TLP 312: Crazy Awesome Announcement!

Every now and then we share super exciting news . . . well today is one of those days. Listen in as AMBrewster shares what the Lord is doing in TLP.

Check out 5 Ways to Support TLP.

Listen to the following episodes on Apple Podcasts by clicking the titles.
“Parenting Angry Children” series (starts in episode 287)
“Parenting Fearful Children” series (starts in episode 305)
“Parenting Complaining Children” series (starts in episode 309)
“The Merest Christianity” series (starts in episode 95)
“TLP Snippet #4: We Won!” 

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Click here for Today’s Episode Notes and Transcript. 

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Transcript

Introduction

Hey, everyone, welcome back. And if you’re new to the show, thank you for joining us today.

​Today’s show is going to be very different from most.

It won’t be very long, but it is super important. So, let me just jump right in.

Topic

Before I make my announcement, I want to draw your attention to something that I forgot to mention last time.

If you listened to the “Parenting Angry Children” series, the “Parenting Fearful Children” series, and the most recent “Parenting Complaining Children” series then you should have observed an interesting similarity.

What is the core problem when our children are sinfully angry, sinfully afraid, or discontent?

The seminal issue in all of those situations boils down to a lack of trust in God and us, their parents.

This is sooooooooo important. I want to invite you — once again — to listen to “The Merest Christianity” series that starts in episode 95. That series address why your children do, say, and feel what they do, say, and feel.

That series teaches us parents how to connect the dots to discover the underlying motivation — the root — of whatever problems our children may have.

I can’t express how important it is. This is the very core of our parenting. If we don’t know why our kids do what they do, we will never be able to help them change in beneficial and life-long ways.

If you’re new to the show, any time I cite a resource, I always try to include links in the description of the current episode.

We generally have free episode notes and transcripts for each of our episodes as well.

We won’t have any episode notes for this show, though, because this one is special. 

We haven’t had very many shows like this one. Back in March of 2017 we recorded a TLP Snippet #4 which detailed the amazing and super-awesome blessing the Lord bestowed on us when He gifted us a lifetime of free podcasting.

If you’ve never heard the story, check it out; it’s so cool.

Then we had another special announcement when we showcased TruthLoveParent.com. Since then our site has grown and grown as we try to become your go-to place for all things biblical parenting.

But, since then, we haven’t really had any super amazing, gigantic and awesome announcements. That’s not to say that the last three years haven’t been filled with God’s abundant grace and daily empowering.

Our statistics continue to grow, our ability to counsel parents and families continues to expand, my certification through ACBC is entering phase 2 of 3, and when you Google “Best Christian Parenting Podcast, TLP often shows up at the top of the list.

And we praise the Lord for all of that.

But today we have something really different.

If you’ve been with the show for any amount of time, you probable know that for the past five and a half years I’ve worked for Victory Academy for Boys. The first four years I was the House Dad and Lead Residential Counselor.

It was that experience that planted the seeds that would become TLP. In addition to parenting my own two children, every year I would invite up to 8 at-risk teen boys to live with me, my wife, my son, my daughter, and our college-age Residence Assistants.

Every fall our family would grow from 4 to 14 and return back to 4 in the summer. 

Those four years were a fiery crucible of spiritual growth for my family. The story God wrote in me, my wife, and my kids would take months and months just to share the highlights.

But during those first few years as a “professional parent” God allowed a series of events to occur so that I started writing weekly emails to the parents we were serving. Those emails grew from year to year until they included weekly teaching concerning the Bible and God’s will for our parenting. 

That was the seed of Truth.Love.Parent. At the beginning of the third year I decided to package those parent emails into podcast form. I started using those instead of the emails but also shared the content with the world. Victory Academy for Boys is the vehicle God used to create TLP, and I will forever be thankful. Before I moved to Victory, I never would have imagined God would lead me where He has.

But before I go into that, let me talk about last year. At the beginning of our fifth year, I had the opportunity to become the Director of Victory Academy. In addition to my House Parent responsibilities, I had the supreme privilege of ministering to the staff. I loved it immensely.

So, now five and a half years after my family and I arrived on Campus, Victory is going through another transition.

