It was a great week despite being fast-paced. I loved being back at Journey. It's worked out perfectly for me to be working with Aaron again. His workload is increasing quite a bit because our student pastor and his family are leaving for Uganda in a few weeks. They are an amazing family and we are excited for them as they move across the world to fight for their adopted daughter. You can check out more of their story here.
Anyway, until a new student pastor is hired, Aaron will be the interim student pastor. That means, for the next few months or so, he will be leading volunteers working with birth-college.
We are excited for this opportunity, and have prepared ourselves as best we can for a very busy spring and summer.
Our time at home will be very precious, and it will mean cutting back on a lot of extra-curricular activities in the near future.
I am praying a lot of understanding and selflessness over myself.
I know that Aaron will be pulled in a lot of different directions, and I don't want him to feel pulled by me. At least, not in a bad way.
For him, I am praying for wisdom, endurance, strength, peace, guidance, and so much more. I know he will thrive in this season, but I know it will not be without difficulty.
We believe God will not give us more than we can handle and we are excited for this opportunity.
Off we go on another great adventure!
Nine months later, this season of our life is coming to a close. It's been nothing but a blessing, through the good times and not-so-easy-times. I laugh at how what turned into maybe a "few months" was almost a year-long endeavor! But, God's timing is perfect, and he has brought just the right guy to take over Journey Students. We are so excited to welcome our new student pastor, John, and his family.
God answered my prayers that I prayed back in March for sure. I know there were a few nights or days here and there where I was just ready for Aaron to come home and not think about ministry anymore, but I never felt neglected or that he wasn't here enough.
I could not be more proud of how he handled himself through it. He was busy for sure, but when he was home, he was home. And I know his brain didn't always shut off from work, but it was only every so often that I had to call him out for staring off into space.
I would say, "Whatcha thinkin?" (Even though I knew.)
And he would say, "Sorry. Journey stuff."
And then I would usually remark about whatever the certain situation was and why there was nothing to worry about. And end it with, "It'll all work out. It always does." Because that's what we say around here.
Working with students is way different than working with kids. Way different. It has definitely gotten me out of my comfort zone. I lean towards the preschool age, so older kids and teens make me a little nervous. I didn't get to know a lot of them, but I do like them as a whole a lot more now!
We (well, mainly Aaron) also had an opportunity to deal with some of the tougher issues that you don't get with birth through fifth grade. Being a teenager now is so much different than even 10 years ago when I was in high school. Smart phones, social media, and having constant access to anything and anyone at anytime is the norm now. I can't believe what some kids are looking at and doing and learning about at such a young age now. It scares me to think what it will be like when Graeme is a teenager. He might just never be allowed to have the internet... (kidding, kidding...but you better believe it will be insanely monitored!)
We could not have survived the past nine months without God's help, obviously. But there are also several people that kept Aaron from totally losing his mind. They know who they are. Our Journey Kids/Students part-time staff and volunteers kept the weekly stuff in motion while Aaron stretched himself between the two ministries. I know for me, those people are some of my heroes. He could not have done it without the help that he had.
It has been a long nine months. It's hard for me to even think back to March. But coming out on the other side, it is easy to see how perfect everything was pieced together. When I quit my nanny job last year, we had no idea Aaron would start working "two" jobs. If I had also been working full-time...well, I think that would have been not fun at all. It was orchestrated by God for me to not only get to work part-time, but to work part-time with Aaron. Our pregnancy happened at the perfect time too. God knew that Aaron would phase out of student ministry just in time for this coming March. I could list a lot more, but you get the idea.
This has been a long, rambling post. I am so thankful that we've had this opportunity. I'm glad we didn't miss it. And now, I'm glad it's coming to an end. And all in God's perfect timing. We wouldn't trade it for anything. We are so thankful and trust in Him even more now. He is always faithful.
No comments:
Post a Comment