The Next Chapter

Recently I wrote Part 1 and Part 2 of this story.

This past Sunday we were able to add another chapter to the story.

It is hard to describe our emotions as we headed out on the 20min drive from the hotel to Colon Baptist Church on Sunday morning. Scott and I were excited and nervous. It has been a long time and the realization that after years of seminary we were actually heading to begin the candidating process at a church!

We were/are still in amazement at all the doors God has opened for this weekend. When planning a trip in the middle of November you are never quite sure what the weather will be like. Earlier in the week it snowed here in Iowa and in Michigan but the day we traveled it was almost 60 degrees!

We arrived and got the kids settled in their class and nursery then headed for the adult Sunday school class. It was so nice to be able to finally meet these people that we have been praying for the past several weeks. We loved hearing the people interact during Sunday school. We enjoyed hearing them share prayer requests and news of events in the small town of Colon, MI.

Scott preached on 1 Corinthians 13 about love in the church Sunday morning. He was told by many people that it was just what they needed to hear. It was so encouraging to see the Holy Spirit using Scott to encourage believers.

After the morning service a couple in the church had our family and the families of the pastoral search committee to their house for lunch. It was such a wonderful time of fellowship and getting better acquainted with people. Scott was able to sit and talk with the search committee for over an hour answering questions and sharing ministry goals/ideas etc.

Sunday night Scott preached on the faith and character of Caleb. After church we were able to spend some more time visiting and meeting several of the teens that come on Sunday nights for Word of Life.

On the drive back to the hotel we discussed the day. Both Scott and I were amazed by how at home we felt with these people we had just met. We were amazed to discover that only after one day we were already falling in love with the people in this church.

Then the realization hit us that after this wonderful day of ministry and fellowship we now had to endure the difficult process of waiting and praying for God's will to be accomplished.

Happy Birthday Ellen!

Today our sweet little girl turns one year old!

It has been a day of ruffles, pink frosting, a new baby doll, and giggles.

It has also been a day to reflect on the goodness fait

hfulness of God. I shared earlier this year about Accident Day. We chose the name Fidelity "faithful" as a life long reminder of God's goodness and faithfulness to our family to bless us with a precious little life just a week after sparing Scott's life.

We did not know at the time but God would again prove to be faithful in preserving my life after her delivery.

Today on Ellie's first birthday I can't help but reflect on her birth. There were some complications and I ended up losing a lot of blood. Unfortunately no one realized exactly how much blood I had lost until it reached dangerously low point.

I will always remember holding my precious newborn girl while Scott quickly signed release forms for emergency surgery.

I will always remember having to say good bye to Scott and to leave him to care for Ellie while I was rushed into surgery when she was just 2 hours old.

But most of all I will always remember God's faithful protection and once again choosing to give us a precious new life and allowing my life to be spared following her birth.

Happy Birthday Ellen Fidelity Kroeger!

Thankful Chain

I can hardly believe it is already November! I enjoy these weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. I wanted to share one Thanksgiving tradition our family has.

During the month of November as a family we make a thankful chain.

I originally got the idea from my Aunt Barb who did this with her family when I was a child. My family adopted the tradition and the year Scott and I were dating we decided to continue the tradition.

Each family member is assigned (or gets to choose) a color of construction paper. I then cut those up into strips one for each day from Nov 1 to Thanksgiving day. Every day each member of the family choose one thing they are thankful for that day. I write it on a slip of paper with their color and staple it in a circle to make a paper chain. There can be no duplicate entries for the month.

I have a small notebook that I use to record the items that are said each day. It makes it easy that way to check to see if someone has already "taken" an item earlier in the month plus I have been able to use the same notebook for several years and it is fun to look back and see what we each were thankful for throughout the years. For example on November 1, 2005 (the year we were dating) I was thankful for my family and Scott was thankful for my helping him with his homework.

Here's the notebook where I keep everything recorded.

By the time Thanksgiving arrives we have a nice long paper chain filled with the things we have been thankful for throughout the month. On Thanksgiving Day we find a time to sit down as a family and open each link to the chain and read through once again the items we had listed during the month. It is fun if there are extended family members (siblings, grandparents etc) that have been listed we are able to show them the link with their name and let them know we are thankful for them.

Here is our chain after today with our four links (Scott, Ruth, Will & James). I am looking forward to seeing it grow this month as we reflect on God's goodness to our family and the many reasons we have to be thankful.

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.

Mice + Lab Work = Lesson in God's Grace

I hate mice! They are dirty, nasty, repulsive vermin!

We have been in this house for almost 4 1/2 years and we have heard mice in our attic in past years but not in the main house. Well a couple days ago that changed. I was up feeding Ellie and saw one run along the edge of the wall.

Needless to day we are in all out war against this little pest because the thought of sharing my house with a rodent repulses me.

Yesterday morning I took Will to have his annual lab work done for his allergy testing. The test requires them to draw two vials of blood from his arm which is obviously not pleasant. I held Will on my lap as the lab tech poked started getting things ready. Will started whimpering in anticipation and when she put the needle in the tears flowed and through his tears he cried out, "Mommy" pleading with me to have it stop.

As I was driving home I found myself thinking about how much I despise mice and how I strongly desire him to end up dead in a trap. It was then that my feelings about the mouse and the recent events in the lab collided in my mind.

To a holy God I am dirty, nasty, repulsive vermin!

I thought about how I held my son as he wept and pleaded for me to stop the pain. The only reason I allowed him to be hurt was because I knew it was for his own good. I certainly would never have allowed him to have his blood drawn or be injured in any way to save the life of a mouse. I mean the very thought is ridiculous! I mean that mouse doesn't love me, it's only goal in life is to seek his own good, it destroys and defecates on my property. That mouse deserves death and I want it to die!

My eyes welled with tears as I was reminded anew of the sacrifice God made when he sent his son to suffer and die for me.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

Christ died for me, dirty, nasty, repulsive vermin, so that I can live!

WOW!

Because of Christ's death I am no longer dirty, nasty, repulsive vermin. I am child of God.

So the lingering question is why continue to live like a mouse?

"Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts." Romans 6:11-12

The End of Our 6 Month Challenge

Yesterday, September 1, officially ended our 6 month challenge. God has been so very good to our family!

When Scott and I decided to do this challenge we set the goal of paying off $10,000. That would be a little over 1/3 of our total debt. We thought that it would be quite challenging to reach that amount but we wanted a challenge so we set the number high (we are a one income family and $10,000 is about 1/3 of our total annual income).

The beginning of March I put up a piece of graft paper. Each small square represented $10 of debt. I divided it into larger $1,000 squares. I labeled these squares 1-10 (for our $10,000 goal). The paper had two extra squares that I left blank (the magnet is over these extra squares but they were not numbered). Since our goal was $10,000 and knew that would be a stretch so I only numbered ten squares.


Well THREE MONTHS into our challenge we went over the $10,000 mark! Several times in those first few months God provided money for us from unexpected sources.

At the end of our 6 month challenge we have paid off $12438.06! Our entire graph chart is full plus an additional $438! (I know there are a lot of exclamation marks in this post but we are very excited!!)

This is what our chart looks like today at the end of our challenge.

We still have quite a way to go before we are debt free. This challenge has been such an encouragement to us to see the many ways God can provide. We have learned many valuable lessons on frugality and many money saving sacrifices we chose to make have now become habits and no longer seem big sacrifices (although I am very thankful that we were able to find a good deal on internet so I can try blogging again).