God is in Control

Where do I begin? I am weary of telling this story and I am very ready to move on! (If you are a regular reader of my blog I will let you know I know the date at the top of this post says July 21 but today is actually August 11 as I am typing this. I like to keep things in date order and I get behind on my posts.) However I wanted to share some of our story now so I can tell you where we are going and how good our God is! ( I hope you know that already.) I won't go into all the details here but am willing talk with anyone who wants to listen.

Right from the beginning of Jay starting at this church he knew that he was called there for a transition but God never revealed what that transition was. We would have never guessed it would be having to confront the pastor on multiple things (not just personal issues but Scriptural things as well) and then needing to resign because nothing was going to change.

Monday, July 11, Jay resigned as the worship/youth pastor from our church. We had been there almost 3 yrs. My husband had to take a stand (not a very popular one) based on scripture. He sought council for weeks from several other pastors and professors more knowledgeable than himself and everyone affirmed him in the things he was seeing going on at our church, especially with our pastor. I would encourage all Christians, if you haven't, to spend time studying Timothy and Titus. It explains very clearly the qualifications of a Pastor. Jay followed Matthew 18 on approaching our Pastor and it went through just short of bringing everything to the church (because he wasn't allowed to, OK let's just take the Bible as suggestions, really???).

Anyways this was a very tough thing to do and a total God thing because it was not like we had another church just waiting to take him on and pay his salary. It was also extremely tough on our family because this church is full of people we love and care about and up until all of this I thought the feelings were mutual. They ogled over us, told us how much they loved us and then the Wednesday after it happened there were some that wouldn't even look at us. Really??? I had never felt so hurt. But I can't blame it all on them because they were only getting one side of the story, Jay was not allowed to tell his side. I think what concerns me more is that most people just heard what they wanted to hear and then didn't even question it. (Can I have some more Kool-aid please??) It would certainly raise red flags for me. But no, they wanted to do things in secret. At the business meeting some wanted secret ballots to vote if Jay was going to get any type of severance. Really that sounds cowardly to me and luckily that motion was struck down. Better yet I am so glad Jay and I were not there.

So that is the "yuck" in all of this and it will take time to get over and our emotions are on a roller coaster almost like the grieving process. But the good in all of it is Jay also has known for awhile that he has been called to plant a church. He was hoping it would be a plant like a "birthing" from our current church, not a "divorce" We are moving forward with that and Jay and I have partnered with our friends and have started holding worship services at their house as we look for a location. We have averaged 20 in attendance and are growing.

In all of this I try to leave God in control but I fail so much. It is so easy for me to try and take over and want to make all the plans....like where are we going to live, where is money coming from, will the church ever know the whole story, or will they even care? I just pray daily, and sometimes hourly, and keep giving the control back to God. I know He is in both the details and the big picture.

Please Pray for us in all of this: 1) Pray that we will find a house suitable for us (size wise and price wise) up in the valley, where the new church plant is. 2)Pray that Jay will be successful in going back to work with his dad to provide for our family as this new church grows. 3) Most of all pray for our old church the pastor and the congregation. I don't believe this is over. I believe that Jay started a transition there and I know God can do a mighty work and save that church.

Our Annual Camping Trip

It's summer time once again and that means camping! We look very forward to this trip and getting up of out the heat for awhile. This year it worked in every one's schedule to go over 4th of July weekend and we actually stayed for 7 days. (That is the longest I think we have been camping at one time). It was of course us and the Roger's family and this year two other families joined us.

I have so many, many, many pictures I could post but I will try and limit it some. ;) We headed up on Friday morning and stayed until the following Thursday. There were no fires allowed and hiking was very limited due to fire restrictions. So we stayed busy with fishing, crawdad catching and game playing. It rained at least once a day and that was so nice! It even hailed once.

I hope you enjoy the pictures:

This is the trailer we used this year. I have never thought of our suburban as small before! LOL. It was a nice trailer. It needs some work but it fit our family really well. There was a queen bed up in the front and two sets of bunk beds in the back.

Our whole gang!
The Pearces, The Rogers', The Lindsay's, and The Polmanteer's
(8 adults and 11 kids)

Camp Happenings: (no particular order)

A boy and his hatchet

Cooking some grub!

OK first look how dirty they are! lol Next notice the size of the marshmallows! They are called "campfire marshmallows" and we used Reese's peanut butter cups instead of plain chocolate. YUMMY!

We got to deal with these lovely (said with sarcasm) creatures each night as we tried to play games at the table outside. They were attracted to the light and the guys kept trying to flick them on us!

This was a highlight of the trip! Since we would be camping on a Sunday, we planned ahead of time to hold a time of worship at this outdoor amphitheater. On Friday and Saturday the kids and dads went around the entire camp and handed out fliers that Nikki had made up telling people the time and place of our worship. Jay and Roy led music and Dan preached. We had about 39 people show up. It was awesome! We provided some cookies and drinks afterwards and I think it was a great time of praising the Lord for all!


Our Family!

Me and my honey!

Joshua and Jenny (Best Buds)


Daddy and his boys

This was the largest of all the crawdads that were caught. Jadon was not scared at all. He giggled and kept wanting to hold it.


One of our many hikes to the lake we were trying to take some cover from the rain....we heard a really loud boom and on our walk back this is what we found.....

So glad we weren't walking by when the lightning actually struck this tree. Wow to see God's amazing power! Lightening struck the middle of this tree sending parts of it flying, splitting the center of it. It was still smoking and was so neat to see the inside how soft and wet it was.

When we were stuck indoors during the daily rain we played games. The Rogers family brought Mancala. It quickly became a favorite game for all.




Daddy's fishing buddy!
Catching crawdads
The last night we had a fish fry.

Jadon loved playing the crawdads and the worms.
and of course he loved splashing in the puddles.

We took this last picture as we were leaving camp. It is a look out sight. I told Jay he could just photo shop me in because there was no way I was going out on that ledge! :)

Stories with no pictures but memories that will last a life time:

1) Tasha got pinched by one of the crawdads and it made her MAD!! She shook the bucket it was in and yelled at it "You baby gaga"

2) The kids would go over to the pit toilets and take turns opening the door to the men's and women's and then scream. They were comparing which stunk the worst!

3) Jay actually stuck a crawdad down my shirt and I completely lost it and was hysterical! He is lucky he made it back home with us (lol)

4) The attack of the poop wand! Some of the joys of taking care of a trailer. I will just leave it at that.

Another year of great memories!