Our New Church Home - McCarthy Baptist Church

Hello, everyone! This is my first post in over a month because Jimmy and I have been busy moving and getting settled in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

We have been in Saint Joseph, Missouri for almost exactly a month now. We love it! We like to say that it has many of the things that you like about the city--like things that stay open all night--but you still get the benefit of a small town feel. It's even beginning to feel like we actually live here and it's not just some long mission trip that we are on.

We are also excited that our church family that we have left behind are already moving on. They have recently hired a new full-time music and youth guy. We are praying for them as they step out in faith to make this position full-time. We are also praying that they will be able to re-connect with youth that have fallen out of church in the last few months and to reach new youth in the Hazelwood community. We wish the best for Villebrook Baptist Church and pray God's blessings be upon you.

Things here at our new church home are different than they have been for the past four years. First off, Jimmy is now in the church office on a daily basis! PTL! It's great to see him getting out of the house and being able to interact with the other staff memebers face to face on a daily basis. I am proud of what a great job he has been doing! Another change is that I am no longer able to work for Missouri Baptist Children's Home and have been on the job hunt for the last few weeks. It has been great to be at the church more without the stress of having my own full-time employment. Also, the school set-up is different here. We still are reaching many different schools but all but one of our youth are in the same school district rather than covering three school districts. This makes life and planning considerably easier.

Best of all...Now that we are settling into being mostly unpacked and getting into a routine, I should be able to get back into the habit of blogging more. So for better or worse you might see more of me on here than you have in the last few months. Until next time...

Grace and Peace,

Christiana

Moving to Saint Joseph, Missouri

It's official. Jimmy and I are moving to Saint Joseph, Missouri. Ok, let me back up a little and tell more of the story.

For a little while now, Jimmy and I have been praying about whether or not God was leading us to the Kansas City area. If you don't know that's where Jimmy's Grandfather who raised him lives. Grampy is well over 80 years old and his health has gradually been failing and Jimmy has really wanted to be close to him and have a chance to take advantage of the time that Grampy has left. So we prayed and prayed and prayed about what God was wanting us to do. A little over a year after we began praying His answer began to show itself.

A couple of months ago Jimmy got a call from his friend Mike. Mike wanted to know if he could send our resume to a church he used to work for in Saint Joseph, Missouri. We said "yes" so he contacted McCarthy and sent them our resume. We didn't really know what to expect.

In July, McCarthy contacted Jimmy and asked him for a phone interview. I thought that was pretty positive but Jimmy just shrugged his shoulders and told me "nothing ever comes from me doing phone interviews. I have never had one that resulted in anything." So we tried not to get our hopes up. Needless to say, something did come from this phone interview :)

No after another interview and a busy, long weekend of meeting people and answering a million questions Jimmy has officially been voted in to become the full-time Associate Pastor of Student Ministries for McCarthy Baptist Church! We are so excited! God has really been in this process and even though we didn't always see him at work--He totally was!

Please forgive me if I don't post regularly over the next month or so because I will be cleaning, packing, and moving. We plan to have our moving day on Friday, September 16th. If you are in Saint Joseph, you should come and see us on our first Sunday which will be September 25th.

Pray for us as we relocate and start a new ministry and a new chapter in our lives. It's very exciting and very scary all at the same time!

Grace and Peace,
Chrsitiana