I love it when God shows up in a way that makes it so obvious that it’s him answering our prayers and not just things “working out”.

My best friend is a single mom of 3 who just recently lost what child support she was getting. So she went hunting for a serving job (that’s waitressing for you politically incorrect 🙂 but ended up just finding a hostessing job at a big chain restaurant. They told her “maybe” she could move into a server job somewhere down the road but it didn’t sound too encouraging. She’s doing great and enjoying it but NOT making her bills. She soon realized the only way she could make her bills w/o working 5 nights a week (and being away from her kids) was to have a serving job.  After much prayer and deliberation she decided she’d just approach her manager and tell her that she needed a server job or she’d have to start looking for one elsewhere. When we talked earlier today she said she “knew” they’d say they didn’t have anything or couldn’t move her, but she was going to try it anyways.

This evening I got a text message from her “I got it! Serving w/in the month. PTL!” (That’s “praise the Lord” in text-ese). How awesome is that! God showed up in a big way and I know it was a huge encouragement for her and fun for me to witness.

Well it seems as if this is certainly a year of change for our family. First with the adoption, and now with jobs.

After nearly six years with Palm Valley Church, Mark is leaving
his position as Executive Pastor. We truly love our church, the staff and our
friends but Mark feels as if God is calling him on to something else. We’re not
sure exactly what that “something else” is at this point. After months of
praying for God to show us what he has for Mark next, we feel as if we just need
to obey his “Go” and take a leap of faith that will allow him to show us the
amazing things he has in store for us. (And there is no doubt that they will be
amazing.)

Of course having the major breadwinner leave a job in the middle of an expensive adoption is quite a scary thought. But we are so blessed that we are in a position of NO debt and a nice emergency fund that allows us to be obedient to God’s call without the hesitations that many people would feel because of the finances.

God has also opened the door for me to step into more of a full time role at our church as the Communications Coordinator – handling the print and web communications. He is so faithful to provide in our time of need.

We appreciate all your prayers for wisdom and clarity in what God would have for us next. We are both super excited to see what the future holds. We would also appreciate your prayers for Noah and Natalie as we realize that there is a lot of change happening in our family this year and we want the best for them.

You can read Mark’s thoughts here.