His ways are not our ways....

I am so thankful and excited that I can now type this particular post - it has been something that I have SO longed to blog about but for necessary reasons - I really had to keep quiet until now - however God is SO perfect in His timing because I truly am overflowing with joy over this new journey that has begun in our lives!

In order to fully grasp where we are at now - I need to share with you all where we have been! As most of you know, Joel and I came to First Baptist Bayfield in Sept. 2007 when Joel accepted the position of Youth and Children's Pastor. We were SO excited to be back in Colorado, the mountains, near family, near my home town, etc. It was our full intention to stay here for the majority if not all of our kids schooling. We LOVE this community and area.

Yet, as is often the case at the point that people become "content" where they are at - God often calls us in a new direction...For us, this process began approximately a year ago when Joel and I seperately began to consider that perhaps God was calling us to move; however neither of us said much to the other and both chalked it up to the fact that we had actually been some where more than 2 years and were just restless....As time went on we would talk about long term ministry and Joel shared that his heart was turning more and more to ministry to children and families; for me my heart was turning more and more to mentoring young moms and encouraging them as they parent their preschoolers. So, we knew that this was the direction God was getting us to and figured it was 2 to 4 years down the road.

Fast forward to the end of March, first of April to a conversation Joel had with our current Pastor about our church here. Randy and Joel were talking about the financial state of the church and the effect of the economy on it. Randy asked Joel to just pray about going part-time and doing only children's ministry since that was his heart. So - we did pray and God answered!

The answer was clear to both of us - Joel was to pursue Children and Family ministry but it was not to be part time and it was not to be with FBC Bayfield. We shared this with a few friends as well as Pastor Randy and asked them to pray with us about this new direction. We had concerns as to moving the kids after they were settled, leaving the first church we had ever had true friends at, leaving a community we love dearly, etc.

In obedience to the Lord, Joel began the process of sending out resumes but unlike before when we looked for a church that Joel could deal with working with - we decided that he would share his passion and vision for ministry and pray that a church with that shared vision would open up. This past May as we prepared to go on vacation we decided to table the whole job search and just enjoy our vacation - we laid it at the feet of the Father....amazing how when we let go, He is then able to work!

While on vacation on May 20 Joel had coffee with a good friend from college who is also in ministry. Joel shared his heart and where God was leading us. Through this conversation, our friend mentioned that he knew of a church that he thought might be what we were looking for. The next day Joel had an hour long interview with the Pastor of Spiritual Development of the church, which led to a dinner interview a week later with the Sr Pastor, Pastor of Spiritual Dev and their wives and Joel and I. This went great and led to Joel and I going this past weekend to a formal interview with church leadership....the position title is Associate Pastor to Children and Families! Isn't God so amazing?

This brings me to where we are at now. Based on the interview this past weekend, a shared vision between Joel and the church, a peace about it on both sides - we will be going in view of a call to First Baptist Borger Tx July 3. For those of you not familiar with "view of a call" it is a time for us to be introduced to the whole church, a meet and greet, question and answer time, and will conclude with the church voting on Joel as a whole.

If that goes favorably, which is our prayer, we will then return to Bayfield and be moving July 15. This is a very fast time frame especially considering the next two weeks are booked with youth trips for First Baptist Bayfield. Yet - God has given us both a peace that this is the direction we are to go and we are following Him step by step....

To share more about how we have seen the Lord in all of this: ALL 4 kids were not only ok but genuinely excited about moving, the church in Borger goes to Zimbabwe once a year (a place dear to my heart), we have a house there already, we are 40 miles from Joel's sister and only 6 hours from mine, we have MANY college friends in and around the area, and some friends of ours from Bayfield are also potentially moving to that area! God is SOOOO amazing!!!

We will miss our friends and church family here in Bayfield but we know that in the family of God there are no goodbyes only see you laters! Also, both of our parents are still here which means we will be here on vacations and plan on visiting FBC Bayfield regularly!

Please join us in prayer for the upcoming vote and potential transition for our family. I look forward to sharing with you more about this adventure and God's work in it all!