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I Never Saw This Coming

Seven months ago, I never saw this coming. We had just told our kids that we were going on an adventure, one that began with informing the church we'd been a part of for 15 years that God was moving us elsewhere.

We told our kids that we didn't know yet where we were going, but that we would trust God to lead us where He wanted us. We acknowledged there would be difficult parts of this adventure. We knew saying goodbye to friends would be hard. My wife and I prayed about the transition and what impact it would have on our children.

There were parts of this adventure I'd have preferred not to have experienced. There were hard conversations, doubts, lots of prayer and more conversations. I've shared some of the experiences here, here and here. Actually, there's a few more, but you can find them for yourself. I wouldn't want to be accused of over-linking.

The entire time, whenever I prayed, I told God an answer would be a good thing, because He would receive the glory. Well, my friends, that day has arrived.

There were a lot of things I didn't foresee coming through this adventure.

  • I didn't know friends would bless us with gifts like they did to help us through.
  • I didn't know one friend in particular would even think to provide us some tickets to go mini putt-putt, because she knew we hadn't really done any fun excursions.
  • I didn't know I'd be blessed to spend so much time with my family. Although there were a few times Jen might have put blessed in parentheses. Apparently I can be the gift that gives too much sometimes.
  • We've played a lot of board games this summer, but we also found lots of extra time to help some friends with some projects.
  • I didn't know someone would think enough of our daughter to pay her way to a youth group trip. Where, by the way, she recommitted her life to Christ.
  • I didn't know someone would think of me and offer me money to do some demolition work.


Through all of these blessings, I searched for a youth ministry position. I worked the process and I moved at the pace of multiple churches, who seemed to be taking their sweet time, only to inform me they had chosen someone else.

And that's when it happened. Just a couple of weeks ago, an email invitation was given to apply for a job locally. Job descriptions and resumes were shared, interviews were completed, prayers were prayed and a call was received.

My wife is the new Children's Ministry Director at Mission Point Community Church (for you local readers). She starts this week.

Yeah, I never saw this coming.

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