Of course the back story is much longer than that, so allow me to give you a few details. About a year ago I (Bob) began to wonder if I should pursue another line of work (I’m a computer programmer), perhaps in Christian ministry. For the past couple years God has grown in our hearts a desire to serve him more and more, specifically in outreach and evangelism through the local church. If you know me well, you know that this is not something I am prone to do, but as we prayed, God used us in small and big ways and grew our desire to serve him more.

So we started to pray and seek wisdom from others. I was then given opportunities to participate in more ministry at our church, specifically preaching Sunday morning sermons. The Lord blessed that time and much to our amazement we felt a stronger call to such work, and perhaps toward pastoral work. God so orchestrated various events that it became clearer and clearer, so we were thinking about attending seminary. We set our sights toward New England, where there’s a good seminary, and where I visited every summer growing up. We also learned that by percentage, there are very few Christians in that part of the country.

Then an unusual opportunity came up, where I could take part in a new “seminary alternative” at a church in our denomination up north. I would keep my “day job” and transfer to our office in Portland, Maine, while taking part in practical and theological training for the next 8 years or so. This would be at Christ the Redeemer church in Portland, where they are establishing a church planting and pastoral training center. So at the end of our time there, if the Lord wills I will be ordained as a church planter in northern New England. What an exciting opportunity, and the Lord has provided all along the way.
We are now on the doorstep of the biggest part of the plan so far: our house is under contract to sell at the end of April, and we are shopping for a new home near Portland. We are sad to leave the only home we’ve known together, and overwhelmed at times with all the details ahead. But we know the Lord is with us and His promises are good.

So will you pray for us? We are gathering a prayer-supporter team. We send out regular updates with prayer requests and praises, and ask you to pray for us regularly. If you’re interested, please sign up here: http://bit.ly/fafsWM

The big news for this week is that our house is officially for sale. (here’s a link if you’d like to see: http://bit.ly/hHwt71) Please pray that the Lord will send the right buyers at the right time, and we hope that will be soon.

Again let me emphasize that we are so thankful for each of you. As of now we have 40 individuals and families signed up to pray for us regularly. That is so encouraging! As we were reminded yesterday at our missions conference in church, it is “only God who gives the growth” (http://esv.to/1Co3.5-9) even as we are called to plant and water. It is so good to be “God’s fellow workers” with you, so keep planting and watering with your prayers, your words and your good works and trust that God will give the growth. He is good!

We can expect and we must expect to wield the power of the Spirit. It is a sin for God’s servants not to expect the power of the Spirit. Shirking responsibility because we do not expect God to act through us with the power of the Spirit is a great sin. The Bible calls it fear.

 
Here’s the plan:
They have invited us up to take part in a new program of mentored ministry training. In short, I will be keeping my day job with Unum, transferring up to our office in Portland, and I will be trained in church planting in New England for approximately 8 years (in lieu of formal seminary). This will involve mentoring and training both in practical matters as well as theological study, etc, all while we get to know the people of the area. God willing, after the training we will be ready to plant a church in New England (the Northern New England presbytery has a comprehensive plan for church planting in the region). We are ready to go as soon as our house sells, and it will be on the market soon (tell your friends!)

 
Here’s our need from you:
We need your prayers! We don’t feel like we’re leaving you as much as being sent by you (and of course clearly led by the Lord). So as you help send us, please do so with consistent prayer. We feel like we’re being sent to the “front lines” of one of our domestic mission fields, so we need the prayers of God’s people. To that end, we’re raising a prayer support team.

If you feel so led, please sign up here: http://bit.ly/fu5dWE

Humbly yours,Bob, Michelle, Caleb, Alice, Selah and Gideon

p.s….If you’ve made it this far, allow me to be a little thought-provoking:

• Did you know that our two favorite mission sending agencies do not require their missionaries to have a particular amount of committed prayer supporters?
• What would you consider more vital to missions: money or prayer?
• God has seen fit to provide for our finances ahead of time (many thanks to Him!). But we need your prayers!

