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By the time you read this, we will have made the announcement to the rest of our soldiery (congregation). As of the end of June, my wife and I will be leaving the beautiful Piney Woods of East Texas and wend our way north to the Mecca for Salvation Army operations in Texas. That's right. We have been appointed to the Divisional Headquarters where I will serve as the Finance Officer (training to be essentially a regional CFO for The Salvation Army) and my wife will serve as the Assistant Secretary for Women's Ministries (which is a little easier to explain; it is pretty much what it is). I'll give you all a moment to pick your collective jaws off of the table (mine is still a little bruised).
Needless to say, we are both a little shocked by this turn of events. We had hoped to be in Lufkin for at least another year, if not longer. This appointment ranks quite highly on our list of favorite appointments; we have an incredible staff here, the corps (church) is very supportive, we have seen wonderful spiritual growth, the community loves and respects the Army, and the entire operation is mostly solvent. We have seen God at work in so many ways and it has been a joy to serve here for the past two years. In fact, this may be the hardest one to leave.
Our new appointments will be a challenge in that we never saw ourselves serving at that level. We have always been, and always aimed to be, corps officers (pastors). This is what we have done for the past thirteen or so years, and it is certainly where our hearts remain. I've never seen myself much as a 'numbers guy' but that will have to change. I have been told by the 'powers that be' that they have every confidence that I can handle the challenge based on our work to date. So, in approximately six weeks, we will leave our home and begin a new chapter in our lives and service to God and the Army.
At this point I want everyone to know, that in spite of the surprise and apprehension we feel at this moment, we know in our hearts that this is what God wants for us. If we didn't believe that, then we would leave the ranks and find something else to do. We have seen God at work over the past thirteen years, and it has all worked out. We are not about to start doubting Him and His goodness now.
Will it be easy? No. My job will involve a lot of traveling, conducting internal audits for many of the sixty plus operating units of The Salvation Army in Texas. I am already aware that I most likely will be on the road away from my Princess Bride more than I will be home with her. My pastorate will change. Instead of being confined to a local corps and its soldiers, friends and employees, I will now find my ministry among employees at Divisional Headquarters, on the road, and among my fellow corps officers in those 60+ corps.
I do ask that you would please offer up a word or two on our behalf over the next few weeks and months as we make this difficult transition. Also, say a word or two for the people we will be leaving behind. While we are thankful we will be staying in Texas, and we should see our friends often at events, it will still be hard on both sides to say farewell for now. We deeply and dearly love each one.
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Many of you may have heard by now that the Texas Youth Councils was postponed to October due to the Army’s potential involvement in the continuing story revolving around the YFZ Ranch near San Angelo. After the painful decision to postpone Youth Councils was made, the State decided to go in a different direction (due to court order), and we were not able to salvage our weekend event. The teenagers here in Lufkin had worked very hard on some program elements for Youth Councils this year, and we were very disappointed for them that they were not going to have a weekend to celebrate their achievements and interact with their friends. I was very proud of them when they unanimously affirmed that the decision the administration made was the right one as far as they were concerned, since we had to ‘take care of the kids.’ My wife, our assistant Kristen and I decided we needed to do something for our kids over the weekend to reward their hard work and their willingness to sacrifice. So we put together a Lock-In event. As our kids are blossoming into leaders, we asked them to help plan the theme for the event. They chose ‘Light Up The Darkness,’ and based it on several scriptures, but especially Matthew 5:16 – “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” We invited other Salvation Army units as well as local churches to be involved. Unfortunately, this was also the week of the TAKS tests (the basic skills assessment required for grade advancement) in the schools, so many were not able to participate. We did have one church’s fine arts and drama group perform many of the sketches they had put together for competition, and one of their youth pastors brought the Word to everyone. Our praise and worship team led the singing, and our sacred dance troupe performed ‘Before the Throne of God,’ the same dance that they were scheduled to perform at Youth Councils. After the initial meeting, we all shared pizza and played a few games, we were joined by young people from one of the Salvation Army corps in the Houston area, and we settled in for a long night. About midnight, we gathered in the alley between the corps and the shelter for a game involving jello, peanut butter, balloons, shaving cream and Lifesavers candy. Don’t ask. If you are insanely curious, check out the pictures elsewhere on this site. The kids finished off the pizza, played Sing Star and other video games and watched a movie. I myself didn’t get to where I could shut my eyes ‘til nearly 4:00 a.m…. The next morning, everyone (except me) more or less slept in. I was awake uploading some of the pictures to our church site, and finishing items for Sunday. The rest got up, nibbled on some breakfast items (around 11:00 a.m.) and began getting themselves together. Kristen began mixing water and cornstarch to create what I referred to as “an experiment in non-Newtonian fluid mechanics” (a larger-scale version of what we were playing with can be found here – be aware: the language is Spanish I think, but just watch). We gathered around noon (or so – time got a little fuzzy for me at this point) for more praise and worship, and a devotional led by Kristen. Then, the kids decided they wanted to play kickball, and at this point I decided that my old body had had enough. I went home, leaving the event in the capable hands of Kristen. After I left, I learned that they played some more games, went to a movie, and finally ended the Lock-In at about 4:30 p.m. One of the really cool things was that with one exception, they were all at church on Sunday. I’ll have some more pictures up, and I may even have some video as well. Stay tuned.
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I ran across this post from my blog reading. What a powerful statement in just a short entry:
Posted by Bill @ 8:10 pm CDT
Filed under: Contemplation I had a sobering thought the other day, and this post by Lars reminded me of it (it's a great post, by the way, and I highly recommend it).
You've heard it said: "if you had been the only sinner in the world, Jesus would have died to save you."
This weekend I thought of a corollary to that: If I had been the only sinner in the world, Jesus would have died to save me. And I would have been the one nailing him to the cross. Because He died for me when I was still His enemy.
It's no wonder that John exults "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!" - 1 John 3:1a
Have a great weekend, everyone. God loves you!
From the Thinklings
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Majors Israel were our guests for Easter, which as it turned out, was their last Sunday in Texas. As it was Easter, we wanted to make it extra-special.
Kristen took our Corps Cadets and young adults on a mission trip to Corpus Christi during our Spring Break. Last Sunday the young people gave testimony for all that they were able to do and all that God had done in and through them while on the trip. During the Sunday School preliminaries yesterday, she showed a short video highlighting all of their activities.
Also during Spring Break, Captain Eunice set up a schedule whereby we were able to hold a special series of classes for "Totally His" (the Junior Soldier Preparation course) and we were able to enroll FIVE new Junior Soldiers on Sunday. In addition, the Lufkin Corps Sacred Dance Troupe performed for the second time (the first was at Christmas), and their piece to the song 'Before the Throne of God Above" was very well-received, and our women's vocal ensemble offered "There is a Redeemer," in honor of the day, and really set the tone for Major Mark Israel's message, "When Failure Sends You Fishing."
We were truly blessed in that we had 98 people in our chapel for Easter, including members of the families of the new Junior Soldiers. It is our prayer that these family members will return and make the Lufkin Corps their spiritual home. In addition, the Corps held a covered-dish luncheon (in our newly-repainted gym) and 80 people of the 98 stayed for lunch!
It was a glorious Easter and Captain Eunice and I (although we have both been battling colds and bronchitis) walked away exhausted bu definitely blessed!
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