Not as easy as it looks

Over two decades ago, I answered a call to God.  Left a promising career in information technology to pursue whatever God called me to and wherever He called me to go.  It took this young family from Easley, SC, to Tigerville, SC, for nine months and then to New Orleans, LA, for three years.  CULTURE SHOCK!!  It would be bad enough to move from Easley to the Big Easy, but from TIGERVILLE???  Wow.  And that is an understatement.

God led us from North Greenville College (now UNIVERSITY) to the Gentilly area of New Orleans East and the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.  Any time I tell natives I lived in New Orleans East, they look twice at me and the respect level goes up!!  It was FAR from an “easy” place to be!!

Diana, Krissy, and I moved down there with little more than the promise that God was calling us down there and HE was in control.  And it was one of the greatest times in my life!!  We saw His hand working DAILY in our survival!!  Nothing will ever replace that experience.

Over the past few weeks (and especially the last two), circumstances have me and several other staff members working hard with the Youth Council to continue youth ministry.  We have been without a youth pastor since early October, and the natives are getting restless.  And so are all of us!!  I can assure you that all of this job is not as easy as it looks … and if you thought Justin, or Wes, or Sidney, or any other youth minister at Ebenezer in years past DID NOT work hard — YOU ARE WRONG.  And I am reminded of that RIGHT NOW.

But, with all of that written, there is one more truth to share in this blog entry:  I AM CONFIDENT that GOD has the PERFECT PERSON to be our next youth pastor.  And I am also confident that the best thing we can do is BE PATIENT and WAIT ON GOD.  Rest assured that we and the personnel team are working as hard as God will allow us to work on this!!    And we are dedicated to getting it right … not just putting a warm body in the job.

And I guess my time in New Orleans taught me this:  God WILL NOT FORSAKE US.  He has a plan.  Wait on Him.  Encourage your youth (if you have any) to do the same.  I promise if we wait on Him and get it right, it will be WELL WORTH the wait!!!