Spilling the Beans

Okay, so I'm ready to spill the beans. God has been at work in our little part of the world a little extra these past few months, and He's revealed a plan for us that honestly I NEVER saw coming. Mike and I have been in ministry for 7 years now and when he called us OUT of that ministry last year we knew in our hearts that we weren't OUT for GOOD. We knew that God needed to work on our hearts for a bit...and work He did. He brought us to a loving church where we were able to be FED. We learned what we had been missing. We had been missing that LOVE that we are to SHOW to people. We had been missing the DESIRE to bring people to Christ. You know what I'm talking about if you've been in a "bad" church environment. You don't want to invite anyone to church b/c you don't want Christ to be misrepresented. You become so bitter over the politics that you lose that LUST and VIGOR for worship.

We have been through the fire and come out cleaner on the other end. We are not CLEAN, because we never will be, but we DEFINITELY have had our rough edges smoothed, glossed, and molded lovingly by the Potter's hands. He's molded us into something we never thought he would...seems as if God thinks we should be planting a church.

About 2 months ago our pastor approached Mike and I at the kid's choir picnic. He asked us if we were ready to pray. I started thinking "YAY...he's going to offer Mike a job at our church." The next moments were not exactly what I was hoping. He said that they had been praying about this for a while and would like to know if we would be interested in planting a church.

Now we had heard about this planting project for quite a while. Our church planted another church on beachside that went SO well that the church was independent withing the first 6 months. Now if that is NOT by God's hands I don't know WHAT is.

Mike and I have never even CONSIDERED something like this. As a matter of fact when he asked us, I thought to God, "NO!! This wasn't what I was hoping for!" Um..yeah...it's all about me remember...

Well, we've had two months to pray...to stew this over. We haven't OFFICIALY said yes, but we are leaving next month for a week to go to TN for a church planting seminar. We are SO excited about where God is taking us. We've been burned in the past by churches...bad...BUT we know that God MUST use us...if He doesn't than we will sit and wallow in our self pity and NEVER come up from the ashes that we've fallen to.

So...with this next move we will probably end up moving...yes, we just bought our first house. I will probably be quitting my job...wait...I WILL be quitting my job. Mike will be doing what God wants Him to do...I'll be doing what God wants me to do...he'll be doing ministry, I'll be doing music (YAY)...AND, oh AND!! AND I'll be able to spend MORE time with my children and HOPEFULLY homeschool!!! I am SOOOO excited to see where God takes us in the next few months.

If you've made it this far in this REALLY long post...please keep us in your prayers. While this is an exciting time it is also VERY scary to yet again step out on faith to see where He takes us.

LOVE YOU ALL!