The Journey

This past week Ryan was officially offered the Communication Assistants position at First E Free Church in West County. We feel extremely blessed and are very excited about this opportunity. He had his first day on Thursday and came home excited and feeling fulfilled. It really feels like this is going to be a great fit for him and our family and the kind of job we had been dreaming of. The one tough thing about the position is that we need to attend E Free and leave our home church of 8 years, The Journey. I felt compelled to write our story, to tell of our relationship with this church before saying goodbye this weekend.

There has been good, bad, ugly and beautiful that has come out of our time.

The beautiful things that have happened, our marriage grew and we stayed together for almost 8 years now and our church had a big hand in that. We have had four children, dedicated them to God here, taught them about Jesus and had some amazing people love on them. We have met people who love Jesus and love us and truly live the gospel. And we have some amazing pastors who have imparted lots of wisdom to us.

There has been a tiny bit of ugly but it was also followed by beauty. When you live in community with people and share your lives sometimes you don't get along. Sometimes you have misunderstandings and arguments. There have been some ugly times with those kinds of situations but, I can honestly say God has brought restoration through all of them and that is beautiful.

There have been hard times. One of the happiest times in our lives was when Ryan was employed for the church. We bought our first house, had two kids, got a dog. We were on mission and it was fulfilling. When his position was no longer needed and they let Ryan go it started off what ended up being the hardest two years of our life. Two weeks prior to them letting him go we found out we were pregnant with Gavyn and it went from joy to hurt, wondering what the heck God was thinking letting us get pregnant with no income. The rest of that year was beyond stressful financially. And of course after Gavyn was born our life got even more complicated. I felt utterly abandoned by God and our church during a lot of that time. Rough is an understatement. But God pulled us through and the fall after Gavyn was born we landed in the most amazing community group.

That community group has made the last two years at the church amazing. We have formed some very strong bonds and God has used that group of people to show me what the church is supposed to look like. After Ryan got let go the easy thing would have been to turn our back on the church but we didn't and I'm so glad we didn't because we would have never met any of those people. They restored my faith in a lot of things. I don't know if any of them will ever know how important they are to me and how much I love them.

Another great thing about the Journey, the pastors. We have had a lot of them! Amazing teachers, brilliant debaters, Jesus lovers. Right now I believe the Tower Grove campus is blessed with the best team of pastors a church could ask for. Jeremy is an amazing teacher and a compassionate leader. Josh Wilson has the biggest heart of any man I have ever met. Jeff and Amber have a beautiful family and heart for Jesus that draws you in and they make you feel like family. I could go on and on but know that if you attend or are thinking of attending the Tower Grove campus there are men there who will love you and lead you well.

That seems like a good note to end on. I am sure I could write a novel on this subject but I won't. Just know we loved this church, this church loved us, it was never and will never be perfect though, because it is just like every other place on this earth full of broken sinners. But that's ok because it is full of people genuinely trying to make a difference, to grow, to learn, to be like Jesus. We will miss it.