as well. Great opportunities abound for the people of Celebration Church – Keep running the race!

As I close Mary Jo and I want to thank our wonderful staff Pam, Todd, Dee, Mary, Dan, Eddie, Angel, Amery, Sheryl, Paul, Wayne, Alex, Jimena all of our key volunteers and all of you whom we have had the pleasure of doing life with on a daily basis over these many years. We look forward to seeing you around town!

For those who are asking as well, my new email address will be ejaffe@impactclay.org

For updates on life’s Journey continue to visit www.ericjaffe.org

PS – God’s not done with any of us yet.

After some interesting travel delays we finally made it to New York. I left the house too late and we virtually missed the flight. We literally got on with 1 minute remaining. thank you to the AA staff for being so kind to let us on. Then we had a 1.5hour delay leaving Miami.. But we made it.

1st about Wicked- We wanted to see this Broadway show, it is supposedly amazing. It’s the prequel to The Wizard of Oz. But, the cheapest tickets are in the neighborhood of $200 a piece which is probably a little too rich for my blood. So, I am still debating it. MJ keeps telling me I have to write a book or something.

2nd – After our traditional dinner at Applebee’s we checked out NYC’s newest tourist attraction – The Charmin Public Restrooms in Times Square- Amazing, Amazing, Amazing.. Check out the pics..

I am writing today from my mothers house in lovely Port St. Lucie. One of the fastest growing areas in Florida and the US. MJ and I are finally on a mini-vacation for Thanksgiving. We left yesterday and stayed last night at the lovely JW Marriott Orlando. The pool area is pictured from our room at your left. It is a lazy river with waterfalls. Very awesome. Just this time out the high temp is about 60 degrees, so a little cold for a Miami boy to hit the pool. Not even the kids wanted to go.

Teenagers on vacation are a trip. For some reason it seems worse to have them drive than when they were kids.   But we did get to go to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure today. I was amazed that it is a whopping $77 for a one day ticket. Can you believe it. I went online last night and found they have a deal for an annual pass for $119 with a few blackout dates around peak times. So if anybody wants to hit universal this year. Vacation is on!

I took a picture of the Hulk roller coaster because Ms. Molly went on it for the first time this year. She has always been too small but is a real gamer. It was the first time she went on an upside down roller coaster. She was the bomb!

The Picture above my head is a little hard to read but it says, "Now I need to take a vacation from my vacation!" Well, not really true. In spite of some minor family whining from the teenagers in the back seats, we have had a really good time so far. BUTTTTT, the rest of the family will be arriving tomorrow so we will see if there is any good Jaffe drama.

Mary Jo and I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!