The sermon is titled “Actively Patient for Jesus’ Return”

You can listen here

The sermon is called “Jesus is determined to make his people more like himself: focused on bringing in the kingdom” (going old-school here and giving it a really long title)

You can listen here.

But this one was a little different in that we went in to be induced a week before the due date (as opposed to a few days after, as in the past), so we weren’t quite sure. So we went in early on Friday morning, anticipating that we’d be holding our baby around mid-day. We went to the nice “Women’s Pavilion” where each of the other three babies were born, so we pretty much knew what we were getting into. Except there was a problem, as indicated by another pregnant woman clutching a boppy pillow in the lobby: no room in the inn.

So instead they put us in a small triage room that all the nurses jokingly called a “closet.” But it had a bathroom, a bed and the requisite monitors to stare at, so they got things started and we hoped some folks would check out before it was time for delivery. Michelle said that I should go around offering Starbucks to anyone who would leave soon. If it was our first labor experience we might have been upset or annoyed at being in the “closet” but we were too excited to meet our baby to care much, and figured we’d be in a real room sooner or later.

It didn’t take too long for us to realize this labor wasn’t necessarily going to be quick. She was steadily measuring 3cm all morning, and there wasn’t much change even as they slowly increased the pitocin to crank the labor into gear. But things were moving along and she opted for the epidural in the morning, so we attempted to relax even as we wondered how this would work out. In the late morning I noticed at least 2 families with newborns checking out, so we finally got a room to call our own. Now that was taken care of, we were ready to meet our boy.

But still the hours passed without much change. Thankfully the baby’s vital signs were always very good, otherwise we would worried even more than we were. So we chatted for a while with our moms who were there to witness the birth. I went downstairs to get lunch, and as I sat on the edge of the parking lot outside eating my turkey sandwich, I realized I was worrying for no good reason. The birthing classes always say: every labor is different. This certainly wasn’t going to be the previous three labors, and that’s OK. We were in good hands with all the nurses and doctors, and most importantly we knew that our heavenly Father was with us.

Having let go of my initial expectations, I figured Michelle would be in labor until evening at her current rate. Around 3pm they did a usual check of her progress and she was about 3.5cm. Again the pitocin was steadily increased. Around the same time, she was having problems with her epidural, as it stopped working except for one side of her body. So she was feeling most of the force of some strong contractions, much to her dismay (she has had epidurals for all 4 labors, but most of them were toward the end of labor, so this wasn’t completely new). The epidural guy kept coming back and redosing, but to no avail. And every time she got a new dose it would mess with her blood pressure, so she threw up a few times and was nauseous.

This is where things start to get crazy, and I’m a little fuzzy on what happened when. First, backing up a little, at the previous birth, everything went so fast, and she had the epidural pretty early, that there really wasn’t much for me to do as far as being a “coach” or a support goes. I thought that was pretty weird, since the first two were pretty intense. Well, this time it was different.

While the epidural guy and the nurse were trying to figure out how to fix the epidural (or if they even could), the contractions were getting pretty hard for Michelle. She was exclaiming and otherwise vocalizing how hard it was, so the nurse would talk her through it, and I was doing my best to calm her down, figuring we still had hours to go.

