Proverbs 16:8-9 “Better is a little with righteousness, than much gain with injustice. In his heart a man will plan his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”
These verses, these promises and truth of scripture, have been sustaining me the past two weeks. I have had to hold close to these promises as our lives, plans, and calling has been deconstructed around me. It has been extremely difficult but most times, as Christians and leaders, we are called to make difficult choices. These choices look foolish or incomprehensible to those without the grace of Christ in their life, I am not entirely sure that I understand all of the on goings, but another promise of scripture rings true, “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail they are new every morning.” So, I ask to receive some grace from you as all of this is reveled. We need your prayers and support now more than ever over the past year.
As of now we are officially not going to Rome to plant churches with Avant Ministries. There were a number of factors that went into that decision, some having to do with my giftedness for ministry and what my calling is or should be, some related to our team and a number of issues that we had, and some personal. We are sill missionaries with Avant and are praying about several options for our continued ministry with them and missions. I realize that those are some very generic terms, so allow me to add a little substance to each of those thoughts, however, this will be a synopsis; words are hard to describe the gravity of the last year and how we got to this point. If you have questions please e-mail or call me so we can talk more.
All of you who know me or have worked with me have known that youth ministry is something that I am truly passionate about. I love working with kids and teens to get them pointed toward a direction that will lead to them know Jesus Christ. This was why I went to Grace University, to work in youth. As we walked in faith, God did not allow for a job in that area. We eventually went to missions as we felt God moving us that way, but part of both Renee and I still wanted to minister to teens. We thought that we would just incorporate this into our church planting efforts but we have been informed that is not the most effective way of planting a church. That is not to say that we could not work with teens, but making it a main component of church planting would be difficult.
Our team was unique in many aspects, most of them made it hard to lead out effectively. We were the first team that Avant ever had go through COP at the same time in July of 2010. By the end of 2010 we had lost one couple and one single from our original team. We did not get that team fully back until August of 2011. Our team training date had been delayed four different times due to the changes within our team structure, another first at Avant. There were personal/spiritual differences that resulted in conflict that was hard to overcome without team training, where most of those things are brought out. We had already been delayed as a team from Jan. 2012 to summer of 2012 and with our team, in general, being new into fund raising or having struggles making benchmarks needed to leave on time; we most likely would have been delayed again. The potential delay we thought would be unwise stewardship for those who have already been supporting us.
The thought of delay lead to some very personal choices about our family, schooling, and how our kids would operate in a bi-cultural setting. Delaying would have pushed our time on the field with our kids shorter and recently both have expressed interest in coming back to Lincoln Christian for their senior year making the transition to college easier for them, but hard for me and mom three thousand miles away in Rome. I was separated from family during my senior year and had a chance to minister to a young man who also went through that experience; both of which were not great for the overall health of the families involved. After a lot of family discussions we knew delaying would absolutely make that transition harder.
Taking all of those factors into consideration, I made a hard decision to dissolve our team by stepping down as leader. This allowed Avant, our family, and our teammates to move in separate new directions. It also allowed for us to find a need within Avant that fits closer to our gifts and time frame. Please pray for us as we consider the following options, Echo Ranch Bible Camp in Alaska or Black Forrest Academy in Germany as a dorm host family. We hope the LORD will provide clear direction soon, and that by January we can communicate to all of you the direction we will be going. The uncertainty is rather hard but we are clinging to the promises. This is not a deconstruction, but rather a reconstruction.