My wife and I are excited to announce that the Lord is moving us into a new phase of life and ministry.

As I record this it’s November 11th. Lord willing, we hope to be packed up and moved out by the end of November and headed down to Brevard, North Carolina.

Now, some of you may be familiar with The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center located in Brevard, and you may be wondering if that’s where the Lord is taking us. 

No, that’s not the plan, but we are excited to be much closer to my sister and her family who live and work at the Wilds.

The Brewster family is going to be moving in my parents (you can imagine that will spark tons of new material for the podcast!) as we regroup and prepare for our this new season of our lives.

So, here’s what this means.

1.  Even though I had all of Season 12 already scheduled out, I’m going to need to dedicate some significant time to moving out, moving in, getting my family settled, and the holidays. So, even though I’m going to do my best to get back behind the mic as soon as humanly possible, starting this Friday, I’m going to rebroadcast some our favorite episodes. We want to make sure we continue equipping parents all over the world, and we have so many new listeners now, it’s a really good possibility that you haven’t all heard all 311 of the previous episodes. 

In addition to that — I don’t know about you — but when there’s a really helpful episode from someone else’s podcast, I love going back and re-listening to it. It helps me to really digest it and make it my own.

So, worst case scenario, plan for that through the end of December.

Then . . .

2. After the first of the year, TeamTLP and I are going to make another gigantic announcement. By then my family and I should have a more clear understanding of the Lord’s will for our life and ministry moving forward.

We’re going to spend the next month and a half praying, celebrating, getting counsel, meeting, discussing, planning, and concocting. 

Lord willing, when January rolls around, we will have a full-out decision and trajectory. And we can’t wait to share that with you.

In addition to reposting some of our favorite and most impactful episodes over the next few weeks, you should follow us on Facebook and Instagram as we chronicle our move. We’d love to have you join us in the process.

TeamTLP and I are honored and blessed to have you join us twice weekly to learn how the Lord has called and created us to parent. 

We learn so much every week, and we love hearing from you what the Lord is doing in your life. So keep the emails coming.

You will likely receive an automatic reply telling you about the move, but we are receiving and reading your emails, and we will reply if we can carve out the chance.

Please pray along with us. We’re bathing this move in prayer, and we have already received so many quick and direct answers to those prayers.

One of the things we have to do is downsize quite considerably. We moved from Illinois to Wisconsin with a full home of stuff. Most of it went into storage even though the boys home into which we moved was bigger than any house in which I had ever lived.

But now that we’re moving in with my parents, we’re in the midst of a significant downsize. Deciding what to keep and what to get rid of is slowing down our packing quite a bit. It’s not as easy as throwing everything into a box. We have to be discerning.

So, we need a lot of wisdom, and we’re excited to see the Lord provide.

Conclusion

I was recently listening to the Marriage after God podcast and the Lord used their last episode to really bless me.

The episode was entitled “Encouragement for Chasing Boldly after God Together.” Their very first encouragement was Jeremiah 17:7-8, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

That’s what we want for our family and yours. We all need to trust in the Lord. Through the painful times and the comfortable, we must rely completely on God.

Isaiah 26:3-4 tells us, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”

Now, just one more important thing before I end today.

For the past two months my family and I had the privilege of being members of Central Baptist Church is Stephenson, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. 

It has been one of the most blessed experiences we have ever had with God’s people. Pastor Luke and his wife Trisha have become some of our best friends, and the congregation wrapped its arms around us and made us one of their own even for such a short period of time.

We praise God for that church, we encourage anyone who lives in that area to visit, or if you’re ever vacationing in the beautiful Upper Peninsula and you happen to be near the church you should stop be and tell them Aaron sent you.

The Lord greatly used Luke and Trisha and His body of believers in Stephenson to equip us to take these steps to His honor and glory.

Thank you. 

And thank you to everyone listening who has been used by the Lord to build up TeamTLP and me in the faith.

We love our TLP community. We love all of you.

So, stay with us through this transition. Share the show with your friends. Rate and review. Shop Amazon using our affiliate links. Buy some TLP swag from TruthLoveParent.com, and pray, pray, pray as I pack up my family and move them nearly twenty hours south to North Carolina.

I love you guys.