Cont'd from 5/31...
The rest of the week was spent meeting people, sightseeing and lots of talking to Phil (GEM) and Kevin (Crosspoint) about ministry opportunities.
Now when we began this trip, we really felt that we didn't want to leave the Calvary circle. We had served in a Calvary Chapel for 14 years. We felt comfortable with the doctrine, liked the style of ministry. In short, we thought that if we went with GEM we would be abandoning Calvary Chapel, and we weren't sure we were ready to do that.
The reason we took this trip to begin with was to clarify the options we had and discover the direction we were supposed to move. By the time we left, however, we were as confused as ever. We arrived home on a Monday, so Tuesday night, Beth and I sat down and made a couple of lists -- pros and cons of going with Crosspoint and pros and cons of going with GEM. While Crosspoint would have been new and exciting and a way for us to remain directly connected with Calvary Chapel, it seemed that it would be basically the same type of ministry that we had been doing the past 14 years. With GEM, it was obvious that this was the next step in our ministry -- using what God had taught us all these years to encourage, mentor, resource and equip the church in Ireland. Based upon our time with Phil, it was obvious that this would be a broad-based ministry with many facets. Once we made the decision a great peace filled us and we knew it was right.
What we have discovered since then is that GEM has worked with some Calvary Chapel people in Ireland, so that connection remains.
This was November 16. We decided to wait and pray about it before we made a firm commitment. By the time Christmas arrived, we began to realize that we should go ahead and send in our formal application. We contacted GEM and discovered that if we could get our applications to them by January 1, that they could approve them in just a few days and then we would qualify to go to Orientation in Colorado Springs February 5-12.
Somewhere around January 3 we got word that our applications had been accepted and that we were invited to attend orientation in February. So now we had four weeks to come up with about $5000!
How in the world could we come up with $5000 in a month?
To be continued...
BTW - as of today, Beth and I have been married 22 years! I couldn't have dreamed that it would be this good after all this time. Praise God for a wonderful wife and wonderful marriage.
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