North Branch, MI

We move in 3 days. Our fourth home since being married four and a half years ago. For those who don't know, and that's probably most of you since we don't update this thing, the church we've been at in Baraboo, WI closed August 17. After my resignation, the district assessed the church and spoke with its leaders. After prayer, the district decided to end the ministry of Jubilee Wesleyan Church.

I had resigned the beginning of June and was looking for a new place of ministry when I got a phone call from Pastor Peter Damaska at North Branch Wesleyan. I had sent a resume there and hadn't heard much back. So I thought God had other plans...

Jamie and I thought we'd be leaving Baraboo much earlier than this. It reminds me of the story of Lazarus dying and Jesus learning the news. Instead of going to be with Lazarus when he was sick, Jesus waited until he had been dead 4 days. I heard a song once that says "My God is great/When He's four days late, He's still on time." In our case, God seemed to be a few months late in providing this new job. Maybe this is cliche, yet I believe God was right on time.

We wondered how we would live on a couple hundred dollars a week and how we would pay for moving expenses. We even thought of moving to Madison and trying to find jobs there until something popped up. Or if worse came to worse, we were going to move in with our parents, something I'm sure they would have loved (for the first week). So thanks, God, for being on time and for giving us an amazing fit of a church.

I'm officially going to be Pastor of Discipleship and Leadership at North Branch, which is in the thumb of Michigan. This means I will coordinate and empower our volunteers for children's youth, and adult spiritual formation. I get to give resources, teach, help cast a vision, keep us all on track with that vision, and encourage us as we move forward. The weekend we candidated we met a lot of people who are involved and who care deeply for their church...I think they'll make our "job" a lot easier. I also get to give leadership to the missions and local outreach efforts of the church. The church just took its second mission trip to Antigua in the Caribbean and I know we're looking to do much more globally.

So that's a fairly good summary of what's ahead. I'll post our new address on my (Josh's)Facebook page, so if you're a "friend" you can get it there. If you're driving through the east side of Michigan and want a good hotel, just shoot an email and we'll put you up.