The last 3 years has been one long roller coaster ride for my family..........Ever since Abigail was born we have been through so much...................We chose the name for her (like all of our kids names) because of what it meant, Abigail Elizabeth, "Source of delight" and "God of the oath". In other words, we are His delight and he wants us to take delight in Him because He Loves us and will always keep His promises. We really believed that is what God was telling us at that time in our lives however dark things were about to get. When Abby was 7 months old Joshua took his first pastorate as a bi-vocational pastor. Joshua had been licensed as a minister through the Wesleyan Church for a year and was asked to consider taking this particular church. Over the next four months things began to unravel and due to some very unfortunate events we were forced to give up the congregation we had grown to love and we were forced to leave the Wesleyan denomination as a whole (leaving Joshua without a license and us without a church). I found out that I was having another baby and determined that we could not afford the house we were in so we moved (house #2). Two weeks after we moved Joshua was contacted by the district superintendent of the Evangelical Methodist Church and he began the process of being licensed through them. We took a church and moved again (house #3). Abby was only 14 months and Samuel was soon to be born. This church provided our family with things we had been praying about for a long time. Joshua was able to quit his job (the job that God had provided 5 years earlier to take care of our family) and be home at night for the first time in our marriage, and he was able to do what he was called and had studied to do. One year later we were in turmoil again. We were forced to leave this church, leaving Joshua completely jobless and our family without medical insurance, without money and without a home. We were invited to live with my parents (my brother, his wife and son also were living there) and we moved again (house #4). After 4 months, no job prospects and our savings gone, we prayed and God supplied us with this Job in Florida. We moved again (house #5) and have been here for almost a year. This last year has been extremely hard for all of us being so far from home and having to give up so much but God has never left our side. Even though we were angry, hurt and scared He kept us. He has used all of these things to reshape us and to show us more of who He is. For us He is, Life Giving and Our defender (Eve Alexandria). He is Gracious and merciful and He fights for us (Jack Evan). He is our source of delight and He never fails (Abigail Elizabeth). He hears our prayers and answers and He is our Strength (Samuel Benjamin). He is pure and always Faithful (Katelyn Rebekah). So, After eleven years of marriage, living in 10 different houses, 6 years of school, 5 children, 3 degrees, and 2 churches.................Joshua was ordained at the EMC annual conference last week. God really does take care of us and keep His promises..............Sometimes we just need to stop trying to do it ourselves and get out of His way. Here are some pics............................................
We were not able to go with Joshua to the conference since it was in North Carolina (too expensive for a family of 7 to fly and not realistic to try to pack everyone into a van for a twelve hour drive). This is a picture of all of us when we met him at the airport. The kids missed him so they wanted to make him a welcome home sign.............................................
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