Sunday, March 01, 2020

Didn't See THAT Coming!

Most know our retirement from the Air Force Chaplaincy has not looked like planned - at all.

Michael's diagnosis of Parkinsons kept us from our plans to move to Japan as missionaries. His mother passed away. My mother passed away.

We were thrilled to move to Alaska...and the only thing we felt "sure" of in our spirits was we were going to "support a young pastor."

The hunt for a new church home was arduous. ::wink:: Michael visited Matanuska Assembly of God on a week when I was home. He came home and said, "I think this is the church and the pastor we were sent to support."  I visited the next week and agreed with Michael's assessment. The rest is history.

A year ago Michael was asked to become an elder.  This was a role we'd not considered, but after praying about it - it seemed right. Michael also leads Men's ministry. We host and lead a Life Group. We have been busy with counseling - together (a new thing for us after military ministry where I was not involved in formal counseling sessions) and I lead women's Bible study and am co-Director of Women's Ministry.

As we prepared for this business meeting I found myself reflecting. We are thankful for a church home where we are allowed to function in our giftings.  When so many doors were being closed to us, we had the sense ministry was not over for us, but it would look different than expected.

Today, we reflect on God's faithfulness. He is with us every step of this retirement /Parkinson's journey...and today, my heart overflows at being able to see a glimmering of why we are in the Matsu Valley rather than Northern Japan.

In December Pastor asked us to pray about pastoral staff transitions at the church. Today,  we step into a new role in our ongoing call to support our pastor...Michael was named as an Associate Pastor at Matanuska Assembly of God. Didn't see THAT coming when we moved out here.

As some of you will wonder...we are still licensed and ordained with Open Bible. We are not required by Assembly to change our credentials in order to be associate pastors. We have only found a one word difference in the denominations statements of belief...it's a good fit.

We are excited to see how God continues to plant us here in Alaska...