Wednesday, August 24, 2005

So Here We Are

I would first like to thank evryone who wrote messages of encouragement on that last post. It's nice to hear good things said about Lynnette and I after hearing such negative things. To tell you the truth we really don't feel that bad. I mean yeah our confidence is shaken and I question whether I should be working with young people at all, but there's another confidence, I guess you can call it faith, that God IS is controll, and that God uses bad things for good reasons.

As for an update on us. We are living in Midland, MI with Lynnette's parents. We will most likely be here a while. The plan is (everybody always wants to know our "plan", well this is the closest thing we have):

Lynnette got a job at Ruby Tuesday's today. So she is going to work there. I am going to continue my Masters of Arts in Ministry with and Emphasis in Youth (I know it's long, but that's what they call it) from Indiana Weslyan University. I will also continue the application process for my "Green Card" (Work Authorization) so that I can get a job her in the good ol' U.S. of A. I will contact some District Superintendents to see if any postions are available. You see I would like to continue working with Jr. High students as a Jr. High Pastor, the problem is there are very few churches looking for that. Now if I wanted be a Worship/Youth/Janitor I think there are about 3 million Wesleyan churches looking for that. The other thing is that I don't want ministry to be a job. I worked at College Church for 4 years without ever getting paid before I was hired on. I did it because God led me there to do it. I feel God had led us to Traverse City, but since that hasn't happen I need to wait for God to lead us elsewhere. But we do need to make money to live, I will not take a position at a church just to make money, that is why I need my Green Card so that I can work wherever. If I'm just going to work for money I might as well work somewhere I actually want to be and find a ministry to volunteer in. Make sense.

Well that is the "plan". Sorry it's not better or more elaborate, but that's what we're donig for now. Please pray that God opens doors, or windows, or busts holes in walls or something like that. You all rock.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Our Story

Hey... To anyone that checks this sight, I'm sorry it's been a while since I've updated.. Over a month to be exact.. And a lot has happened, one thing being I haven't been around the internet for quiet some time...

As you have read Lynnette and I excepted a position in Traverse City, MI as Jr. High Pastor.. We went to camp in Houghton, NY with the teens in an effort to get to know them... To make a long story short, without my knowledge, camp really sucked.. Apparently some of the leaders to the trip got the entirely wrong impression of Lynnette and I...

I was called Sunday evening, with our trucked packed with all our belonging, by the Senior Pastor at the church we were headed to and told not to sign on the house we were to purchase the next day and come up for meetings.. These meetings were rough.. To explain I will tell one story, Larry (the High School Pastor at the church) had told the leaders that they need to have the girls in bed by Midnight, as students were getting sick and needed rest... Lynnette, trying to do this, went around after midnight tell girls "lights out" and asking girls to go to sleep... If you know Lynnette you know she wears glasses, she was not wearing her glasses as she did this.. She asked for lights out in a room that Deanne (Larry's wife and fellow Youth Pastor) was talking to some girls in... Lynnette, of course, did not know that Deanne was in the room..

An honest mistake, right? Well, I guess not, rather than talk to Lynnnette "hey, why did you do that?" Deanne and the other lady's on the trip along with Pastor Larry called together a meeting to say harsh things about Lynnette and myself, all derived from circumstances like the one described.. This meeting led to the phone call to myself, more meetings with the Senior Pastor, Youth Pastors and leaders involved... In the end the Senior Pastor decided it would be best that Lynnette and I not be offered the job there...

So here we are homeless and out of work... My belief in myself and the church is very shaken, but my belief in God has not changed, I know God will be glorified, even through this... I don't know what's going to happen next, our things are all in storage in Midland, MI and we are staying in Lynnette's parent's basement for the time being... Please pray for us that God will show us his will... I believe God had called us to Traverse City, but that calling was blocked... What this means I don't know and am trying to figure out.... Thanks for taking the time to read this.... It's a messed up world we live in and people all over the world are dying needless deaths, loosing a job and a house isn't the worst thing that could happen to us... To God Be The Glory