My Lord...Where there's His will; He will make a way.

I had been raised catholic my whole life, but always had so many questions. As a matter of fact, I was kicked out of CCD (catholic bible study) when I was in 1st or 2nd grade because of my relentless questions. Hilarious...I know!

Anyway, when Rick and my dad became friends; they went on several hunting trips in Rick's hometown. On one particular hunting trip, Rick's family invited my parents to their church, Fellowship Baptist Church, in Galatia. My dad, being catholic his entire life was a bit apprehensive, but manners and a fear of hurting his friends won out and my parents attended the service. From that moment on, all of our lives took a turn down God's path or the path he had for us. It is from that point that we can almost make a road map of the happenings that brought Rick and I together as husband and wife. Most important of all though is that my dad accepted Christ, then Trystan, my sister, my mom, and last but not least me.

In the meantime, our family found our wonderful church, First Baptist Church of Morrisonville. We joined the church and tried to serve in whatever capacity that we could. Shortly after we joined the church Rick confided in me that he really felt like he was called to be a preacher and boy was I blown away. I was like "Hey, that's great for you, but I don't think I'm cut out to be a pastor's wife. But where you go, I go." After doing some research and speaking to a few pastors, Rick soon came to find that because of his divorce, it would be against scripture for him to be in the role of a pastor or a deacon over a church. Scripture says that pastors and deacons are to be men of one wife. Now, this can be interpreted in a different way because in that time it was common for men to have several wives, but Rick feels that the scripture is pretty clear...one wife = one wife.

I was disturbed by this because I felt that maybe he wasn't able to fulfill God's plan for him because he married me, but the wonderful husband that Rick is, comforted me and assured me that I am his chosen wife by God and it was his mistake by not waiting for me that has placed this restriction on him. Of course, I still felt bad about the situation but I really liked his answer. And together we accepted the restriction and prayed for a way to serve.

After a year of helping out here and there, Rick and I were asked to be permanent helpers in the Teen Youth Group. We have been serving and learning under the Asst. Pastor and his wife for almost four years now. While the teens are challenging due to the issues that they face everyday and the huge temptations that they struggle with, we were happy and contented there. They were all with us as we learned, when we lost Jacob, and as we continued on in grief. They saw us come out of it and find joy in what God has given and taken away. They were a very large part of our lives and we loved them.

About 5 or 6 months ago Rick began praying about serving in a larger capacity and being given more opportunities to teach God's word. I joined his cause in prayer about 3 months ago. I just really feel that Rick has such a burden for people and their souls and that he has so much to offer. We never mentioned any of this to anyone and we really had no idea how or even if this prayer would be answered. Since I started my blog, I've been trying to convince him to start one too. He is always coming home and saying that he preached a really good message in his mind. So I'm trying to get him to put the messages to electronic paper because you don't have to be a pastor of a church to preach a message that will help someone, but he hasn't taken the step yet. However, he did write a salvation message which we put into a brochure format. You will find the link to it on my side bar under "Are you sure where your eternity lies?" and it would be great if you would check it out and let us know what you think.

So last Sunday, when our Asst. Pastor came to Rick and told him that our Pastor had been praying for several months for a couple to take over the Kings Kids ministry, Rick automatically assumed the he and his wife would be moving into that role and the we would continue on helping whoever moved into the Teens role. So imagine Rick's surprise when Asst. Pastor said that Rick and I were the couple that had been brought to their minds several times over the last months. AND they wanted to know if we accepted the position if we could start the next Wednesday...yes yesterday.

Ok, so Rick was shocked and excited, but I was flabbergasted. Our Pastor has been sick with mono and had to have his gallbladder removed so has been out of services for going on 2 weeks, and when Rick told me that they wanted us to do the Wednesday service, I thought he meant just to fill in until Pastor returns to which Rick said "No, it would be our ministry...we would be taking over the Kings Kids Ministry...permanently" I just kind of sat there and tried to process the information. First I was like...you mean the smaller kids?? (If you don't understand why I say that, you should go back a read my last post!!) Then I said, "We, can't say No, God just answered our prayers". So we accepted the offer!!!

Don't get me wrong, it isn't that we weren't excited, but it just wasn't the answer that we thought we'd get. We really thought we would be with the teens and possibly take that group over sometime in the future. And it is a bitter sweet transition into a ministry of our own where we have control of ...everything from a role of limited control but great fellowship with Asst. Pastor & his wife and all of the teens. And it happened fast only 2 days before our first night and that isn't a lot of time.

Last night was the first night of us taking over and it went off without a hitch. There are normally 50+ 2nd through 6th graders, but we only had 35 due to the local town picnic / carnival. We had been warned that 90% of the kids are community kids and usually have not so good behavior. We had ZERO problems with the kids. They listened during the lesson, participated in all of the activities, and left with smiles on their faces. It was absolutely wonderful and Rick did a great job teaching the message. We also have several workers that are helping us pull everything together and make everything flow, so we are blessed in that aspect as well. If anyone has any tips, tricks, or fun activities to share, please leave a comment or e-mail me at rachicken@consolidated.net.

Last night, after we got home, I just sat on our bed and told Rick that I need to find a way to take the picture that I had painted in my mind of my life and how it was going to turn out and throw it out the window, never to be seen again. As of right now, the only thing that I had planned and that has come to pass is marrying a wonderful man. I didn't plan to have a child out of wedlock and be a single mother, or marry a guy with three kids who feels a need to be a preacher, or deal with an evil ex-wife, or apologize to said evil ex-wife, or to loose a beautiful child only 7 days before his expected birth, or to be blogging about said unplanned life, nor did I ever expect that we would be running a children's ministry. But I wouldn't trade this life in for the imagined life if I was given the chance...well maybe the evil ex-wife...but who's keeping track!!

Where God has a will, He will make a way. We never thought we would be able to handle loosing a child, we are handling it. We never thought we would work in a youth ministry, we did. We definitely didn't think we would be offered a children's ministry of our own, were were. And we didn't think that Rick would be preaching or teaching God's word, but he is and now he is doing it weekly. Where God has a will, He will make a way.

PLEASE pray that everything continues to go well. It is my experience that with change comes resistance and we have already met with some resistance since last night. The change took place very quickly since our Pastor is still recovering from surgery and isn't present in the church. And while we were not looking for a specific position to move into, there usually is a person or persons who have their eyes on a job or position if there is a future opening and ultimately they are either hurt or angry that they don't get asked to fill the position. That is a prime situation for Satan to work and cause a problems or even to split a church. So we are praying and I am asking you to pray that God's will is done and that the decisions are accepted even if the preferred notification process didn't take place.

I feel that God does have plans for us and that this blog and our new ministry will groom us and teach us what we need to know so that we will be ready when God opens His next door. Eventually, I hope that God opens the door for me to either write or contribute to a Christian book of some kind, that I may be able to speak and tell our story in other Christian venues, and that Rick would also be able to speak at conferences or as a guest speaker in other churches or Christian venues. I pray that these are desires that God has placed in my heart and that they are not self-serving. Starting this blog and seeing the response that has been shown has only encouraged me to continue to pray that God will open the doors for these opportunities to serve and to help others.

Have a Blessed Day!!

April