Oh the Difference a Year Makes

When I left off, we were working towards heading to the Philippines to be full time missionaries. Fast forward one year and things have changed a bit! So for those of you who have been here since "before"...let me get you a bit up to speed.

Last August our pastor went out of town for the weekend (now mind you, the Pastor is Josh's dad, and his immediate family, our family and a few extended family made up the congregation, so when preacher goes on vacation, so does everyone else!) 

At the very last minute, we decided to visit a Baptist church down the road from where we lived. We walked in on Sunday morning and lo and behold Josh spots his cousin up in the choir! Seeing the small world of North Central Florida that we live in, and the relative size of Josh's family, this really isn't a surprise. We thoroughly enjoy the service, get our cup filled with great preaching and wonderful fellowship. The following Sunday is the church's homecoming so we get invited to the service and dinner afterward. We give our regrets on the service, our own pastor will back and we are dedicated to our church home. We did however, upon insistence of the pastor of the new church, go and share in the fellowship meal following the homecoming service. Oh how Baptists love a good meal!

The following week, Josh's dad announces that the church will be closing it's doors and strongly encouraged us to continue going to church we visited. And so we did. 

The new church was actively searching for a Youth Pastor/Director and it was brought up several times that this might be something for Josh to pursue. We were actively preparing to go on the mission field though, recently signing with a missions service agency and all. We weren't sure how this position would fit into our plans. Note: I said OUR plans. 

In the next few weeks we officially joined the church and took a few turns leading the Sunday night youth service. With the support of our pastor, Josh formally applied for the job. We went through 2 interviews and continued working with the youth along side the other parents in the church. We prayed continually that God's will be done and in the end, it was. Josh was welcomed as the new Youth Pastor, which unbeknownst to us at first, was a paid position with the church. This would be the first "official" ministry job on Josh's resume. (although we both have been informally ministering to children for years now)

So what about missions you ask? Well, it folded up neatly and easily, as we hadn't made any unbreakable ties. We had always wondered why it seemed to take us so long to get financial support, and this proved to be it. GOD's PLAN was different than our own! 

We live in a different place now than we did a year ago, we rent a home on a sod farm. I have my chickens again, and my garden. 

I'm still a stay at home mom, Josh still has his day job working in biotechnology. We still home school our children, and we still love our Lord! 

~Jen

remember ladies: it's easy to follow the wide path, but it take courage to walk the narrow way.