one year ago …

do you know what you were doing One Year ago today? a year ago today we were 1 day away from our pre-opening family night and one week away from our grand opening of Confluence.

all of the last minute details were finally coming into place and the INCREDIBLE vision from God was finally becoming reality.  i wanted to take a moment to share a few thoughts of this past year…

• i have never been called by God to do something as God-sized or challenging as Confluence.
• more people then i could have ever imagined have been blessed through Confluence
• God has drawn me closer to Him
• if i thought i had trust in God before Confluence i was wrong. trust in God has grown tremendously over this year
• my marriage to sarah has been strengthened
• i knew sarah was one of the strongest people i knew before Confluence. however, i never really knew how strong of a woman sarah was until now.
• i have been stretched in ways that has been difficult, but i have learned that growing pains are well worth it.
• i have grown life long friendships with people in this community
• i have learned a lot about the business world.
• i have met lots of really cool people.
• my love of music has grown to support local musicians.
• i have learned how important it is to support local businesses. i purposefully choose to frequent locations like henry james more than ruby tuesday.
• God has grown my graphic art abilities.
• i have never been more thankful for friends who have loved sarah and i through the difficult moments.
• i have appreciated the mentors who God has placed in my life.
• some days it feels like we’ve been here for years and some days it feels like we just opened yesterday.
• i have learned to love on and try to bless the business vendors who run their business right and find ones to replace those businesses who have poor customer service.
• i have thoroughly enjoyed working with the incredible staff we have at Confluence.
• if you knew me before Confluence you would have said there is no way Brian could drink more coffee then he did. we were all wrong. (i have had to start to enjoy decaf– oh well).

i just want to say a brief thank you to everyone who has supported and loved sarah and i throughout this year. i am inevitably going to forget someone, but please know it was not on purpose. understand that although its only been a year since confluence opened, i think i aged about 10 years…. and i have become more forgetful 

 thank you to ….

• those who have anonymously paid for meals.
• those who donate clothes to sarah that are no longer needed.
• those who have talked into the wee hours of the morning (even more than once).
• those who have just called to check in on us.
• those who have support Confluence financially (donations and drinks).
• those who have volunteered at events.
• those who have given advice and those who have told me how i can improve
• those who have prayed with sarah and i.
• those who have shed tears with me.
• those who have shared conversation over meals.
• those who have been willing to have difficult conversations.
• those who have given financially to sarah and i.
• those who have been willing to learn how to make drinks.
• those who have laughed with us (or at us- haha).
• those who have laundered towels or table clothes
• those who have served in ways that were less then enjoyable (unclogging toilets, mopping, ya know)
• those who provided creative ideas.
• those who helped us make connections with the right people in the community.
• those who have prayed for Confluence, The River, the elders, the board of Confluence, & sarah and i.

thank you for BEING THE RIVER and choosing to do life with us.

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