progress on the job front

Our hunt for income continues, but we've gotten some good news the past few days.

First of all, the family I'll be babysitting for contacted me earlier this week with news that the current babysitter, who's expecting twins this summer, was put on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy due to high blood pressure. While I'm sure this is frustrating for her, it means that I'll start two weeks earlier than expected - and my first full day is Tuesday! They were hoping to have me come a few more times for some "half days" before I jumped in to an 8 hour day, but that's not an option anymore...so, Tuesday, here we come. It's a relief to know that at least some income is headed our way sooner rather than later.

In other news, we've sorta been in process with a church looking for some leadership help in worship. We've gone to visit a few times already, and were so welcomed and genuinely "loved-on" - the church and the people in it have already found a spot in our hearts, I think. And, believe it or not, they already asked us to play in the worship band on Easter Sunday - which marked our third time of attending a service there! Crazy. Anyway, we went there initially because we were told they were looking for musicians/worship leaders and were told to send our resumes, etc. So, we did, and the process began. We met with the senior pastor and the pastor of ministries over lunch today, when we found out that they weren't really able to offer a staff position at this time, but they're definitely needing more support on the leadership front. The past few years, they have 2 committed leaders, but it's not their main job, so a lot of the planning tends to fall on the pastor and especially his wife - which they enjoy, but they're doing more than they'd like. So, they offered the possibility of pulling us on board to help fill out the gaps, at least, for a stipend pay for each service we'd lead. Which would be great for us - we've both been longing for a church that we could really call a church home - where we could really get involved and build relationships and all that good stuff. And this seems like a great place for us to do that. They mentioned some other areas of their ministry where they'd love some extra help - some worship-related, and some more community development related, but all of them would be great experience for me, especially given my masters program! And, Jeremy, too, of course. Since most of their worship people are only able to help out on a volunteer level or, if they're on "contract", they've still got lots of other things happening during the week, they've got some gaps which they were hoping we could fill. And, the pastor of ministries even said, "We don't want to lose you!" at one point, so I think they're glad to have us stick around. (And we are too!) And, while it wouldn't help pay the bills as well as a staff position would, it still helps us financially - anything is better than the nothing we've had so far! - and it gives us some great experience during our seminary training. Not to mention, I'll need some internships later on in my degree, and it will be much easier to figure that out when I have a church I'm committed to and involved in rather than a church I just go to and disappear every Sunday... So, it's good news.

Thanks for all the prayers and support everyone's given us before. I was reminded the other day just how powerful prayer really is as an agent of change - our God is good and his mercy endures forever.