Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)
This past weekend was the last weekend on staff for our children’s pastor at Crosswinds. Her name is Rachael Wiest (pronounced “West”). She came to Crosswinds about the same time that we did, freshly graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University (where my cousin was a women’s softball star!! really! She broke all kinds of school records! She’s awesome!). Anyway, Rachael has done a fantastic job with the children’s ministry, but felt like God was calling her on to something else in life – not because she didn’t like where she was – quite the opposite – just because she heard him calling.
So, she announced her resignation, and that she was moving to California to attend a Bible college out there.. before she had been accepted. She still does not have a job or a place to live or a lot of things you might think you “need” to have in order before you do something of this magnitude. And I totally admire her faith in this! Very cool!
So, this past weekend, Rach (that’s what they call her) got to preach at all the services, and she basically just told her story about this “walk of faith” she’s on and how God is faitfhul through it. And when everything else changes, we can hold on to HIS UN-chage-ness.
That’s where I come in.
Good weekend… we were leading some great songs that helped bring home the faitfhulness of God stuff – and how we want to be faithful too. And all was well, until we lost Ian. Between the 2nd and 3rd services… here’s the e-mail I sent to our worship team later that day…
We Lost IAN!
You know, I actually got to taste what Rachael was talking about today with the faithfulness of God – and specifically how he is faithful whether life is grand or ripping apart at the seams. In between the services today, we went to find Ian and he was not where he was supposed to be. He had been sitting with Rachael, and Nikki Blowers while we sang and was then to go into Club 4:12 (the children’s ministry). So I was quite surprised to find that he was not in the room when we went to pick him up, and Angie Bemis who was helping out there today said she had not seen him… and we checked the sign-in sheet… no Ian!!! OK… that was weird. So, I asked around, checked around, and I could NOT find him!!!! AHHHHH!!!
At this point, nothing mattered to me except finding my son. I was asking God to help and looking everywhere I could. I was not frantic, but I was really quite concerned.
So, it ended up that he was in fact in the Club 4:12 room… just not signed in… and hiding or something when I was there, and some how Angie had not seen him. But, all was well in the end… WE FOUND HIM!!! That was a great relief. But something hit me … kinda hard… in the first song we sang that next service (All of My Days). We were singing “All of my days I will sing of your greatness, all of my days I will speak of your grace…” and I was forced to admit that even if my son was somehow gone… God would still be faithful.
God’s faithfulness is not dependent on my surroundings. Often, we call Him faithful when things are going well for us… and indeed, that is a way that we know his faithfulness. But Life does not always go as we want it to… yet God is faithful. He is there with us – no matter what might be going on around us. THAT is His faithfulness… and he reminded me of that today. Very cool.
Very Cool. 🙂