At our last update, Randy had two leads in Florida and one in South Carolina. We never heard back from one of the churches in Riverview, Florida and the other just wasn't a good fit on both sides. They were a traditional church trying to make the transition to a more contemporary service, yet they still wanted someone with more traditional roots (ie ability to lead an orchestra, ect.) and that is SO not Randy. We loved the idea of living down on the coast of South Florida (literally minutes from the beach!!), but we wouldn't want that at the cost of Randy being in a job that wasn't a good fit. We had a ton of reservations and God made it an easy decision since they called and said they weren't sure he was a good fit either and they were going with someone else. Decision solved.
Then came South Carolina. All of the interviews went really well and I am super proud of Randy since they had literally hundreds of applicants and he is/was their second in line. Last we heard from them, they were interviewing a guy that they had begun interviewing much before Randy. He was down there this past weekend. They told Randy that they would contact him sometime at the end of last week or early this week. We are pretty sure that it pretty much comes down to them hiring him if they like him and if not, they will bring Randy down. So we'll see if he made the cut or not.
In the meantime, I'm sure you're wondering what in the world we are going to do!? So were we! It's kind of crazy this whole journey. Back over the Winter, we felt so heavily like God was telling us he had something different for us. It would have been easy to just start looking for a job secretly and not tell our church family until we knew right where we were going and then just bail. But we really felt like God wanted us to honor him and honor our church by being open about our desire to move somewhere else. And so we did. Fast forward to several months of searching and interviewing, and still not having a definite place to call home...it has been trying! It has really tested our faith to the max. I will be honest that I have had many times where I question what God is doing in all of this. "You told us to quit! Now we don't have a job and we're going to run out of money and I'm going to have another baby and....." The list goes on. But the one thing that we keep feeling in our hearts is that we have chosen the hard path. To honor God with every move and we know he's going to finish what he has started.
A few weeks ago, I was challenged by a friend to stop thinking about all of the ways I want this to all pan out and try to see how God could use us to serve him right now. In this moment. Maybe not the way we originally intended. We were trying to decide if Randy needed to get a non ministry job, but then where in the world do we apply? I kept teasing Randy that I wished we could just drop everything and go work at camp all Summer. One day, he took me serious and said it wasn't a bad idea. He would be good at it and it was actually something we could probably pull off financially if we wanted to. Some friends of ours sent us some ideas for camps that were hiring, but we decided to try and contact the camp we have attended the past two Summers first. We already have a relationship with them and we love it there, so it seemed like a good first move. Randy got in touch with Village Creek and asked if they needed any additional help this Summer. We were so surprised when they wrote back and said they would love to have us and really needed the help! Randy is going to work for them as the Summer Program Director. He will be able to work with the student staff all Summer and lead worship, help things run smoothly, basically just working along side them to help however is needed to make sure camp runs smoothly. This is going to let him use SO many of his gifts and in a totally unexpected way! The kids and I will stay right there with him and I will have the opportunity to build relationships and mentor the girls that will be there for the Summer, too. I'm so excited! Not to mention the fact that I get a Summer of no cooking!
So what does this all mean in the long run for us? Well, basically, we will continue to finish packing all of our things this week and next week. We are planning to load everything into storage for the Summer and we will take just what we need for camp with us. The plan will be to work at camp all Summer (unless SC calls, in which case if they decide to hire Randy we will move South at the end of June). Randy will continue his job hunt all Summer in hopes that we find a good fit by the end of camp. If we haven't found a ministry job as the Summer starts drawing to an end, Randy will turn his search to looking for a regular job of some sort and we will move wherever that ends up. When camp is over, we will travel back to Dodgeville to load our stuff and then we will move wherever we have a job at.
We are so thankful for all of our friends who have been praying for us this whole time. Please continue to pray that the perfect job opens up for us. We would selfishly love for it to be in Florida, but of course we will go wherever God leads us to. In the meantime, we are praising God for the way he has provided for us. Just 5 years ago, we never would have been financially able to take a once in a lifetime opportunity like this! We are so thankful that God changed our view of debt and finances so that we are now able to literally pack up our stuff and live simply for a whole Summer! The past two years as we drove away from camp, I have elbowed my hubby and said, "are you sure God didn't call you to work at a camp?!" because I just love the atmosphere and being there. Who would have thought that I would be moving my whole family there for the Summer. It's really crazy. And amazing. God ALWAYS comes through my friends. Maybe not how we planned or expected him to, but he always comes through and he always provides.
I thought a nice way to end this, would be to share our pictures from our first year at camp so that you could all see where we're going and what it's like there. They may have spots open still for Family Camp if anyone wants to come check it out and see us for a week!!!!
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