Why are we leaving?

What a month May turned out to be!    If you had told me in March that we would have 4 kids swimming on the swim team I would not have believed you. I had a different plan for this summer and it most definitely did not include swim team. If you told me in March that my teenage son would be anxiously anticipating a mission trip to Guatemala with me I would have fainted. Yet he is!  I am so excited about the opportunity to experience another culture with him and pour out a little sweat, and hopefully bless the missionaries a bit while we are there.  If you had told me our family would be looking for a new church back in March I would have laughed at you.  Yes belly laughed!  Yet here we are.  God's plan and mine often don't match up.  Yet what a wonderful story he is faithfully writing with my life.  If you had told me back in March that in May I would have cried more tears than I had cried since Matthew had died, and I would have learned more about scripture then I had learned in a decade, and that I would have been angrier then I remember ever being and I would have had a deeper love and respect for Randy then I had ever experienced and that I would feel homeless, and vulnerable, and afraid, and yet at perfect peace I would have been terrified.
I am so glad God reveals things in his own timing.
I am so glad that I don't know things ahead of time because I often would be too chicken!
There is grace in the moment.  He provides his perfect grace AS we need it.
There have been many changes....and it was time....and they are good.  Yet I would not have chosen them. I lacked the wisdom.  I'm so glad he has a master plan that is good.
Yet it has been painful. 
Why?
Because I'm in LOVE with soooooo many of the precious people. 
Because that building holds a LIFETIME of memories for me.
Because my kids LOVE the people and the activities.
So why are we leaving......
Nice try!  I'm not going to go into that here.  It would not be appropriate.  Yet the rumor that keeps coming back to us is that we are leaving because of the way we were treated because we had an "unpopular political stance".  Well that is not at all why we are leaving.  We aren't leaving because we are mad.  I can promise you after 25 years at a church you don't get mad or hurt or angry and leave. So if anyone tells you that is the reason we left then just know that they have not talked to us and they do not know the real reason.  They are gossiping.  We have shared the real reason with a select few that need to know.  We will not share the reason further, so don't bother asking :) Have we been hurt?  Yes.  Is that why we are leaving.  Not at all! 
We will leave it at.....It is time. 
God has clearly shown us that he has a plan and part of that plan involves us moving out of RBC and continuing on in ministry.....somewhere else.  We will worship, we will serve, and we will follow.  Where?  We don't know yet.  But we are seeking.
One blessing from us leaving is that fine men like Brad D, David B, and all the others that are stepping up in leadership.  I am so proud of them. They are excited and they have a vision for RBC and their class and I am anxious to hear wonderful reports on how the Lord uses them there.  So very proud of those guys!  If we had stayed in our role they may not have stepped into their roles.  Part of our leaving has allowed others to step up!  God is so good! 
One thing Randy and I are discovering in the process of looking for a new church home is that we have never picked out a church for our family.  Ever.  It is hard work.  It is a huge decision.  We both went to our last church as teenagers and stayed after our families had moved on in other directions.  So it has been a neat, albeit awkward, experience to try new churches.  To talk about what is important to us in a church.  To see each others priorities.  To hear what our kids like, don't like, miss, want, desire. 
So friends pray for us.  Pray we will land and plant our family exactly where the Lord desires for us to be.  We are torn in so many directions.  Help plant a church, go to a deep theologically sound church whose music is subpar, Go to a great worship service with, great preaching, where you can't really know your pastor.  Go to a home church.......Choices abound!  We don't want to rush the process and yet we are anxious to get connected.  Our hearts will always have fond, loving, wonderful memories of the years and people and events at RBC.  It is hard to say goodbye to a place and to people who have loved us so well.  I'm just thrilled that we are still in the area and still in the community and will still get to rub shoulders and share our lives with some of these most precious saints. 
So yes some things have REALLY changed over the months that I NEVER would have guessed.  However some things have remained.  I still love RBC.  I still adore the Reyner family :) (had to throw that in----that and our Sunday school class made leaving RBC almost impossible!), I still am madly in love with Randy, I still want to be exactly where God wants me, and he is still in control.  I can't even imagine what July holds.....I may just stop making plans altogether :)  naw....I can't do that!  Yet I am learning to hold on loosely.  My plans are just that.  The plans that matter most....are His!  I want to walk in his plan...daily.....wherever that leads!
Kim