Praise God! We have a place to rent! Someone connected us about an organization that helps people in ministry and refugees find housing. They quickly helped us find a nice 3 bedroom apartment close to school and made it affordable for a 3-month lease --which gives us time to figure out our next step regarding a job. We move tomorrow, Saturday, October 6.
The kids are also able to attend Northpointe at least through the semester and hopefully longer.
We have been extremely blessed to be at the Shelner's house in Rockford. It has been so much more than we expected.
One of the blessing with the move though is the morning trip to Northpointe. This Monday will be a 6-minute drive instead of 20+ minute drive (depending on traffic).
Whether we are living in a spacious house or an apartment we need to praise God.
Whether we are living 6 minutes or 20+ minutes from school we need to praise God.
I purposefully use the word “need” because sometimes in my selfish heart I don't want to speak words of praise to God. I speak/think words of personal convenience by demanding God do what I want.
My first words and thoughts are not praising God for an awesome apartment strategically located. They are wishing that we could have something for more than 3 months.
I do this more often than I care to admit. Instead of praising God for who He is and what He has done for me, I demand more.
We are praising God for the way He works and continue to pray that He would grow in us thankful hearts.
Thank you for praying and continuing to pray for us as it relates to housing.
I am continuing to look for and consider different options for work.
Please pray for patience, provision, and wisdom as it relates to work.
Recently we decided that I am not going to pursue a church ministry position. While this has been a difficult decision to make, we know it is what we need to do.
With that being said, I do have some resumes and contacts with some para-church ministries and other companies in the Grand Rapids area, where would like to stay. At the same time, we realize we might not be able to stay in this area.
This transition time has been challenging. It is easy to feel down because I look at my lack of a job as my identity. I have been reminded of the book The Gospel at Work recently.
Here is a helpful excerpt from the book.
We don’t need our work to provide an identity for us. We already have an identity in Christ. We don’t need it to give us a place to belong. We already have been adopted by God because of Jesus, and we belong to his redeemed family. We don’t need work to make us loved or liked or accepted, nor do we need it to prove to ourselves that we’re worthwhile. Why? Because all of that has already been secured for us by Jesus! So where does that leave our work? What role does that leave for it to play in our lives? Simple. It leaves our work liberated from the impossible demand to provide something for us that it was never meant to provide and from the excuse that it doesn’t matter, and we are set free to live lives of joyful, heaThank you to so many people for your prayers, notes, gifts, and encouragements.
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