The Rest of The Story…

So during this time of waiting, I felt two things. First, I just figured that whichever one came up first (obviously the church planting one), then that would be God’s answer, that way I wouldn’t have to make the decision. Secondly, if I HAD to choose, which I didn’t plan on doing, I thought the church plant was the more holy choice because it seemed much harder, scarier, and riskier.

But my aunt Linda, an amazing woman of God whom I adore, kept asking about every detail (we’d been with her at the beach when we received the email about the Executive Pastor position), and she kept saying over and over, “I think you’re going to have to choose.  I really believe God’s going to have you choose. And…furthermore, I believe that it’s going to be sooner than you think, I think they’re not going to do the nation-wide search, so I think you’re going to have to choose.”  Well that was nice and all, since she’s my aunty and she loves me, but I knew realistically that no, we weren’t going to have to choose because the Willamette thing was just too far away and our chances were too slim.  Just no way.  But she kept saying that.

Then, when I thought the church plant thing was a done deal, I had a meeting with my mentor professor. I told her about it and she smiled and said, “Great! Are you excited?!”  And it caught me so off guard I about fell out of my chair.  Excited? What did she mean excited? I mean, this was serving God stuff. It wasn’t about me.  It didn’t matter whether I got excited or not, it was just about me dutifully serving God, right?  So I stumbled about and said something like, “Of course I’m excited. I mean, this is ministry, it’s what we’re called to do.  Yeah…”  But the question haunted me.  I’d done plenty of things in life that didn’t make me excited, so why did it strike me this time?  Hm.

Then, the day before the elders of Willamette were supposed to meet, I had another meeting with my mentor professor (yes, God uses her!).  As I explained the two situations, she responded with saying, “I have this feeling that God wants you to choose.”  Hm…I’d heard this before.  She shared more, which I reflected on and wrote about HERE, in When God Let’s Us Choose. What I realized, through reflecting on this apparent “choice” (though at this point I didn’t think I really had a choice), was that deep deep down, if I was really honest with myself, I was really hoping that the church plant thing would fall through so that we could wait and hope for the Willamette job.  I felt like the church plant thing was the holier choice, the “take up your cross” sort of choice, whereas the Willamette church was what I really wanted so that couldn’t be the right one, right?  When I sat down and talked to JEff about it, I discovered he felt the same way.  We both really wanted the Willamette job, but it seemed too good (and distinctly not offered to us!).

So on Tuesday we attended our school’s Day of Prayer, and on the way home just prayed specifically that if these feelings and insights we were having were from God that He would make something happen with Willamette before the church plant people got back to us so at least we’d have something to go on.  That afternoon Willamette contacted Jeff and asked if he could come in the next day to discuss the next steps.  That sounded hopeful, so Jeff scheduled a meeting.

That day, I was out taking a friend to a doctor’s appointment, and Jeff worked, so we were busy going our separate ways.  My parents were watching Dutch, and as I drove home, about 2 hours after Jeff’s Willamette meeting was scheduled to begin, my cell phone rang. It was Jeff.

“Hey hon.”  (I’d learned enough lessons in disappointment to know not to get my expectations up.)

“Do you want to take your parents to dinner?…”  I waited, not wanting to jump to conclusions.  “They offered me the JOB!!!!!”  My jaw dropped. Seriously?!!!  Then I screamed.  Then I cried.  Yeah, pretty much amazed.

We had to wait a couple weeks, due to busy schedules and vacations, in order to sit down again and sign papers regarding our salary, etc.  (You can read about my doubts and fears here, in Great is our God) But when the time came, we were blessed beyond what we’d ever imagined.  In the past few weeks, they have showered us with love.  We even had the joy of going to a welcome luncheon with all the church staff this past week, where we felt embraced, welcomed, and instantly a part of a family.

So tomorrow Jeff starts his new job as Associate Pastor at Willamette Christian Church (he’s now the Associate Pastor developing into Executive Pastor…a brilliant plan for him to get trained, acclimated, and adjusted to everything there at WCC).  Our value, status, and worth has not changed once bit from when we were unemployed students living at my parents house.  As he wrote in his memoirs, Jeff’s worth does not come from a title, position, or salary.  Our value, worth, and identity comes from Christ Alone.  He is our Light, our Strength, our Song.  We are thankful for this new opportunity for increased influence, and we’re thankful for the very real blessing of a paycheck (and health insurance starting February 1st, just 2 weeks before Heidi is due! Talk about God’s amazing timing!!!).

So as turn this corner, we anticipate new challenges, joys, sorrows.  We’re praying daily for God to simply make us faithful, thankful, and humble.  We pray that He would keep us ever mindful of all He has done, of His greatness, His beauty, His glory.  We pray He would find us faithful, in whatever capacity He has us in.  We pray that we would be a blessing to the people of WCC and to the community there.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for praying. Thanks for joining us on the journey. It’s certainly not over! In fact, it’s only begun…