We are The Church

Wednesday, September 14, 2016 Unknown 0 Comments

The weather is getting cooler and fall is definitely upon us here in Spokane. I was talking with a friend the other day about our "friends giving" (we won't be able to come home for Thanksgiving, so we will be spending it with our friends here). I had the idea of having part of it outside to give us more room and she kindly reminded that this is Washington and there may be snow on the ground by then. I cringe. So long warm SC, holiday weather!

Moving on. I wanted to give you all an update on how we have been doing lately. Per usual, the Lord has been working and teaching us so much in various areas of our lives.

For the past month, Jonathan had been working the night shift at Hotel RL downtown. He would usually work from 2pm-11pm or after, and I would work from 8:30am-5:30pm. This put us on completely opposite schedules and we only saw each other on my hour lunch break and then on random afternoons he had off. During this time, I felt myself slip into a gradual depression. I missed Jonathan terribly and everything that was familiar. I felt so alone and coming home to an empty house sure did not help. Good thing Buddy was here. That sweet guy has seen a lot of tears.

I'll just be honest- I think we both had high doubts about moving at this point. "God, why the heck did you move us here.....for this??" "What is the purpose of going through these things?? "Did we miss something??" These were just some of the questions I asked almost every day (the nice, edited versions...). It felt like we were brought to our knees daily, and in those moments all we could do is look up, and with faint hearts whisper,  "God show me what you want me to learn thought this."

During this time, Jonathan and I grew so much closer to each other even though we hardly got to see each other. We realized how much we took for granted the time we had to spend with each other and made the most of every moment we were gifted.

Life was hard. But the Lord is always so incredibly faithful to give us the strength we need to get through, and to gift us with what we need most- more of Himself.

A few weeks ago, we were absolutely blown away.....AGAIN.... by the plan that God had for our move here. After church one Sunday, we were approached by our senior pastor with an opportunity for Jonathan to join the staff at Redemption as his assistant. After praying and being in almost complete unbelief at the opportunity, he accepted the position! And, even though it was Jonathan who got the position obviously, we believe that both of us accepted the responsibility and privilege of working along side the local church as a team for the advancement of the Kingdom. We are so thankful for having the opportunity to serve on the greeting and worship team. What a joyous privilege it is! We cannot contain our excitement to be joining Redemption in the Lord's work in Spokane, and using our gifts in anyway we can to help it grow and reach people for the gospel. We feel extremely humbled and blessed to be a part of Redemption, and we have made some incredible friendships within the body already!