thank you ruthie

tonight at jr high youth group, we broke into our small groups. it was the usual...there are a couple questions that we go over in our group. we are discussing prayer and how sometimes God answers it in a different way then what we expected.

back in college we did a lot of service hours. this helped us explore our God given gifts and what ministry styles we best fit into. once we knew what our passions were and where we wanted to serve in ministry, we prayed that someday God would give us the opportunity to serve in that capacity.

GracePoint is the answer to that prayer that we prayed so many years ago. for that we are excited. we pictured it going a little differently though. maybe like this...

'church x' has a position available that aaron would be perfect for. aaron applies. they accept. they pay aaron enough to support both of us. we live there forever and have babies and love everything about our church family and where we serve there. FIN.

i do the 6th grade girls' small group at yg. tonight, one of our sponsor's daughters (ruthie) was present. she is so beyond her years. ruthie gave out a couple prayer requests and i asked her if she would like to pray for those and for our group. during her prayer...she said something so simple but it hit me like a ton of bricks. 'thank you Jesus for answering our prayers. even sometimes when you answer it in a different way then we thought you would; you have a special reason to answer it in the way You are.' WOW.

how we prayed for one thing....God answered...just in a different way.

GP just opened. they have no 'position' available. they dont even look to fill positions. they look for passion and use that and then stick a 'title' on it. they cant pay us to volunteer as much as they might want to (and they have other staff members who deserve payment first at any rate). im going full time...which i wanted to be cutting back so i could someday be a mommy at home. this feels like the opposite of how we thought God would answer the prayer.

i know my Jesus has a big plan for us...and will reveal it all in His timing. i would just like the timing to be....NOW.



aaron & sonia