And So It Begins Part 2

The second part of this story picks up the day after my last post. Last Monday (a week ago today) was a fairly normal day. Mondays are Scott's day off so we spent the day working around the house. We talked about how the previous day's sermons Scott had been able to preach and about how encouraging it had been to have been contacted by a church. We talked a little more about getting a hotel room for Saturday night so we could visit the church on the Sunday we were in Michigan but didn't finalize any plans.

That night Scott and I had the opportunity to attend a banquet fundraising even for the Bible camp that we attend during the summer. While we were there the man from the pastoral search committee from this church in Michigan called back. We missed the call because we were in the banquet and because of the hour time difference it was too late to return the call after we were done. He didn't leave a message so we were curious as to why he would be calling back again since when he talked to Scott on Friday he said that if they wanted him to come candidate they would be calling sometime in December to set up a time.

Tuesday morning Scott got a hold of the chair of the pastoral committee and this is where the story gets really interesting. Apparently on Sunday the pastoral search committee was looking over the preaching schedule for the month of November to see who was speaking which week and they discovered they had somehow overlooked November 13 and did not have a speaker scheduled.

They asked Scott to some and begin the candidating process at their church that weekend!

He asked Scott if we had been praying that it would work for him to speak that weekend (which we hadn't but had been earnestly praying for God to make His will clear to us). He laughed and told Scott "Well someone is pulling the strings for things to work out for this weekend."

The church also offered to pay to get us a hotel room for both Saturday and Sunday night (since Scott will be preaching both services on Sunday) so it worked out well that we had not placed a reservation yet on a room.

We are still amazed at how God has worked the timing of all of this. We don't know if this is where God will choose to have us serve long term but He has made it VERY clear that He wants us there on November 13.

Please be praying for us as this weekend quickly approaches. Our prayer is that God's will be done and He is glorified through this process. We are praying both the church and Scott and I will have wisdom to be able to discern God's will.

I told you all at the beginning of this story I do not know how it will end but it has been quite an adventure so far.

And So It Begins Part 1

I am going to start telling this story but I have to be honest with you and let you know that even I don't fully know how the story will end.

As most of you know my husband, Scott, graduated from seminary last spring. Over the summer he started making contacts and sending out resumes to begin the process of finding a pastoral position in a church.

Last Wednesday my aunt asked me if it would be possible for me to make a trip up to Michigan sometime in November to pick up my grandma and bring her back to Iowa to spend the holidays. The original plan had been for her to bring her down but many circumstances had arisen making it no longer a possibility for my aunt to make the trip.

At first I was not at all sure that it would work. It is about 9 hour one way trip from here to my aunt's house and it would be very difficult for me to make the trip alone with our three kids. Then I thought maybe if Scott could get a day off work we could make it a three day weekend trip as a family. I had been wanting to take Scott up to Frankenmuth, MI to see Bronner's, the world's largest Christmas store, and thought that this might be an opportunity to take a quick trip as a family.

Scott and I talked about it and he decided to check if he could get time off work. There was only one weekend between now and Thanksgiving that would work due to other responsibilities we have so it would have to be the weekend of November 13. Right now things are very busy at work and a 1 1/2 weeks before Thanksgiving is some of the busiest time at a company that ships frozen & refrigerated foods (pies, turkey, ham etc). He asked about getting time off and learned that he would be able to get not just one but two days off so we could leave Saturday, November 12 and return home Tuesday, November 15.

The day after my aunt had asked me if we could come out and we had decided that it would work for us to come out that weekend in November I half jokingly told Scott that we should see if there were any churches in Michigan that needed someone to preach that Sunday. About a month before this Scott had sent his resume to the Michigan Regular Baptist state association representative but hadn't heard back about any churches looking for pastors. Scott laughed and said "That would really have to be a God thing because it is only 3 weeks away and churches would have speakers lined up". Plus we had not been contacted by any churches yet. Honestly as far as contacting churches Scott and I realized that with Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching most churches would not be actively looking for pastoral candidates to come until after the New Year.

Scott left for work and about 2:00 that afternoon the phone rang. It was a many on the pastoral search committee. He had received Scott's resume and was calling to see if Scott had taken a position anywhere yet. I took his name & number and told him Scott could call him back the next morning.

Friday morning before Scott left for work he called and talked to the chairman of the pastoral search committee. They talked were able to have a good conversation. Scott was asked several questions about his beliefs on certain issues and was given a little more information about the church. Scott told him we would be in Michigan the Sunday of November 13 if they needed someone to preach. The man told Scott that right now he was just trying to go through the resumes he had been given because some of them had already taken positions. The church was not planning to start the candidating process with anyone until January. He also told Scott that November is their missionary month and they already have speakers lined up for the whole month. Scott told him to let him know if for any reason their speaker for the 13th fell through. Scott was encouraged by the conversation and by the fact that he had actually been contacted by a church for the first time!

After the phone call Scott and I got to talking and we decided we would like if it would work to visit the church on that Sunday just to give us the opportunity to meet the people and see if we thought it might at all be a good fit for us. Since we were already going to be in that general area (as oppose to 9 hours away) and we would want to go to church somewhere on Sunday. We started looking at hotel rates in the area with the plan to stay on Saturday night somewhere nearby if we could find a good deal. We did locate a few with good rates but Scott was busy preparing two sermons to preach at our church on Sunday so we decided to wait until after the weekend to book any reservations for that Saturday night.

Our pastor was out of town on vacation and had asked Scott to preach both services Sunday. Unfortunately Ellie was sick with a fever so I was not able to attend. Scott felt like the sermons went well and overall at the end of the weekend we found ourselves greatly encouraged at the Lord's leading in our lives. Even though we still didn't have any definite prospects for candidating the combination of being contacted by this church and Scott having the opportunity to preach both services rekindled a deep desire to be in full time ministry.

Little did we know but God still had another chapter to write in this story.