Getting up to speed

I can always tell when I’ve become lax in my blogging when Will sends me a message pleading for a new post. It’s more than a simple desire for good reading material for Will. He knows that, as a pastor, missionary, or whoever, staying out of touch could easily mean that things are really hectic, or that you are burning yourself out, or that you can’t think of a positive spin for your readers on crappy life circumstances. In response to this welcome accountability, then, I will try to catch you all up with how life has been for us over the past few months. In my next post, talk about church stuff--this is the family stuff.

In January, our church was hit with the financial issues the rest of you are all facing as well. We didn’t bring in nearly what we had budgeted and immediately blew through our savings, etc. The immediate action I was forced to take was to cut my salary completely and trim what was left of the bills. This left our family with a 40% cut in income over night. Since we were already on a tight budget, we had to think creatively. We were already in the process of refinancing our house to pay off some debt and take advantage of the better rates, so we decided to follow through with that. The down side of the refi was that it took about three months to go through (gone are the days of stated income!), which caused us considerable stress. I had recently begun to work for a couple in our church at the UPS Store (no, I can’t tell you off the top of my head how much it will cost to ship your dog overnight to North Carolina). We also decided to try and sell Jenn’s car. Since it was new and paid for, we saw it as our only asset. In the end, after driving it to CA and back to try and sell, we ended up just keeping it anyway--great blessings on Mick Longley who put in many hours trying to help us sell the car only to have me come and take it back!

As I write this, looking back, it does not seem all that bad! I can assure you, however, it was pretty stressful for us! It was exhausting trying to figure out what to do to make ends meet. The refinance process was grueling as every time we met requirements, the bank decided they wanted something else from us. In all, I made three marathon non-stop drives to CA which worked me over in the sleep department--Starbucks double shots and audio books literally saved my life!

When the refinance finally went through and I had paid off all our debt but one car payment and the house, thought we were going to get a chance to breathe a little. That brought us to about a week ago when Jenn found out that she was not going to have her teaching contract renewed at the high school.

As things stand now, we are too exhausted to panic which has probably been the greatest blessing so far.
Jenn and I sat down and decided that, not only do we not have the energy to freak out about this new development, but we wanted to choose to respond differently. We looked back at the past 14 years of our marriage and saw that we have been in situations like this on many occasions. Not only have we been through times like this, but God has always been faithful to us--we’ve always appreciated where we end up more than the place we were before. We’ve always had food to eat and a roof over our heads. We have always had good community and precious family around us. In short, we’ve decided that our best guess (and therefore what we will choose to expect) is that God will only continue in his pattern of provision and we can simply wait for him to show us where to focus our energy.

Jenn has one potential job prospect in a new program starting at the high school. I can continue working at the UPS Store and have just been offered more hours if I want them. The church is slowly getting back on it’s feet and I am expecting to be able to draw some sort of pay from it four or five months.

Blessings: There is a lot to be thankful for in the midst of this hectic season…
We are debt free--besides a car payment and our mortgage, we were able to get rid of all credit card debt which frees up our cash flow a little and helps us feel a little less “tied down”.
My job at the UPS Store is a welcome provision. There is nothing like being the pastor preaching a sermon on Sunday and then being berated by an angry customer who is being forced to spend all their eBay earnings on shipping on Monday! My hours there will also still allow me to guide raft trips a little this summer.
Jennifer took her competition cheer squad to the national competition in LA and they took3rd in their division. To put this in perspective, the team that took first had gone to ten competitions this year to prepare for the national event--Nationals was the third competition ever for Jenn’s girls!
There is some really cool stuff going on with church which I’ll talk about later
My sister has made some amazing progress in her recovery. I think AA is one of the best vehicles for Christ to impact people ever and I’m so proud of her for working hard and not giving up. It has been good to have her in town and get to spend time with her. In our adult life, I have not ever been close enough to her to be able to grab breakfast or coffee. I love it.
My brother and I are staying in touch even though he is still in CA working for Google. I am incredibly proud of his success there and am enjoying having a relationship with him as well.
Oscar and Piper are amazing little beings. OJ and I have almost made it through the entire Star Wars series of movies and he is proving to be a good Padawan. Piper is an artist--I love her spirit and we often sit in coffee shops and draw pictures in these weird stream of conscious doodle conversations.
I love my wife. Jenn has proven to be a fantastic partner and a great mom. I love the way she takes care of our kids. She spends hours reading to them and teaching them how to be good humans--which really balances out the bizarre ways I have been twisting their minds!
I have some good friends. There are guys I have in my life who I can smoke pipe with and ponder the universe as well as men who I can make myself accountable to and a great group of guys who meet for “Pub Church” every week to discuss matters of the Kingdom--beer in hand.
To top it all off, I’ve managed to lose about 35lbs over the last couple months (no in any unhealthy way) which makes me feel much healthier and hasn’t hurt my love life either!

Anyway, this should catch everyone up on the life stuff for us. I’m excited to get you all up to speed on the church stuff too!