Are You Sitting Down?

Hang on to your chairs girls, because I am about to take you on a ride with me. This ride started about 9 and a half months ago as Skip and I were vacationing in our favorite mountain vacation spot- Estes Park, CO. Skip was about to undergo surgery for hip replacement the next month and we were just beginning our sabbatical. He was in quite a bit of pain and needed the rest from our crazy schedules. On one particular day, Skip did not get up and fly fish like he normally does, instead he just layed there in bed. I'm an early bird on vacation so I was up drinking coffee, watching for elk out our window, and basically just enjoying the beautiful scenery. When I went in to check on Skip, he was crying. My manly man DOES NOT CRY. Okay, maybe at the birth of our three children, but that's about it. When I went to him, he was openly sobbing, and he told me words I will never forget. He said, "What do you think about going home." I knew he did not mean cutting our vacation short, he meant going home (as in our home town. As in moving. For those of you who know us, we have been in Corpus for 8 years(this May) and love it like no other place on this earth. This is where Skip and I have truly experienced God in a way we could have only imagined. This is where Annie(our 7 yr. old baby was born) and our children have grown up. This is where Skip has been led by God to help build the most awesome church in the world(I am a little biased). This is the place I find comfort and strength from friends, neighbors and my church. This is home. So I then I looked Skip in the eyes and said as gently as possible, "WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY? ABSOLUTELY NOT, CORPUS IS MY HOME AND I WILL IMMEDIATELY GET TO PRAYING THAT YOU ARE IN SOME SORT OF DELUSION FROM YOUR PAIN MEDS AND THAT THIS CONVERSATION WILL NOT EVER COME UP AGAIN." I wish with all my heart that I could say -Naw, I'm just teasing. But with all honesty, I really was did say something like this and I shut my husband and his feelings down out of fear and insecurity. We have about the most wonderful pastor in the world you could dream of, an A+ staff. I can't even begin to tell you about the wonderful people here. It is too many blessings, you will be jealous. I'm serious! The people in South Texas are as friendly and giving as you could ever find.

Now fast forward into a couple of months, and God started to speak to me through my prayer time. I started praying more for Skip and for his happiness and his desires. I slowly started thinking less about me and looking more to my husband's passions and joys. Don't get me wrong, he has been happy everyday at his job and could probably go on doing the same things until he goes home to be with the Lord, but is that what God wanted? I really started asking God to show me ways to pray for Skip and his talents to be used by God to the fullest. Skip started to take on a more behind the scenes approach in weekend worship. He was directing the services, and doing more video, instead of singing and leading us in worship. Skip was okay with that, and in fact the talent that came forth was phenomenal. Not only talented musicians and singers were brought to us, but also more artistic web designers, and more volunteers with vast skills that were needed to make worship even better. It was amazing how God just kept making things better and better. Skip, however, still seemed to be becoming restless and questioning of God as to what he was supposed to do. I was keeping all of this to myself, but I knew my husband was searching for answers that he didn't even know the questions to. I shared this with my wise friend in China, who prayed constantly for us. In the mean time, Skip was so busy with the new building so there wasn't a lot of free time to do anything but keep moving forward.

We decided to put our house on the market in November as many of you know. We wanted to move to a one story house, and get our housing costs down a bit. Well, months have now gone by and we haven't had a single offer on the house. I kept praying that God would sell it, but I didn't understand why he didn't. Then a few weeks ago, we were told that our old church in Victoria was losing their Senior Pastor, administrative pastor, and their worship pastor. The three of them are going to start a wonderful church in Florida and are leaving a huge void that needs to be filled by someone that God can use to bring about growth, vision and change. This is a wonderful church called Parkway Church that has about 1200-1400 a week in attendance. Not only did we find out they were losing their worship pastor, we found out that they wanted Skip to come and be the new one. Okay, I'm at this point freaking out! Nine months ago when Skip brought this desire up, I never thought there would actually be a possible job opening. I also never thought God would call us out of our comfort zone. Parkway has a wonderful interium pastor who has a heart for reaching the lost, which we have met with and absolutely love. He is so different from our current pastor, but Skip and he clicked immediately with ideas and vision. We began to pray and get immediate confirmation from God. Not only that, our BAF pastor is completely aware and has been so supportive of whatever we choose to do. Bil is in the business of following God -Whatever it takes. He and his wife are very sad to see Skip leave, but they know what Skip has brought to BAF and are thrilled for Skip to share his gifts with another church. Yes, we are taking the job and moving in a couple of months. Praise God, this girl is going home. Guess who lives in Victoria? My mom and her husband, my daddy and his wife, Skip's parents, my brother and his wife along with their 18 month old twins (too precious), my brother-in-law (my sister is currently in LA with her son breaking into acting), my 19 yr. old niece (I'm very close to her), Skip's brother and wife and their beautiful family, my grandparents, Skip's grandmother, too many aunts and uncles to list, and so many friends that would take up pages and pages to come. Everyone in Victoria already knows and is so thrilled. We are just now sharing with friends here which is very sad, but they couldn't be more excited for us. I guess I know now why my house did not sell over the last 5 and a half months. God knew what we didn't. Is this the coolest thing, or what?

I am still in shock a bit, and haven't a clue about schools for the kids, but I do know that God is in this and he is fully preparing the way for us. He has the details worked out and we need to trust his ability to lead the way. I feel so blessed, excited, and sad all at the same time. I feel I have truly learned a ton here, and I am ready to go out into a new season of life. I wanted to tell all of you so badly what has been going on, but I promised Skip that I would wait until everything was official. We could not be leaving on a higher note. BAF had 10,150 people in attendance for our grand opening weekend. Yes, I said 10,150 people who heard the word of God preached and tons came to Christ for the first time. Skip has been here since the beginning and it is bittersweet to leave. I know that he is going to offer so much to Parkway, and I myself am also ready to bloom into something beautiful there. I hope all of you will join me in this wonderful adventure. I have a feeling it is going to be a thrilling ride.