Ministry Update - March, 2013

It's been almost four years since we moved from the big city to the small town where we live and serve in ministry.  That service looks a lot different than we imagined it would four years ago, let me tell you.  I'm not entirely certain what I thought it was going to be like, coming here, but instead of that reality what we see is a life that looks a lot more like missions work than pastoral ministry!

Our forward 'career' (hahahaha!) movement has, for the most part, been in brief bursts followed by long periods where nothing happens.  And in those nothing periods we spend a lot of time just being Christians - sharing food and fellowship, inviting people into our home, giving stuff away, investing in the local church...

There are always a variety of possible opportunities ahead, for which we are grateful.  Right now we're considering some summer intensive courses for David.  Pieces seem to be clicking into place for these courses to happen for David, and I truly hope they do, for his sake, since he thrives on classroom interaction and has only been able to attend distance education classes in the last while.

And there are the pillars of our service here, of course, our involvement in our church and David's personal ministry experience work.  He continues to provide pulpit supply for several churches in the area, both Wesleyan and Anglican.  We are still members of a small group at the church, and David still holds the position of communion co-ordinator for our congregation.  All is much the same on that front as it has been for close to a year now.

Of course, he keeps up his qualifications as well, today was David's DBMD meeting for the year (District Board of Ministerial Development).  He meets with the board annually to discuss, oh, all sorts of things.  What he's done over the past year in terms of ministry, what his goals are for the coming year, how he's managing his courses, where he's applied, etc.  And based off of this meeting the board decides whether to renew his student license for another year.  It can be stressful, although this year was David's third DBMD meeting and so we really aren't as overwhelmed by the process as we used to be.  It went well, he thinks, and though we won't know 'for sure' about his re-licensing until the district conference this summer, we're confident that his student license will be renewed.

We're right in the middle of resignations/re-hires in our area, spring tends to kick start that process in preparation for the district conference in July.  Our family has applications in at several churches, and we'll see how those applications pan out.

All of this is to say that things look pretty much the same now as they have for a while.  And yet...

The work we do here is not in vain.

And surprisingly, I think we would both agree that the most important work we do here is not the stuff we get paid for, or that which comes with a title, or which provides us with any sort of resume fodder.  The hard and real work is stuff that God has dug out of me in the past four years - the small victories won for the kingdom.  It's here, in this town, that we had our first home that we could truly open up to guests, and learn what it means to be a place for people to stay.  It's here that we have learned to host.  It's here where I've learned how to be frugal.  It's here where we have stepped out into the street more than we have before, and met people.

This is like missions.