Then I noticed on the monitor that there were three hard contractions in quick succession (Michelle didn’t need a monitor to tell her this) and I figured it was the pitocin finally kicking in fully (my memory from our birthing class over six years ago failed me, as I forgot what this really meant). This really set her off, and not long after she was talking about needing to push. Of course the nurses didn’t believe her, as you need to be 10cm to start pushing, not 3.5cm. So they checked her, and sure enough she had progressed very rapidly, and she really was at 10cm! That’s when the chaos started, as no one was quite ready for this baby to come (much like our previous baby). Michelle was really upset from the pain, and I tried to calm her, but she would have none of it. Most of the birthing team arrived soon enough, including a resident, but not the doctor yet (I counted 10 people total). Just as Michelle exclaimed that she couldn’t do this anymore, the head nurse told her that she didn’t have to: the hard part was over. As everyone got ready, I saw the top of our son’s head, and in a tearful whisper while we grasped hands, I told Michelle that I saw him. I think she finally realized we were about to see our boy, at long last. With just one push from Michelle, the resident helped deliver his head, and the doctor got there in time to catch the rest of him. After just a couple eternal seconds, Gideon took his first breath and started that unmistakable newborn cry. The doctor handed me the scissors, and after making sure to get Gideon’s wiggly foot out of the way, I got to cut the cord, and we all joined his cries for joy.

This would usually be the end of the birth story, but this one has an especially sweet ending. One of Michelle’s good friends was the head baby nurse that day, and she made sure to honor Michelle’s desire to hold her baby immediately after birth. Of course the nurse was right there to dry him off and make sure he was OK, but Michelle got to hold him closely for quite a while (all the other births they whisked the kid away for shots and footprints and poor mama is left trying to even see her new child across the room). Michelle and I wept for joy even more at this special gift, and Gideon calmed right down and enjoyed snuggling with his loving mama.

more pics here

As for the details:

Gideon (mighty warrior — from the Bible hero in the book of Judges)
David (beloved – after his grandfather and great-grandfather, also from the Bible hero)

Born 9/17 at 4:33pm
8lb, 1oz
21” long
Dark blue eyes, reddish complexion, short dark hair

The sermon is titled “Jesus Keeps His People Safe” and by the way, it was the  first time I ever preached.

You can listen here: http://stelmopres.org/media/sermons/SEPC-2010-05-30.mp3

some songs just make me stop in my tracks and listen intently, like watching a beautiful and mysterious bird sing its little heart out, while (if you’ll forgive a little melodrama) perhaps a tear is shed for the sheer loveliness of it all.

songs like “Hidden Place” by Sandra McCracken (whose new album will be released shortly, and I highly recommend you go get it here). and if a tear may be shed for the beauty of the music, when the emotions of the poetry are thrown in, all bets are off. even so, few songs can make me cry (like Sufjan’s version of “Holy Holy Holy”, and his “Casimir Pulaski Day”, as well as the last verse of “In Christ Alone”, and some Edgar Meyer stuff if I’m in the right mood).

of course this particular song hit me and Michelle at the exact right time. we’re pregnant with our 4th child (in case you haven’t heard!), and she hasn’t felt well at all for most of the year. while thankful for the untold blessing of another baby, we haven’t done particularly well with her feeling sick and tired most of the time.  right on the heels of a really good year of God working on us and through us at our little church and neighborhood, we’ve lately been experiencing the chaos and loneliness of “survival mode.” yet it is true that God uses the hard times to really teach us, and I’ve been learning more and more about my great need for Him at all times, and how unconditional His love in Jesus is.

but I came here to talk about a song. listen to it here: http://www.newoldhymns.com/in-feast-or-fallow/hidden-place/ in a blurb accompanying it, the songwriter says it is “…maybe one of the most personal that I have ever recorded…[written] 10 days before my daughter was born…”

one thing this lovely little song showed me is that amidst all the relational chaos and God pruning us in various ways, I’ve neglected to treasure this latest blessing. grounded firmly and based loosely on Psalm 22:9-10, the song “touches on all the wonder, the waiting, the amazing privilege it is to carry this little one, the amazing gift and favor of God it is to have children” (if Michelle doesn’t mind me quoting her).

so, while I was at work listening and shedding a discreet tear, Michelle was home listening and openly crying, for the joy that is growing in our hearts and her belly. “Who am I to have known such favor?”

thank you Ms. McCracken for opening our ears to hear.

(cross-posted on the music blog)