Jan 1, 2008

A new year a new day. It has been a nice break from blogging and life that insists that I participate. The past weeks have been full of family, holiday, travel, fun, happiness, crankiness, questions, and answers.

Christmas seemed to sneak in and fly by. We had the privilege of 1/3 of our parents coming to our house to visit and then traveling to see another 1/3. The week of after Christmas was spent at Hubby's parents home with all the siblings and grandchildren. It was a wild adventure but one that has made memories to last through the ages.

My health has continued to be an issue but through much prayer and meds it seems to be a little better. I had the interesting adventure of a colonoscopy during the week leading up to Christmas. I must say that adventure is one that could be left for the medical books. It is not one that I care to take part in again, much less pay for. :-) During that procedure a mass was found. The doctor did not seem overly concerned about it but decided to biopsy it to be safe. He thinks it is just a mass of inflammation not a tumor. I go back to the doctor tomorrow to get the complete results from that test and to look at the next steps we will be taking. In the beginning I was very stressed and worried about this "mass". I was not happy that I was going to have to wait over a week to find out what the results were. But the God of peace has given me just that... Peace. He has comforted my heart and allowed us all to have a wonderful Holiday time. I decided last week that their is nothing that would come from worrying. We will just take life as it comes and move forward.

In the mean time our church has come to an interesting point in it's life. We (our church) have struggled financially for a while now. We have a lead pastor who has not taken a pay check in over a year and a weekly budget that has not been met in months. From pay period to pay period we are not ever sure if we will get a paycheck. Throughout these months of uncertainty God has faithfully provided for our family. As the new year begins the 3 pastors and their families have now come to a point at our church where 100% pay is not possible. All 3 families must now make a decision to stay or go. If the family chooses to stay at our church then they must also choose to go Bi-vocational and accept only 50% pay from the church. By cutting back on payroll it will allow the church to breathe (Financially) a little. Giving room for other ministry opportunities to take place. In the past months the church has not been able to spend money in ministry areas simply because it can hardly pay salaries.

I blogged a couple of weeks ago about Making decisions. My heart was very heavy when I wrote that blog. I knew that we were facing crazy stuff with my health and unsure times in our church. But today is a new year and a new day. As we go forward in all of this insanity that we call life I rest in the Peace of a God who promises to take care of us. I rest in a God who does NOT promise to only give us what we can handle, but who promises to hold our hand when we step out of the boat. We realize that sometimes when we step out of the boat on faith that things don't turn out perfectly. In fact they can turn out badly. But we serve a God who loves us and holds us tightly in the good times and bad. There is a Natalie Grant song that says "What it means to be loved is to know, that the promise was, when everything fell we'd be held." I love that because the promise isn't that we would never fall. But when those times come we are held by our Father in Heaven.

No matter what tomorrow brings at the doctor or what the next months bring in our church, I pray that everything we do with our lives and in our family point people to Christ, Our Abba Father. Who was and is and is to come.