As I write, I'm sitting with Anne (my daughter) and Jay (my brother-in-law) watching the olympics in the basement of Jay and Grace's. Grace is Veronica's sister. We've been staying here since about the second week of January. Jay, Grace and their nine-year-old son, Justin, have been incredibly gracious to receive us and allow us to not just hide in their basement and bedroom, but to be family together. We share most meals, work out schedules together, go to Evansville Aces Basketball games, churches, and split and deliver firewood together (a fun little side-job Jay does with his dad). In the mornings, after Justin heads to school and Jay to work, Anne, Sam, Jed, Veronica and I start our day off with a morning devotion and then start homeschooling. We've been going through history in the middle ages with the two older ones, then math and writing and a bunch of fun reading. Homeschooling has been both fun to go through this material and a challenge. The kids are free to let us silly parents know how they feel about what we're asking them to do. I think it's going to be a good process to work through. And, after lunch and finishing schoolwork, just about every day we either head to the library, the YMCA to swim (Veronica runs on the treadmill), or both. Then we see what the night has.
As to the search, we wait. Contact with churches is sporadic by the nature of the process. We work with committees of lay volunteers who are working with many candidates. We've visited a number of churches and are still in process with some and aren't with others. It's a hard process with the sole purpose of discerning if we are led by God to be in the pastoral leadership of a congregation of believers. Churches, rightly, are very deliberate about such a process.
One of the things we've experienced in this journey is a renewed sense of call to pastoral ministry. I believe I'm called to be a pastor. It's been wonderful for this sense of call to be affirmed by many along the way. Still, where?, when?, how?, what Kind of position?, that is not clear. I simply have been confident that where God guides, He provides. (I'll write more about this later)
But a significant circumstance to all of this is that we only have so much money, so graciously provided by loving people. And we are also sensitive to our kids' needs. We're simply running out of time to search. We're facing tough decisions. It would be just like God to do miracles - and this whole journey has been a miracle. But it's a funny thing to be in the middle of a miracle in progress. It's a cliffhanger. The cliff looms large. The stories have piled up through all of this. But we're anxious for this chapter's end to be written.
This is enough for now. I have much more to say, more of the story to write. Today, we'd ask for your prayers - prayers for search committees, prayers for our discernment, and for our peace. I can't tell you how grateful for our friends. You mean more to us than we can express.
Prayers your way my friend!!
Posted by: Weegie | February 26, 2010 at 03:03 AM