We recently made a quick trip back to our former
church where in Tennessee. As I traveled
I recalled our initial move to Tennessee.
We knew God had called us there to serve, but we left behind family, our
family pet, friends, and a wonderful ministry in the state convention. I personally hate God moving us to new
locations of ministry and will fight with all my being to stay where I am. However, I have learned God has his reasons
for implementing the “ministry relocation program.”
Over the years
that we were at this specific church we developed some rich friendships that
continue even though we are in a new ministry place. As a matter of fact, our quick trip back
resulted in a “gathering of the old gang” for pizza supper. The laughter was plentiful and the fellowship
sweet. Isn’t it wonderful that even
though God moves you on in his work that true friendships can still remain intact?
These friendships are all made possible by God’s relocation program.
Our time in Tennessee resulted in lasting
memories. I recalled the fun mission
trip to Iowa and Nebraska and how our team of volunteers bonded in God’s
work. Every person learned to sacrifice
personally from taking ice cold showers to scrubbing nasty restrooms in an old
youth center. Through these trips, God
called out some of our youth to go in to full time ministry, become Christian
camp counselors, and to become Sunday School teachers to preschoolers. What a sweet memory that never would have
been made without God’s relocation program.
This trip also brought back the sweet memory of the
special bond the staff wives had. We
might not talk to each other during the week but we had each other’s back. On Sundays, we might be able to chat for a
couple of minutes and plan a “girl lunch.”
Other times we simply would pass in the hallway and mutter our code word
“LULU,” which meant “I need to talk!”
Even today with all three of us in different churches and separate by
hundreds of miles, the three “LULU” sisters (that is what we call ourselves)
text almost on a weekly basis. I love
these girlfriends and I would never have met them had it not been for God’s
relocation program.
I am sure some of you are in the process of God
beginning the implementation of a ministry relocation program. It can be a difficult and emotional
time. You want to be in His will but at
the same time, you may love where you are now and are comfortable. (A word to the wise: never get too comfortable because God will
probably move you to a new place of ministry).
I want to encourage you to be open minded to what God may be getting
ready to do in your ministry. There are
new opportunities for ministry, new and rich friendships, and so much more that
will only happen with God’s relocation program.
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