and the great thing is, i'm writing this at the end of the greatest day i've ever had as a worship leader. at our campus alone we had over 865 people and 47 salvations in one day. mind you that just a month ago we were in the mid-500's. our church as a whole saw over 14,000 people and 516 salvations. THIS IS PROOF that Jesus changes lives through salvation and the hearing of the gospel... but as in my short story here, what i love about the gospel and the power of Jesus is that he continues to radically change our lives in so many ways even after meeting him.
so.... back in march cindy emailed anna, another photographer in florida, about some great shots she had gotten, basically just to tell her how much she enjoyed her photography (which randomly emailing someone is something that cindy doesn't normally do). shortly after, they struck up a casual ichat friendship, where they quickly realized how much they actually had in common. one evening while chatting online, anna and cindy started talking about the fact that their husbands were both in ministry, and so cindy told her where i worked and anna told cindy about her husband brett's job as a children's minister in starke, florida. (actually a town i used to pass through nearly every other week traveling to anthem church). after talking, anna gave brett my contact info, and we connected shortly after. after sharing stories and talking through the ups and downs of being in ministry, we got to know each other through face to face ichat for a few weeks, to which i loved being able to encourage him in his ministry in florida (at the time he was juggling children's ministry, youth ministry, and leading the student worship band...geez).
in april we were invited to go to charleston w/ the weavers, which really gave a great chance for cindy and anna to hang out and talk about stuff that both moms and photographers talk about, and i had more of a chance to hear about brett's ministry and where he felt God was leading him...
well, about a week later, he resigned from his position in florida, feeling that God had done some amazing things in their time there, but that it was time to move on. the big thing that i saw first hand was that i saw God move brett from feeling like he HAD to be in a vocational ministry position, to a desire to simply serve voluntarily in a church that was doing radical and life changing things for the Kingdom. and as you probably guessed, they knew newspring was that place....
fast forward to july... the weavers packed up their stuff, with no jobs on the horizon, and moved to columbia to serve in whatever capacity they could. what happened from there was nothing short of watching Jesus work out his plan in the life of a family. the thing i joke about with brett, is that as great as our friendship is, i NEVER fought or pushed his name that much around newspring, i simply wanted to let God work in his own way and in his own timing, which is the exact thing that brett has said from the beginning, that no matter where they ended up, he just wanted to be able to step back and see what God has done.
all at the same time this was going on, john shelton, our awesome children's minister at the time, was in the process of transitioning to discipleship pastor, which is TOTALLY his niche. he'll be equipping small groups and getting to do what he loves most, ministering to our people on such a personal level and helping them grow in their walk with Jesus.
so.... after MANY lunches, interviews, and days of shadowing, a little more than a week ago brett was hired as our children's minister in columbia.
i think brett would tell you that his life has been changed.
Jesus is so good.
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