I cannot even remember the last time I looked at this screen, it has been that long since I've written. I don't know who even reads this, I have always used this blog as an outpouring of what God is teaching me, but if you are reading this, I am sorry for the silence. It has been way too long, I am getting frustrated with myself here because I feel like I have forgotten how to do this. I feel like I can't even put a complete sentence together. So I'm sorry it has been so long and I am even more sorry if my writing is horrible.
God has been doing so much in my life and the lives of my family, I don't even know where to begin. As I said I don't remember the last time I wrote or even what I wrote about, but I would guess that is has to be close to a year ago, so I that is where I will start.
About a year ago I was feeling very lost, frustrated and extremely discontent. The bigger problem was I couldn't shake it. No matter what I did, I could not get rid of this feeling. So, I began to pray about it. I have to admit, that part of my feeling of discontent was that I wanted to be in ministry full time. But I had been down that road before and it didn't seem to pan out so I "knew" it couldn't be that. Little did I know that God was starting a movement within me that was literally about to change my life.
I prayed and prayed and prayed for God to take this feeling away and help me to be content, but the urgency for me to move to full-time ministry just kept growing stronger and stronger. Finally...when I couldn't take anymore, I decided that God had to be doing something here. Now, the funny thing is, this was not like times before. Before when I wanted to do ministry full-time I would try everything at least twice to make it work but this time I didn't want to have any part of it. I prayed "God if this is you moving then I know you will make it happen."
Over the next few months Abby and I really began to pray about this and we came to a very disappointing, exciting, and scary realization, God may be calling us away from the place we call home. I began having conversations with the key people at the church where I was working part-time but the answer was the same as before, it just was not in the cards for the church. So back to praying I went. I remember saying to God, "Well Father, if I feel like you are calling me into full-time ministry but it is not going to happen at the place I currently am. Then I can only conclude you must be calling me away to a different place". So back to praying I went. I felt that I did not want to limit where God may be calling me, I know I serve a pretty HUGE God and I had no idea what He was cooking up for me, I just knew I wanted to be a part of it, so I put no limit on it.
I began to put out my resume to churches all over the U.S. and even Canada. There were so many...and all those cover letters...ahahahahahahahaha....it was....a time, if you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong I wanted to do them and see where God was taking me, but at the same time, it was a bit of a pain having to rewrite that letter for each new prospect, but I digress.
Finally I had 4 churches reach out to me about interviewing, they were scattered across the States, I couldn't believe it. It was really above what I ever expected. So back to praying I went. This time I prayed very specifically that God would show me clearly which area He was calling me to. Within a week...a week!!... three of the four dropped out and the one left had made it clear that from the beginning of the interview process they wanted to hire me.
This was it!!! I have never felt more peace-fill about anything in my life (with the exception of asking my wife to marry me). I knew beyond any doubt that God was calling me to this beautiful church in Greencastle, PA.
So that is my story. Here we are; Abby, Zion, Saffron and me, this is how we came to be in Greencastle, PA. I can honestly say I love this area and the people of the church. It is not all sunshine and roses. I really miss being able to see my friends, play with the band and be closer to my family but Jesus said that if we are not willing to forsake all things for the sake of the gospel than we have no business being his disciple. So the sacrifice is worth it.
The book of Ecclesiastes says that life is an adventure meant to be lived with God. We need to be open to what God has for us. In the last chapters, Solomon uses all of these analogies to say this. We need to be watchful and willing to go where God has asked us and through all of this that is what I wanted to do, go where God was asking me too.
So as I said before, that is my story. That is how we ended up here in Greencastle, PA.
