I suppose it's about time for another update. (Thank you, AGAIN, to my sister-in-law Machelle for emailing me to say "so what's up?" Updating this blog is often on my to-do list; it's just a matter of getting the "other stuff"... you know, like "feed and educate children"... OFF the list.) :)
To quote a better writer than myself, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...."
This past month or so has been hard on our team in many ways, especially the Hanfords. I guess I'll start with the yucky stuff first and get that out of the way.
As most of you know, Amanda's mom, Sue, was diagnosed with cancer back in November, and it has suddenly begun to progress rapidly. Doctors are no longer able to provide any treatments for her and she has been put in hospice care. The Hanfords are in Ohio this weekend with their family. If you pray for anything surrounding this church plant, please pray for this sweet family who has already been through so much.
We're also waiting to see what the Lord has planned for Mike and Carrie Zieber who are committed to joining us in Rock Hill as soon as Mike can find employment here. It seemed for a while like there was an almost-perfect fit at a sign company here in town, but the discussions there have drug on and fizzled out to the point that it looks like it probably won't work out. So they keep searching, and we all keep waiting.
Ben has also stepped up the job search/applications once again (although, honestly, he's never stopped looking since we got here.) He's still scheduled every afternoon to work a couple hours as a traffic cop for a local school system, and twice a week as a valet at the Charlotte airport. With the end of the school year 2 months away, we've known we need to find something to replace the traffic cop job. But a couple weeks ago we also learned the valet company lost their contract with the airport, so that job will be gone in June as well. (They also sent out an e-mail to their employees this past week warning them that they will begin laying people off sooner rather than later, so we really don't know how much longer Ben will have a job there.) We would LOVE it if Ben could find a decent-paying job here in Rock Hill with early morning/daytime hours (as opposed to evening hours) and good interaction with people.
Rachel has been struggling trying to get enough hours at Panera to keep her budget afloat, while also desiring a daytime job instead of 3rd shift. It looks like an on-call part-time job with another company has opened up for her, so that's great, but something still needs to change with her Panera employment situation!
On a totally DIFFERENT end of the spectrum, Karl Bucher is swamped with work and working long hours in construction/restoration/whatever it is he does. We're praying for change there as well, either a decrease in hours or a totally different job. This man has got some serious skills in wood-working and leather-work as well as horse-training, so it would be great if he could eventually provide for his family using a combination of these things he loves.
SO.... our team hasn't quite been just frolicking through a field of daisies, BUT there's an awful lot of good stuff happening too:
First of all, we had Ben's parents visit for an entire month! We've never had either set of parents living in the same city as us, and I have to say it was WONDERFUL to have "Grandma and Grandpa" here. They were such a huge help with the kids and our schedules, plus it was great to have someone of a "more mature generation" in our Community Group time. And besides that, we just like them. :)
Ben started coaching a city soccer team two weeks ago. Micah LOVES it and looks forward to every Tuesday and Thursday evening. It's just been practices so far and one little scrimmage game, but I have to admit, I haven't seen hardly a thing that happens on the field because I'm chatting with the parents on the sidelines. There are a couple of moms who seem especially "natural" to connect with, and Ben has been enjoying some of the dads. I'm hoping some of these folks are ones the Lord has "planned" for us. Our other team members have also been experiencing some really great breakthroughs in meeting and getting to know folks, especially since it's light out in the evenings and we have warmer days more and more frequently. (Side note: This winter has been unusually snowy/cloudy/chilly for South Carolina, but it feels like an AMAZING winter compared to what we're used to in Ohio. I can't overstate what it does for one's spirit to see so much SUNSHINE during these winter months! I am constantly thankful for that.)
We had a few people tell us a while back that here in the south, we would probably find that it's easy to meet people, but difficult to get "below the surface." Now that we've been here a few months, we're seeing bits and pieces of that. There are some relationships that naturally won't progress much further, like our neighbors (one of the first couples we had over for dinner) who are moving back to Charleston in a couple of weeks. Some relationships we originally formed have fizzled a little because of complications in schedules or sicknesses. (I think I've had play dates scheduled with one friend at least 5 times that had to be canceled because first her kids were sick, then my kids were sick, then her in-laws came for the week, and so on...) Other relationships seem to be deepening slowly but surely. So I guess we'll just keep moving forward, trying to stay sensitive to whatever the Lord is doing in each relationship.
A really great book our team has been going through is called "The Tangible Kingdom" by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. These guys kind of "accidently" built a church just by building relationships with folks (no strings attached), and the book has been both a big encouragement and also a little daunting (like when they mentioned that they found it often took about 2 years for most of their relationships to deepen to the point where they had some "open doors" spiritually.) I think we've slowly been changing our mindsight from "We're here to build a church" to the mindset of "We're here to love people... and we're thinking in the midst of that, a church will be formed."
One of those things that seems to be a "God thing" is our new involvement with a place called Pilgrim's Inn. This is a place in town where homeless women and children can stay and get back on their feet. It's a very "holistic" approach, helping the women find jobs, get the support they need, find a place to live, totally transform their lives. We've been serving and eating dinner with them "family style" the last Wednesday of each month, and it has been a very natural, wonderful fit for our team. We're also thinking the Lord might have more in store for us there... this may be a possible place for Lindsey to start out leading Refit exercise classes, maybe even for us to start some Sunday morning services. These have just been thoughts or ideas so far, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Lord connects us more deeply with this organization and the women living there.
Speaking of Sunday mornings, we have absolutely nothing in stone, but at this point we are leaning towards starting regular Sunday morning gatherings in January. We'll probably do some "preview services" in the late fall, and maybe start doing some small "in home" services before that.
So that's the nutshell version of our life today. (Actually, if you want to know specifically what TODAY looked like, we skipped church because of yet another intestinal/stomach bug - the Buchers have it too - and I just put Caleb in time out for purposely farting on his brother AGAIN. It's a rainy, movie-watching kind of day, but more sunshine should be on its way later in the week.)
I'm still trying to figure out a more efficient way to move pictures from my phone to my computer, but when I do, I'll put a few up here. :)
****Sad update: about an hour after I published this blog post, we got the call that Sue, Amanda's Mom, has passed away. I know they could use lots of prayers.***
