Husband Tag

 DeeDee so graciously decided to tag me with this husband info tag for proof that I read her blog. (I will get even...)

1. Who is your man? Peter

What Kind of Music Am I?

It's 2:49 a.m. & I'm wide awake, so I ended up taking this silly quiz...

You Are Classical Music

You are a somewhat serious person who enjoys studying subjects deeply. Art of all kinds interests you, and a good piece of art can really effect you emotionally. You are inspired by human achievement, and you appreciate work that takes years to accomplish. For you, the finer things in life are not about snobbery - they're about quality.

Sunday Sing-Along

Was It A Life Changing Sunday???

Okay, Okay!  I'll finally answer you all.

YES!  It absolutely was!!!

You know how you wonder what on earth God is doing in your life?  You have it planned out the way you are SURE it's supposed to be, and then God throws you a curve ball...or in our case, numerous curve balls!

Life for the past 8 years has seemed like we've been completely off course.  It's like using one of those car navigation systems.  We've been praying to God & asking Him for direction.  Then we follow the directions He gives us, turn by turn, & we end up completely "off course" (a.k.a. LOST).  Only, we are neither off HIS course nor lost.  We ended up EXACTLY where He wanted us.

Those of you who have followed this blog have known that we have been in the "valley" for some time now.  As I've said before, I don't like referring to it as that.  I prefer calling it God's Training Ground.

It's difficult to be used by God to comfort those who are hurting if you've never experienced heartache, pain, loss, or suffering.  It's tough to be understanding with those who once had plenty of money and then went broke unless you have gone through that as well.  I remember being very judgmental of a family many years ago because they were living a very comfortable lifestyle...nice house, new cars, fancy vacations, etc... and then they began needing financial assistance from the church just to pay their utility bills.  I naively assumed that it was their own fault for not saving in the bountiful times for the hard times.  (I was really young & dumb way back then.)  It was only after we went from living a comfortable financial life to wondering where our next meal would come from that I realized how foolish I had been to think that of them!  We had saved our money, but how quickly that money disappears when you are paying unexpected medical bills!  I've often wondered since what I could have done to help that family, and I'm ashamed of my judgmental attitude.

My husband is called of God to be a pastor.  He has the Bible college/seminary training.  He's been ordained by a pastoral council.  He has the degree.  You know what?  That's just a piece of paper.  (Sorry if that offends any scholars out there...)  It's just that he's learned more through life experiences over the past 8 years than he ever could learn in any school.  School taught him how to study & learn.  Life taught him how to love, comfort, & lead.

Sunday my wonderful husband accepted the office of Senior Pastor at our church.  He's been a Youth Pastor, Children's Pastor, Associate Pastor, & Visitation Pastor before, but this will be his first time as the Senior Pastor.  This is something that he has been praying for since he was in college.  His heart was burdened for our community and we spent many, many hours crying out to God asking Him to use us.  Then our entire world fell apart.  We lost any financial security we had once had.  We lost my Dad.  We lost my health.  We almost lost Gigi to illness.  We lost a daughter & a son.  (They had been placed in our home as foster children.  After months & months this led to adoption only to have them pulled out of our home 2 days before it was finalized due to a clerical error.)  We didn't get to build our dream house.  We had to give up our fancy vehicle & go back to driving clunkers.  The list seems endless.  Yet as we look back we see that this was all part of God's Training Ground.

Everyone who has accepted Christ as their Savior is enlisted in God's army.  All soldiers have to go through some form of basic training.  I believe that was Bible college for us.  Then there is special forces training.  I believe that is what God has been putting us through over the last 8 years, and I'm sure there is more to come.  It's no coincidence that I spent over a decade of my life as a personal assistant to a wonderful pastor!  That was part of my training to be a help to my husband!

I'm just so very honored to be my DH's wife!  He is a humble man.  He has been treated very poorly by other pastors and could have retaliated, yet his character would not allow him to stoop to that level.  I'm proud of him.

We really hoped that God would allow us to serve in our area.  We've worked with hundreds of kids over the past 15 years through bus ministries and various other ministries. Once that church came under new leadership, all of those outreach ministries were abandoned.  The new pastor felt there were too many insurance & legal risks.  Our desire has always been to go out & find those kids who are now adults (probably with families) and try to get them back into church.

Right now our church is small.  It has only been there for a year and a half.  My husband will be bi-vocational for now at the request of the church.  They cannot afford to pay him a full time salary.  We were fine with this.  We're not in it for the money.  We're used to being broke now.  We are just so excited to be able to serve in this way!!!  DH will be cutting his hours way back at his current job.  He'll be working some half days & taking full days off.  This will equal a big cut in pay, but we know God will provide our needs.

The church does not have a constitution and this will be the first *business* issue that DH will be taking on.   The church was truly excited when DH told them this.  He explained that we need to do things "decently & in order" – the way God intended.  A friend of the former pastor is a lawyer, and he has volunteered to handle the legal end of this for free (thankfully). 

We have been up talking very late about so many ideas.  We are crazy excited!!!!!  Outreach is a passion of ours.  The church is ecstatic about having a younger pastor, too.  The majority of the church is in the 25-40 age range, and they wanted someone young & full of fresh ideas. 

Isn't it so cool how God's directions lead to the right place at the right time!!  We have no idea how long God will have us at this destination, but we truly want to give it all we've got while we are here!

Please keep us in your prayers as we head out on this new adventure!

(I typed this up in the middle of the night.  I hope it sounds the way I meant for it to sound.  I've tried to read it about 50 times today, but I just have way too many kids running in & out to be able to concentrate!)

Stacey

Sunday Sing-Along

 I've been thinking a lot lately about how much God has brought my family through over the past 8 years in particular.  I pray that I never forget all that He has done in my life!  The things that I did not want to happen have taught me so much, and I pray that I'll be able to use what I've learned to help others.

Pray for us today...it could very well change our lives!  I'll fill you in on the details later.

Countdowns