Decision

We have decided not to buy the house.

Which means we have decided to move to McKinnon.

Does anyone else want to come with us? You are more than welcome.

I am sad that it won't work out to buy this house and live in McKinnon at the same time. It would have been nice to know that we owned some plot of land somewhere. Jolene was talking the other day about wanting to plant an apple tree and paint her room. Both of which we cannot do in a rental house. Well, maybe we can negotiate with the landlords on the apple tree.

I am also sad about soccer. It was exciting to think about the prospects of playing at a higher level once in Melbourne. I had a look around and that will not be possible due to the fact that all the teams play on Sunday. There are some indoor mixed teams that play during the week. Brandon and I have talked about how we could play on the same team. We would make that our date night. Just between you and me, I prefer outdoor.

It is going to be hard to move. We will be leaving family for the second time.

This all may sound a bit negative. I suppose I am just trying to say that this has not been an easy decision and that there will be things we miss because of the move.

We feel God calling us to McKinnon. We are excited about being up there on a regular basis. We are looking forward to encouraging the congregation and working alongside them to grow God's church in a concrete jungle.

Change is difficult. I am thankful that we can get strength from our Lord. Our own is not sufficient.

2 Cor. 12 9-10
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Hard things to swallow

Option A: Buy this house

Option B: Move to McKinnon

After talking to people we have come to realize it is one or the other not both. If we move to McKinnon we will be renting again. If we would like to own a house then we can't go to McKinnon. We need to make a decision by the end of this week.

We have had more sad news which eclipses our disappointment in the house situation.

We found out last night that a friend in McKinnon, recently diagnosed with stomach cancer, now only has 2 months to 2 years to live. This is a big shock to them, all at McKinnon, and those of us who know him. The stomach cancer was given a good prognosis, operable and better than what was expected. Apparently he had more scans this week that showed ten spots on his liver alone. We are very sad. This man is only 36 and has a wife and three children.

We are praising God that he is a believer, as is his wife.

Please pray for them. Their names are Paul and Nadia. Pray for pain management, he is already dealing with a lot. Pray for strength and comfort. Pray for the McKinnon church.

A sad conversation

Today at playgroup I overheard a conversation between two moms.

Mom #1: What time do you go?" (talking about worship service time)

Mom #2: I go to the eight o'clock one.

Mom #2: It is nice to go early and get it out of the way. Then I can get on with the rest of my day.

Sad but true. Do I look at Sunday worship like that? As something to checkoff and get done as early as possible so that it doesn't interfere with the rest of my Sunday? I was very sad to hear her say this. I am sure I have been guilty of the same at some point in my life. Even if we don't say it out loud, we can be thinking it in our hearts. That is not worship. Just a reminder to me to check my heart's condition before going to worship.

Psa 122:1 A song of ascents. Of David. I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord."

McKinnon update

     I think the last time I wrote about McKinnon we were praying for another family to move up there with us. We had just been approached by the McKinnon session to consider the move. After talking to others and spending time in prayer we decided that it was best to wait for at least one other family. We realized how valuable support can be, especially since most of our family is in the States. So McKinnon was set on the "back burner" so to speak.  We were still praying and waiting to see what God might do.

We then began praying about the purchase of the house we are currently renting. God provided and it looked liked we would be buying the house in the beginning of May.
Everything seemed to be settled.

About a month ago we found out that McKinnon was thinking of calling a full time pastor. As of this past Sunday, when the AGM (Annual General Meeting) was held, those whispers have been confirmed. The recommendation as of now is to call a full time pastor into position by 2011, at the latest mid-2011. McKinnon is now being seen as a church plant or revitalization project by the presbytery.

This changes things for us. The pastor could potentially be the second family we have been praying for. I say potentially because a pastor has not yet been called and the call has not yet been accepted. On top of a pastor + family a new family from South Africa has been attending for the past several weeks. And on top of that, there is a single lady who is being encouraged to attend McKinnon. So if it is the Lord's will there could be two families plus a young adult that are added to the congregation. This is more than we were praying for. God is good.

Of course, as you may have guessed this puts questions into our heads as to what we should do about this house. Our three month waiting period, to prove we have savings, ends in the beginning of May. How does this all fit together with McKinnon?

One idea we are praying about is to buy this house, live in it for a year, and then rent it out if we were to move to McKinnon. Brandon and a friend need to sit down and crunch some numbers to see if this is possible. McKinnon and the surrounding suburbs are unfortunately expensive when buying a house. Unless God provides like he did for George Muller it will not be possible for us to buy over there. Rent is also more expensive than in Geelong. It may not be wise financially to own as well as rent if moving over there. The strain could be too great. We are wrestling with the possibility of giving up on our desire to own this house so that we can move to McKinnon.

There are many items on our prayer list. Frustratingly so many seem to concern money. In the words of a ninja character from Naruto, money "is such a drag." Maybe we should buy a teepee. They are easy to transport and require small amounts of space. I suppose though it might be a bit hard to have fellowship group in one.

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Side note-

Why move there? Some of you may be asking this. Before we moved to Australia we had a desire to be involved in a church plant or small congregation. Interestingly enough, McKinnon was where we wanted to move when coming to Australia. We were advised, wise counsel is a blessing, to move to Geelong so that we would have some support while we acclimated to the new living conditions. Now we are back to considering a move to that area of Melbourne.

Really the issue in all of this is the need for workers. Every church needs them and there always seems to be a lack of supply. It is all about the Trellis and the Vine (a book our session is reading at the moment). The church, small and large, needs workers.  They are needed in the trellis, supporting the vine by doing tasks, and in the vine, working with people to promote the spread of the gospel. God laid this on our hearts while we were still at university. We need to be praying that he does so with others. There is such a great need just here in Australia, let alone the rest of the world. There need to be people who are willing to go. Now, I realize not everyone can do this. Some people need to stay back and support the home congregations. We should at least ask ourselves the question.