Moving

I mentioned in my last post that my family has lived in the same area for 22 1/2 years. For all but three of those years we have been at the same church. While this is not all that unusual for most families to stay at one church that long, it is very unusual for a pastor and family. We have grown up and have been in the process of growing old with this church family. We have grown to love deeply the people of our church. This is not surprising when we have grieved over losses, rejoiced and celebrated, counseled and received counsel, been with families as they greeted their babies with the first  "I love you", been together as family members say their final earthly "I love you's", and every possible thing in between. Our love for this church family runs wide, but also runs very deep.

 Our nature is to love those who know and love us, to stay inside the walls of the place where we feel loved and comfortable,  but Jesus came and gave His life for all people when we neither knew nor cared for Him. So when God calls us to move, it's time to leave the place of "knowing and being known, loving and being loved" to go to a place of "getting to know and love."

Now the time has come for us to move to a new area, to grow this love with another church family. We anxiously await the opportunity for God to expand our hearts, to increase the capability of these frail and fragile human hearts, to again show us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.
So I am so grateful for the grace of God that once again He would entrust us to lead, teach, learn from, grow with, and deeply love another branch of the Family. 


For both Seaford and Bethany Place, as Paul prays for the church at Philippi, so I pray for you:


 “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart…” Philippians 1:3-7a NIV