I’ve been eagerly awaiting the day when I could make this important announcement. Terry has resigned as Pastor here at Northside Baptist Church and has accepted the pastorate of Grace Baptist Church in Hope, Arkansas. We are taking a church that not only has children, but teenagers as well! Lauren’s prayers have been answered! That’s right, God heard, and indeed answered, an eight year old girl’s prayers! What a mighty God we serve, and how wonderful He is to us!
We usually take our annual trip to Arkansas around the first part of May, but when Terry was asked to preach in view of a call in Hope on April 20th, we moved our vacation up a wee bit.We were not looking for a place to go. In fact, the Lord has really been blessing our work here – oh, not by giving us huge numbers or large offerings, but in baby steps. Here a little, there a little. We have been anticipating great things in 2008 – and trust me, a move was not one of them. Here are a few interesting things about all of this that really meant nothing until we received the call to Grace Baptist Church:
1. As stated before, we were not looking to leave. This was all done in God’s timing. An evangelist friend felt he should put our name in at this church, and it was of the Lord. They phoned Terry on April 2nd, and he drove to Hope to meet them on April 4th. They asked him to preach on April 20th. He preached there and we were called, unanimously, on April 27, 2008. That can only be the Lord!
2. We have had a real peace that God would bless our efforts to serve Him here, even when the battles were great. I’ve been using Hebrews 11:6 as my strength. It says: But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Again, I was expecting the rewards to be given here in Burnet, but God had other plans.
3. We did not notice until after we were asked to go in view of a call that the stationary Terry had printed (at a costly amount) back in February did not have his name as Pastor on it! He did not do this intentionally, but I do not believe it was a coincidence. The church can continue to use this stationary after we are gone.
4. We are almost through with school for the year. This is a blessing! The children will not be uprooted from a school and friends because we home school…another benefit.
5. Terry had just discontinued our website (biblewaytexas.com) in mid March! (Although, as of now, it may still be going.) He simply felt he should end it. Again, it was of the Lord.
6. I have been unable to decide what theme to go with for a Mother/Daughter banquet. The Lord seemed silent on this subject, so I had decided to not have one this year.
7. I had just discontinued my monthly ladies newsletter due to financial and time constraints.
None of the above seemed very extraordinary at the time, but now, it seems clear it was God guiding us all along the way.

We make our move on May 15th! Grace Baptist Church is full of loving people. We had a feeling of being at home from the moment we walked through the door. The thought of packing and moving doesn’t exactly thrill me, but at least I’ve got experience. :o) This will be my 8th move in 10 years of marriage. Yes, please pray for me.The church has a parsonage. I am unsure of the address as of this time, but I’ll be posting my new information soon.
I praise the Lord for the success He’s granted us here at Northside. We have not accrued any debt in the church’s name. We have not seen the church split over something minute. We have seen souls saved on soul winning, and one saved in church. We have conducted a successful VBS (with only a few workers) and saw 7 girls saved. We’ve held Bible Institute classes, and a Ladies Bible Study. We have started Super Church. We have taken on five new missionaries for a total of 14. We have done a lot of work on the church building and parsonage. We are thankful to be able to say that we are leaving it better than we found it.
It will not be easy to say goodbye. We are dreading it. Please pray for us, the people here, and for the church to find a pastor quickly.I suppose my “Life in the Hill Country” is about to come to a close. I’m thankful that my life hasn’t yet! :o) I am not sure if we will have Internet access in Hope. If so, I’ll be starting a new blog. If not, well, I guess this will be it for a while.
Thanks for staying with me, guys. I hope we can keep in touch. Until then, I’ll be keeping you posted on the joys of packing, moving and starting over…again!