all at once

This last year has been an intense time of learning for us. August 1st marked the end of my first official year of ministry. And as we reflected on the year it became clear to us that I am a round peg in a square hole. Lake Park is a good church, and I am called to be a pastor, but we just didn't seem to fit each other. I found over the last year that I am more passionate than I thought about music. I also love to preach, and teach, and lead. Yup, you guessed it, none of those were in my job description. So after a long and prayerful struggle I had to resign. I was officially done at the beginning of September so many of you know this already.

Now you may be one of those people who would not resign their position until you had a backup plan, or knew that work was ligned up for you. Not me! No sir, when I resigned there was no insulation in the walls of our living room and I had about two months left of solid renovations to sell the house. OK, I've never been accused of being smrt. To our suprise and through the grace of God, our church was very understanding and supportive. They even offered to pay me for an extra two months while we finished renovating. They really are great people.

I was not sure what the next step would be (past renovating that is) but God had seemed to be leading us in the church planting direction before we came here and I was again feeling led to pursue this area. In fact an opportunity arose in Warman for a church plant and it looked really exciting. However, there are certain personality traits and skills that a church planter needs, did I have those? Enter the Church Planting Assessment Center. Yup, off we went (on my sisters B-day) to Burnaby, BC to take an intensive three days of evaluation and testing to see if we had church planting skills. This is also why we haven't blogged about this yet.

Oh, the kids had to stay with Grandma in Martensville. Thanks Grandma, they had a blast. Lisa was there for a few days but she got the flu just when she arrived and then Grandma got sick too. Somehow they managed to care for the kids though. Another couple of weeks and we will have the kids back to normal. Thanks Grandma and Lisa. OK, back to us at the assessment.

And the results are? Not recomended. That's right, we are not church planters. But man did I learn about myself. This assessment was incredibly valuable not only for me but also for Anna. Without this assessment we probably would have tried to plant a church and it probably would have killed us, or turned us into small tasteless vegitables. A big thankyou to the Baptist General Conference of Saskatchewan for sending us to this assessment and covering the cost (Lake Park actually covered the flights, thanks again guys). It was expensive but it saved us both money in the long run and was very valuable for me as a pastor. Thank you.

As a bonus from the flight to Burnaby we stayed an extra day at Annas parents place and got to see the family once again. Without kids though, sorry guys. It was great to catch up and see everybody, thanks for your hospitality Mom and Dad.

So as of right now I only know a few things for certain. God is good and He will lead and guide us, I'm doing hardwood this week, and we are still wanting to sell our house in November. After that, who knows. Please pray for us as we look for a place where I can be the man God has made me to be. I know everything is in His timing and He always works things out for us, but He always saves it to the last minute too.

So if anyone knows of a pastoral position or a place to live or wants to buy our house just give us a call. On a lighter note, we did sell the Lumina, so miricales can happen. We just got a new CD of Third Day and we have made the song Revelation our theme song for the next couple months. Check it out. Thanks for reading and catching up with us.



Tim Sawatzky