God has given Kathy and I a new vision (it still includes Gleanings so you
can relax). We're being called out of the congregation we are members of, to
start a new work here in our home community of Sherwood Park, Alberta.
The congregation we are leaving has been our church home ever since we
became Christians and has been a blessing to us. We will miss it and the
people there who have in many ways been our family for a long time. Yet, we
know that God is calling us to do something different. Not better just
different. We won't actually leave the congregation we belong to until the
end of May as we have made commitments to teach there until that time.
The vision is a new ministry/church that reaches out to the community and
networks to link the resources of other ministries and churches in our area.
We have some concepts that we believe will enable us to do that and be a
blessing to the community. The details aren't fully articulated yet and would
be too long to fit in an issue of Gleanings, so for the time being, I'll just
leave it at that.
It has been a process that has taken a couple of years of following the
different steps towards the goal that God has placed in front of us. At
times, we weren't certain where He was leading other than "out" to something
new.
It's been both exhilarating and terrifying to follow God along to a
destination we weren’t certain of. Each step of the way we've said yes,
although sometimes with more excitement than others and the new vision is
tremendously exciting for us.
I'm coming to understand the words of the Psalmist better:
Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Psalm 2:11 NIV
We don't have the logistical details for the new vision all figured out
yet, but we're trusting in God to guide the way.
While I certainly wouldn't call myself an Abraham, I have a taste of what
it must have been like when God called him to leave his home and go out to
parts unknown. At the time of the calling, Abraham was still known as Abram.
