Today Erick made the difficult announcement that he is resigning as pastor of our New Salem Assembly of God. For now, he will not be taking another pastorate, because he has been offered the opportunity to be mentored by one of the pastors at Calvary Temple in Springfield. Although we are sad about leaving our church, we are excited about the opportunities we will have there. We will miss the people at our church, who are like family to us, but know that God is in this decision and that it will be a good step for us and for our kids.
Along with the mentoring program, Calvary Temple also offered Erick a full-time job working at one of their ministries; Hope Thrift Center in Springfield. He began working there part time a couple of weeks ago and will be going full time after his last day, which will be March 22nd. It is a very nice thrift store, with high-quality merchandise.
Since Erick and I are both going to be working days now, this is going to make it difficult to continue homeschooling. However, we really do not want them to have to go to public school. Calvary Temple runs a private school, so we are praying for God's provision to put Abby, Rachel, and Timothy in their school this fall. Jay will be graduated by then, Joy will only have a year to go, and Sarah will be in her Junior year this fall, so they want to finish out their education at home and I think they will be fine doing that on their own.
It's quite a transition for us, but we really want to stay here. I have a good job here with the Illinois State Police, and there's not really any reason to move. The district leaders have invested a lot of time in Erick and me, and we feel this is where we should stay for this next season in our lives. We will probably put our house up for sale and move to Springfield, though, if God should give us the opportunity, since most of our ties will be there.
We will miss the people at New Salem Assembly. They have been like family to us, and I am thankful for the time that we have been here. God has been good to us and we feel so blessed to have been a part of this ministry.
