We have news!!!!!! Guess what? Guess again. No, we aren’t pregnant. (That’s always the first guess coming from a friend, colleague, or family member with the biggest grin on their face…or we can hear the smile on the other end of the phone.)
Yep, you are right! I feel like I could start this entry the same as I did almost 3 years ago. “To be perfectly honest, I could begin and end this with a short and sweet sentence by saying, "God is constantly at work and continues to shower us with blessings!" Done. The end.”
Boca Raton, here we come!!!!!!! We have accepted a new church call! Carter will be the pastor of Glades Presbyterian down in Florida. We can’t praise God enough for His hand and guidance in this whole process. Carter starts April 1!!!!!! Yes, you read that correctly. ; )
Back in April of 2014, we received a random unexpected phone call asking Carter about his interest in becoming the pastor of a church plant. Talk about being caught off guard. We weren’t thinking whatsoever of a new church call at that time. Next thing we knew over the next couple of months following, we had a couple other calls. At this time, we knew God was opening a door that we kept ignoring and fighting against. We began some hard core praying as a couple and individually. Within the same week, Carter and I had both heard God whispering, “The doors are open; I’m sending you…!” We agreed that when God says, “Go,” that we, as His children, need to go! Scared. Sad. In awe and wonder. Excited. Eager to see where we were going next. Then, out of the blue, we were asked a few times, “Are pastor nominating committees coming to see you?” In all honesty, we could confidently say, “Not that we know of.” (We, of course, now know that they were!!!! This just reinforced another life lesson to us again…folks are always watching you…more of that in a future post.) As we like to say, that was just another God wink towards this new adventure. We eventually started truly pursuing what options were out there.
Over 6 months, we started hearing from churches galore along the southeast…ECO, PCUSA. We met some amazing people along the way and travelled through some beautiful areas. (You should see the +/- lists we made. Miles long.) We prayed to hear God’s direction throughout the whole journey. And we definitely did. What great experiences we had! It was difficult to tell a few of these places that God was calling us elsewhere, but we knew that’s what we were supposed to do. We were loved from day one from so many. We were seen as a team in ministry right away.
Bottom line: We kept coming back saying, “We’re supposed to be going to FL.” Boca’s PNC kept calling us back, too. Talk about an immediate, with no hesitation, loving family bond!!!! We have already made more memories than we know what to do with with our new Boca family!! What an overwhelming feeling it was to walk back into Glades arm in arm that Sunday, hand in hand, after being accepted by their congregation with everybody singing the Doxology! Tears welled and streamed. God’s presence was felt by all! I couldn’t be more proud of my husband! He was glowing in a way I haven’t seen in a while. What a day!
A few of the most popular questions that have followed hearing our news are:
1-Kristin, what about your job? I am having a difficult time saying goodbye to my awesome colleagues. I’m finishing up my current contract, and as of now, I am going to shift from full-time back to part time and still teach a couple online courses. : )
2-So are ya’ll thinking about starting a family? OF COURSE! Being parents is a desire of our hearts for sure! We know that God has control of that (just like everything else). We pray that when our day comes, we will be the parents God wants us to be! (We can’t believe we will be celebrating our 4th anniversary in a couple weeks! Yea!) Glades is very supportive of Carter being a daddy. (Talk about melting my heart!)
3-Can we pray for ya’ll? ALWAYS!!!! People know pastors and their families spend many hours in prayer for others but forget that pastoral families need prayer as well.
4-What about the house? Our moving truck comes THIS WEEK! Then, we’ll finish getting the house ready and put it on the market. We pray that with this still being a booming, growing, newer area that it will sell quickly and for the right price.
5-Have ya’ll found a place to live there? With much exploring, we have found a house to rent. Yippee!
Like always, I could continue to lengthen this storybook, but I’ll wrap it up. Thanks to all of you who have been lifting prayers alongside of us yet weren’t 100% sure why we were asking for prayer. (God heard all of them…even those that were about trying to keep us here in SC.) Thanks for the sincere excitement for us and this new adventure.
LOVE YOU!
Kristin and Carter
P.S. Duke can’t wait to run in his new fenced yard, make new friends at the big beautiful dog park, meet his neighborhood buddies, and more.
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| Power of Prayer |
