Sunday, April 19, 2009

What a difference a year makes

Here I am, sitting at an open house in attempt to sell our home. One year and two days ago I never would have imagined that happening...

One year ago yesterday, on our tenth anniversary, Micah told me that the Lord has been tugging at his heart for years to go into the ministry. That started an unbelievable chain of events that is still only beginning to come together.

Over the summer, we visited the seminary, got most of Micah's admissions requirements out of the way, we told our families and employers that we were planning to move, and we started mentally adjusting to that life change. Micah started an interim position as our church's Business Director in August to help prepare him for church work, which has been a wonderful blessing. Micah took his first pre-seminary course in the fall. I submitted my resignation from the YMCA in January. Micah and I both started looking for our replacements in February. March 1 we put our house up for sale. In the middle of March we went back to St. Louis for another visit.

Yesterday, on our 11th anniversary, we got some disappointing news that a wonderful future seminary family we had gotten to know had decided not to make the move after all. That made us question a few things. Then the mail arrived, and in it was confirmation that the on-campus housing we had requested is available for us. So, we sent off a sizeable deposit check and felt encouraged to stay the course. We are planning to move the first weekend in June.

All of these details I mentioned are just demographics. These details pale in comparison to the unseen. What the Lord has been doing in our hearts and in those around us has been amazing. He has worked so many things together for good already, and we know His grace has only begun to be revealed to us.

We will treasure the next seven weeks here in our wonderful hometown, with our beloved family and friends. We know we will miss them terribly. But, we have faith that the Lord has so many blessings in store for us - more than we can even imagine. God is good, all the time.