It's interesting how we often get the question 'what do you do all day now that you are in full-time ministry?' (which we WELCOME that question by the way) but the funny thing is, I use to have that exact same question as well. Looking back, I realize and have repented of my often wrongful thinking of what a full-time ministry schedule looks like. While everyday looks different for us, one thing is true for us all (you and us), we all go through different seasons of life right? Some are hard for a variety of reasons, some are easy, some require waiting, and some seem to piece together seamlessly. The question is - how do we respond and do we learn from each season of life?
The past couple of months have been an intense season for our family as well as our ETM teammates. The weeks leading up to our annual ETM board meeting bring about a lot of preparation and planning. The additional physical labor and hours in completing the office building added rigourously to everyone's schedule while all remained faithful to maintaining normal weekly commitments as well. We were all tested in different ways during this time as the pile of trials seemed to build up at once.
For us personally, in the midst of an intense ministry schedule, little strong-willed Jayden hit an entirely new level of defiance and disobedience in training - is that timing coincidental? I think not. Add on the physical sickness in this pregnancy and it felt like I was tackling the impossible. I will elaborate on this at another time.
While several factors have contributed to the intensity of these last couple of months and while we did well as a family and a team, I would love to share some of what we have learned from this season of life...
1. The Holy Spirit will empower me with exactly what I need each day to do my job and to do it well if I am relying on HIM as my source of strength! Boy did I experience this is an entirely new way. The days I felt like I could not function physically, I knew Father would not call me to be a wife, a mom, keeper of our home, submissive to my husband, etc., without giving me exactly what I need to do so. KNOWING and relying on this truth shifted my entire focus each day to not just thinking 'maybe I can do this' but to 'I KNOW I can do this, I have been given what I need!'
2. The Lord shed so much LIGHT in realizing that Rance and I fail miserably at quality REST. This has been something we have been aware of and occasionally circle back to but that we do not make a consistent priority in our schedule because we either do not plan for it or we allow something else to triumph in importance. We are both willing to admit that in our flesh we are prone to: 1) say yes when maybe the answer should be no (overcommitting), 2) lean towards working too much rather than working too little, 3) have a people pleasing nature, and 4) have an abundance of energy that can often times be a negative rather than a positive. While everything we are doing may be really good things, rest and refreshment after labor is God honoring. Let me say that again (to myself), the purpose of quality rest is to honor the Lord. Is this not completely counterintuitive to what we are taught or maybe what Rance and I were taught? Doesn't rest imply weakness/laziness?
Colin McDougall, our ETM president, wrote an entire model on Quality Work, Quality Rest. As I began reading back through all the Scripture references on quality work, quality rest, Sabbath, etc., I was reminded that rest is an act of faith in God, it is spiritual as well as physical, it is an act of worship, and it is essential for quality work! Not only that, God modeled it, then commanded it in Genesis 2:2-3:
"And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."
While I would I love to elaborate more on this, I will wrap this up by saying that I am grateful for the hard, intense seasons of life and what the Lord reveals during these times. Rance and I know that there is no perfect balance to our schedules in ministry but our goal is to control our schedules for the best long term use of our time and resources by making quality rest a priority while also remaining flexible to respond quickly to certain timely demands or crisis situations.
So here is to us pursuing what REST looks like for our family and how to make it a priority; afterall, we cannot have QUALITY WORK, without QUALITY REST!
And here are a few snapshots to capture a few highlights of this past month...
*ETM Team*
David & Dana Thacker, Rance & Jennifer Shuler, Ben & Jess Thacker, Jim Caminata, Janet McDougall, and Colin McDougall
*Rance blowing his shofar as this is a special way he enjoys praising Father for His faithfulness*
Introducing you to (from left to right):
Eric Price ~ Board Member, Vali ~ disciple-maker in Romania and Ohio, Steve S ~ Board Member
*Jim Caminata is a part of our ETM team committed to making disciples in Italy*
What a blessing to have these two with us at our board meeting this year as they are a BLESSING to so many from our family, to our church family, to our community, and to our ETM ministry.
Our team has quite a few JUNE Birthdays which we celebrated at the board meeting!
Jim/Ottavio from Italy and Steve S. joined with Rance's Tuesday night models group which was a JOY to have all these men together!
SKYPING weekly allows our relationship to flourish as we both grow in the Lord but being together face-to-face is out of this world PRECIOUS to my heart!
*Jayden turned TWO on June 7th and Josie turned ONE on June 14th so we celebrated with a JOINT pool party for these two kiddos*
Jayden was proud to wear orange like his daddy in celebrating Father's Day! I am a thankful wife and mom for this man as he continually pursues the Lord and strives to improve/know daily how to best lead and love our family. We are blessed indeed!
We thoroughly enjoyed our time meeting with Pastor Jeff from Florida and his son Noah last Monday. We are so grateful for the connections made through those visiting Sunday morning worship due to traveling/tourism, etc. in our county.
Hosting Sunday night Summer Family Fellowship was a JOY!
*Jayden is a great little yard helper hauling off limbs and bushes as we trimmed and caught up on yard work these last couple of weeks*
*Thank you for your love and commitment to supporting us and this ministry*
Prayer Requests:
Our ETM Board Meeting held June 6 & 7 was a refreshing time of re-connecting with our teammates and friends from around the world as we shared in God's faithfulness to the ministry and each individual over the last year and discussed how to move forward.
*ETM Team*
David & Dana Thacker, Rance & Jennifer Shuler, Ben & Jess Thacker, Jim Caminata, Janet McDougall, and Colin McDougall
*Rance blowing his shofar as this is a special way he enjoys praising Father for His faithfulness*
Introducing you to (from left to right):
Eric Price ~ Board Member, Vali ~ disciple-maker in Romania and Ohio, Steve S ~ Board Member
*Jim Caminata is a part of our ETM team committed to making disciples in Italy*
What a blessing to have these two with us at our board meeting this year as they are a BLESSING to so many from our family, to our church family, to our community, and to our ETM ministry.
Our team has quite a few JUNE Birthdays which we celebrated at the board meeting!
Jim/Ottavio from Italy and Steve S. joined with Rance's Tuesday night models group which was a JOY to have all these men together!
SKYPING weekly allows our relationship to flourish as we both grow in the Lord but being together face-to-face is out of this world PRECIOUS to my heart!
*Jayden turned TWO on June 7th and Josie turned ONE on June 14th so we celebrated with a JOINT pool party for these two kiddos*
Jayden was proud to wear orange like his daddy in celebrating Father's Day! I am a thankful wife and mom for this man as he continually pursues the Lord and strives to improve/know daily how to best lead and love our family. We are blessed indeed!
We thoroughly enjoyed our time meeting with Pastor Jeff from Florida and his son Noah last Monday. We are so grateful for the connections made through those visiting Sunday morning worship due to traveling/tourism, etc. in our county.
Hosting Sunday night Summer Family Fellowship was a JOY!
*Jayden is a great little yard helper hauling off limbs and bushes as we trimmed and caught up on yard work these last couple of weeks*
*Thank you for your love and commitment to supporting us and this ministry*
Prayer Requests:
- Wisdom as we pursue what quality REST looks like for our family and how to make it a priority in our schedules.
- Discernment in regards to when to say YES and when to say NO.
- Our everyday pursuit of knowing FATHER more.
