A New Stanley?

Okay so I know that most of you who read this blog (if anyone actually does) are probably expecting a weight update, but I feel I need to write this instead. I will write another blog about my weight process either later tonight or tomorrow. But what I'm about to write is on my heart, and I feel I need to share.

One of the hardest things about moving and being a Christian, is finding a new church. Our old church both Jonathan and I were quite involved. We attended bible studies, were on the worship team, and I helped with the Children's Ministry. I'm not saying this to toot my horn by any means, I am saying that I loved my church and was invested in it. My old church is small. But is it ever warm and welcoming. It's so different than any other church I went to. No judgement, no weird glances, no fake smiles, no ignoring, no cliques. They are very involved in the community, helping out with the Locke street festival (that darn slide!!!), All-Saints night, Mom to Mom sales, even praying for the streets int the surrounding neighbourhood. When Jon and I first went, one of the girls my age (who is now one of my closest friends) came up to me after service and said "Hi I'm Heather, who are you?" From there she invited us out to lunch with the other people our age (who again are some of our closest friends). I miss Stanley Avenue Baptist.

Anyway, we've been here in Huntsville (Ontario, not Alabama) for just over 2 months. We've been looking for a new home church. As hard as I'm trying not to, I do compare it to Stanley. We've so far gone to three churches in the past two months, and the one I feel like I could fit in is the last one we went to. As of right now, I'm not going to mention the church names but I will say how I felt. The one church we first went to was big. I felt very out of place, and almost uncomfortable. The first service, nobody said anything to us. We left, and I was discouraged, but willing to give it another try. The following week, we went to another church since Jonathan had friends who attend there. Well, again I felt out of place and uncomfortable. It was a big church, but not as big as the other. This one I didn't like. I felt as though the Pastor was preaching AT me, as opposed to TO me. After the service, we looked for Jon's friends, but couldn't find them.Again, nobody said anything to us. This bothered me to no end. Here are new people, obviously standing there looking a little out of place, and nobody even said as much as 'hi' to us. Did I mention I miss Stanley? Well, we decided to try the first place again, since it was the closest to us, and service started at 11. (yay for sleeping in on Sunday) The second time we went, one of the ushers (older gentleman, I'd say late 60's) noticed we were new, and greeted us. He took our names and numbers and after service invited us out to lunch with his wife and 2 other couples. I thought to myself, "this is nice, we're finally going to meet some new people, and maybe we can make this our church" But that's as far as we got with that. As nice as those couples were, we STILL haven't met anyone our age. We continued to go, and still nobody said hi to us, or introduced themselves to us.

This past Thanksgiving, we went back to Burlington to visit Jonathan's parents, and went back to Stanley. I was almost overcome with a sense of defeat and sadness, with how much I truly missed this church, and how I didn't think we would find a church here in Huntsville.We expressed our concern to Jonathan's dad, and he mentioned another church that was a little smaller, but it was good. So this past Sunday, we went there. It is a smaller church, but it was a sweet church (if that makes sense). People said good morning to us, greeted us, and after service people came up to talk to us. The Pastor came out to talk to us (he knew Jon's dad, who is also a pastor) and was genuinely happy to see us there. We filled out a visitor card, and later that afternoon, I had a voicemail from one of the girls inviting us to the young adults group this upcoming Wednesday. She sounded genuinely excited to see us that Sunday, and she really seemed like she wants us to come out on Wednesday. So, we're going to go and check it out. I'm actually really excited about it too. I really hope and pray this will be our new Stanley.

But to my family at Stanley, no other church can replace you at all.

A New Beginning

This past weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving. I love this time of year. I love the fall colours, the smell in the air, time with family, and of course Thanksgiving turkey dinner with all the trimmings. (My mother-in-laws stuffing is one of the things I most look forward to) I also love Thanksgiving because it gives me a chance to really think about what I'm thankful for, and go into specifics.

This year, I am particularly thankful for new beginnings. I am so thankful that I have a God who loves me, and has my life planned out before I was even born. I also love that I have a God who answers our prayers, and pulls us out of our valleys. A few months ago, my husband and I were in a valley. We were in a time of desperation, almost at the end of our rope. We prayed and cried out to God for a change, a new beginning. And boy did He provide! Within the time span of 3 weeks, my hubby had 2 interviews, a job offer, and we found a new place and moved 3 hours north. We thank God everyday for this blessing, and we are so beyond grateful that He has answered our prayer, and shown us His plan for us all at the same time. We have a new place with an amazing view, Jonathan has a new job that he loves, and we're in a better place within our marriage. We're happier, more relaxed, and just in a word....thankful.