Ministry Update for Mid-January

{I'm determined to give these more frequently now, as it seems as though I'm getting asked, more and more, "what our plans are".  I wish I knew what our plans were; at least I can share what we know!}

1.  It finally happened; the very first Canadian job posting went up on the Wesleyan Church website on January 10th.  We anticipate that the pickings will be slim as the season revs up, in fact this particular job is not even one that we can apply for, but at least there is a tangible Canadian presence on the site.  This is encouraging!

2.  David met with our pastor last week to discuss the next communion service at the church.  It was encouraging to see my husband getting all excited about the service because they're trying something new.  Every time David is allowed to discuss and analyze church details he gets all happy and pumped up, which makes me happy and pumped up!

3.  Today was the 'sermon Sunday' that I mentioned in my last update a week ago.  It almost turned into a fiasco because I foolishly gave David the wrong readings and so he ended up preaching on a text that wasn't scheduled for this Sunday!  Samuel and I were planning on going to hear him but on the way Samuel, who hadn't been feeling well, started throwing up and so David and I agreed that I would take him home and put him to bed while David continued on to church, and so we missed church altogether.  Apparently, at the end of the service one of the congregants turned white and almost fainted and an ambulance was called!  After everyone had left David turned to the church elder and said "well, that certainly wasn't the reaction I was hoping for!"  The sermon topic?  Repentance!

4.  Over supper last week David told me that he'd realized that to maintain his Student Level Ministry License he needed to take at least two courses every year, and that the deadline for this year was coming soon.  We had been so overwhelmed with expecting the new baby, balancing two work schedules and managing tandem-but-never-together parenting without having to resort to daycare that, honestly, it had completely slipped my mind as well!  And so we agreed to re-enroll David in the Leadership and Church Management course that he hadn't finished yet as step one.  We got that done and he's working away on it.

5.  It's a great, optimistic step that I'm taking in planning for a move that may not happen, but I'm buying storage containers, purging our clothing and toys, etc. just in case.  You never know, right?  So, every time plastic tupperware containers go on sale somewhere, there I am, buying more and spending hours washing, sorting, and organzing clothes, jackets, baby stuff, stuffed animals...

6.  Over the meeting with our pastor one of the things that came up was the question of whether there was a supply preacher list for the Atlantic District.  We'd been told that there was, and that David could put his name on it and then get called for preaching experience whenever a spot needed to be filled.  Well, Pastor R. got right on the phone to district headquarters and asked them, and they said no, that list didn't exist.  This really hurts, because that was going to be one of our possible steps for getting more preaching experience under our belts, but ultimately it's good to know.  On the plus side, Pastor R. did contact the Wesleyan churches in the area to let them know that David was available if they needed him.  It is very unlikely they would call a complete stranger, but it was a nice gesture.

7.  And, finally, we've heard of another possibility in the past few weeks - a longer-term substitute pastoring position in a different denomination.  Apparently the Baptist and United churches around here are having a terrible time keeping up with filling their pulpits and are hiring Wesleyan pastors to work short-term.  It's not ideal, but it IS a pastoring position and something to start us off.