The transition

Well, this seems to be old news now, in the busyness of the holidays I didn't have time to stop and write about it. But most of you know that as of the beginning of December, Andrew began full-time at Three Rivers Grace Church as Director for Media, Music & Outreach. Ever since we began our seminary journey 7.5 years ago, this has been the desire of our heart to work full-time in church ministry if the Lord would open the doors. God led us on a different path than we would have anticipated, but knowing that "all things work together for good to those who love God", we fully trust in His sovereignty and are grateful for the different opportunities we have experienced along the way. Even knowing many of our friends from seminary days are still in those journeying days, waiting with full anticipation this transition as well, we know that God in his perfect timing has the perfect scenario already in place and can't wait to rejoice with you as God reveals that plan!

So what does Andrew do? Well, his job decription was approximately a page long and ended with something like "and whatever else comes up....." :) He will continue as he was in his part-time role to oversee the worship services each week - planning the services & music, coordinating & leading the worship team, scheduling monthly music team practices, overseeing purchases & planning for the AV team, and whatever else might go into a Sunday service. He also is overseeing a new church directory, involved in helping launch our new church website, re-designed the church bulletin and writes it each week, & re-worked the church's phone number (which now goes to his phone). If you are a small church where the church number is going directly to the pastor or staff member, you should definitely check out what he did with a google number! It is a neutral number that can be routed to any different number at any time, i.e. the pastor goes on vacation and so it can go directly to someone else. And there's lots of other amazing features - technology is so great!

Here are some the other thing he's been involved with this month:

• meeting about an outreach concert in our building with MonoCcord
• meeting a member to walk, pray, & talk with people throughout our church neighborhood
• city meeting to talk about using our church as one of the free food programs in the summer
• meeting a member of the International Mission Board about our friends from church that are getting ready to go to the Middle East
• Human Trafficking awareness meeting at Heinz Field (Steelers stadium)
• cleaning & organizing rooms in our church
• coodinating upcoming events at our church where ministries are coming in to share about victims of exploitation, crisis pregnancy centers & foster care.
• running the sound booth for weddings, both in January & February.
• 6am Tuesday morning, men meet for prayer at Starbucks every week
• He rotates with teaching our twice a month community group
• He's also so excited to go with our pastor to the Desiring God Pastor's Conference in Mpls. next month. His work schedule has rarely allowed him to go to conferences the past years and now the fact that they are part of his work is an unbelievable blessing.

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So you can probably get a sense that he has plenty to occupy his time. :) He is loving it and loves being involved in such a wide variety of tasks. Because he loves what he is doing so much, at times I have to be sure he is not working 70 hours a week. :) He is using our home office in the basement as his home base. It's worked out pretty well because he is well out of sight of the kiddos, but he can still come up for lunch or snacks. :) The flexibility has been amazing. The other day we were both able to go to see Sesame Street Live with the kiddos on a weekday morning (we had received free tickets). We've also had greater flexibility in finishing our fostering requirements and getting all those appts. done. {We are excited that all we have left is our home study to be fully certified!}

The one thing that has been the most challenging to adjust to is the what can feel like the random chaos of his schedule. He has so many meetings this month which may range from a 6am Saturday elders meeting to meeting someone for coffee at 8pm at night. So it feels slightly unpredictable right now and will definitely take a few months (at least!) to adjust to how everything will be. We've also always been able to get along on one car since we've moved to Pittsburgh as Andrew has always been able to take the bus to work. But right now he is jetting all over the city suddenly and this mama has been feeling a little housebound! :) So we may have to think about adding a 2nd car here in the future. But we are so thankful at how God opened this opportunity and love serving in whatever capacity we can at our church. We are excited to see how our church is growing and the greater capacities of ministries where doors are opening up.