A Step Away

I knew that this post would eventually need to be written.

I think that was part of my decision to start the blog in the first place - so that I would have a place to share this. 
It's a hard thing to say, but I've already said it to those of you that have reached out to us…and I am so thankful that you have reached out to us…I figured this could be no harder.

So, to answer your question…. Yes,

Mark and I have decided to step away from                                     Church.

It's been about 6 weeks since we've been there and I think the majority is finally starting to notice.
A couple dozen of you have reached out and contacted us over the last several weeks and that has been SO encouraging to me and Mark. THANK YOU for making an effort to connect.
It's like life to my heart.

I won't go into details, of course, but I will say that it is obvious that God is working in our family's life.  We are regrouping and reevaluating several areas of our lives and we thought it wise to step away from the hustle of ministry life and just be really quiet before the Lord for a season.

To be open with you, there has been conflict involved, but to be clear, we are not running from conflict.
We are sensing the Lord asking us to lay our positions and patterns of life down and wait for His word.

Since Mark and I have served at SEC for more than a decade, and since there has been conflict, this has been a very hard and painful process for us. We need your prayers because the grief is heavy.

However, at the same time, we are overwhelmed with gratitude because we KNOW that God is working on our behalf. There is no doubt in our minds that God will use this to time mature us, to pull us to Himself, and to position us for a greater blessing - all for the honor of HIS name.
It is an exciting time for us. Difficult, absolutely, but exciting nonetheless.

God is doing a new thing in our lives!

Isaiah 43:19

For I am about to do something new.

    

See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?

I will make a pathway through the wilderness.

    

I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

You know I wanted to post the entire chapter there, but, really, this verse is key.  Go and read the rest! 

Though there has been many Scriptures that we have held on to, possibly the most comforting passage of Scripture for us during this time has been Ecclesiastes 3. You're familiar with it…

For everything there is a season,

    a time for every activity under heaven.

 

A time to be born and a time to die.

    A time to plant and a time to harvest.

 

A time to kill and a time to heal.

    A time to tear down and a time to build up.

 

A time to cry and a time to laugh.

    A time to grieve and a time to dance.

 

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.

    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

 

A time to search and a time to quit searching.

    A time to keep and a time to throw away.

 

A time to tear and a time to mend.

    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

 

A time to love and a time to hate.

    A time for war and a time for peace.

 What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.  Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.  So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.  And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

So, we rest. 

We rest in the knowledge that Christ has finished the work on the cross. 

We rest in knowing that our relationship with Him is more important than explaining or defending ourselves and our decisions. 

We rest in the fact that God sees the whole picture beginning to the end and He understands the "why" right now.  

We rest in the truth that God is only good and always faithful. He will complete the work that He has started in us. 

We rest and we trust. 

Really, we rest because we trust. 

God is a GOOD Shepherd. He will tend to us and feed us and lead us. 

Some have said that we are walking though the wilderness. 

I see "the wilderness" as though we are only a step away from here and there. 

So we step away in faith. 

And we. are. not. afraid. 

I love you all so much! 

~Anna