moving on

Well. We've told our family, friends and church. I've made it facebook official. Now I need to make it blog official.

We are moving. We are moving back to Rapid City. And here is the story from beginning to end.

Rapid City is home for us.

I practically grew up at Mount Rushmore where my dad was a law enforcement ranger for 30 years and I worked for five summers. My sister still works there.

We both lived there our entire lives until college. Terry grew up outside of Sturgis but went to church in Rapid, which is where we met. That church is where I became good friends with Terry's sister Shari, where Terry and I fell in love and got married, where we served in youth and college groups, where we had our first child Noah dedicated.

(the ranch where we lived)

We left our families, friends and church to come to Nebraska so Terry could get his foot in the ministry as a youth pastor.

(this was the day we packed up our SD lives)

(packed and ready to move to Nebraska)

I often tell people flat out that I didn't want to move to Nebraska. How different things are now though! When we first came, we missed our families so very much. We missed everything and everyone. We cried every time our family visited and had to leave - like this day when Terry's family left us for the first time.

But we don't feel like that anymore. It's been nearly five years that we've been in Nebraska and we've made a home here. We love it here too. We love our new family and friends and church just like we love our SD family, friends and church. This is so bittersweet for us.

Back in September our Rapid City church's youth pastor resigned to become a senior pastor. At first we were wondering if we could take his place. But Terry quickly squashed that idea and decided that we would not apply for the position. The very next day Pastor Dave, the senior pastor, called and wanted us to consider putting our name in. At first we were still very unsure but after a couple weeks of deliberating, we decided we'd go ahead and apply and see where the process would take us, using it to determine the Lord's will. Because, you see, things were and are going so well in Nebraska and like I said, this is home now.

The church looked at 80 applicants and the process came to the place in November where they'd narrowed it down to four men. Terry was one of them. They phone interviewed all four but after Terry's interview they were sure they were interested in only him. They called the very next day to ask us to move forward.

Next we were asked to interview over Thanksgiving while we were home. We did that and it went well.

Then they asked us to candidate and that we be sure we wanted to move forward with them. So we prayed, cried and asked for all kinds of advice from people we respect and finally decided that yes, we'd candidate. We did that at the end of January.

They voted unanimously for us to come. And we accepted.

We feel this is God's will for us and we are excited. But we are also heart broken to leave our friends in Nebraska. We love them. They are lifelong friends who we will never forget. This church has taken such good care of us. Thank you Hults. Thank you Cheryl. Thank you Wardyns. We love you guys so much. We love you students.

We began telling the students, leaders and church one week ago and it feels as if we are alive for our own funeral. The amount of kind, encouraging and uplifting words we've received is completely overwhelming. Terry, a golden retriever who is kind to every one, even those who don't deserve it, especially has struggled with hurting our Nebraska church family. This was such a hard decision to make because we knew these days were ahead of us. And now they are here. It's really tough.

And yet we still feel this is right for us and we are at peace with our decision (until we see you cry). We just wish we could somehow combine the two churches. So please visit us G-burgers. Come to Hills Alive. Come to Terry Peak. Come and see us. We hold you in our hearts.

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” Philippians 1:3-11.