Our Big Transition

We have had some major life change going on in the Lowery house! Let me start from the beginning:

We have felt for several months now that the Lord was preparing us to leave First Baptist Fort Smith. We had no idea what that looked like, but we were very prayerful that the Lord would prepare our hearts and to open the doors He wanted open. Back in May, before Evie was born, Daniel got a call from our regional Baptist Association guy (Sorry Jeff I don't know you're real title, LOL) saying he had given Daniel's name to a local pastor (Russ Tyler) who was looking for an Associate Pastor. He met with him over lunch and then didn't hear anything for a while, so we figured that was that. We continued on with our lives, adjusting to being a family of four and continued to pray. 

Fast forward to Labor Day weekend. Daniel got another call from Russ. He wanted to meet for lunch again on the Tuesday after Labor Day. We continued to pray, continued to ask the Lord to open doors He wanted open and to close the ones He didn't want for us. After meeting with him, Daniel called and with awe in his voice, told me that Russ had basically offered him the job--right there on the spot! We were in complete shock to say the least. 

Things progressed pretty quickly from there. Daniel went and had an official interview with the Personnel Team and the Finance Team. After that passed, Daniel had a meeting with the head pastor at FSFBC and informed him of his new job. They were genuinely excited for us in our next step and told Daniel how much they had appreciated having him on staff the last three and a half years. They even asked him to read an official resignation letter to the church to let them know. It was our sincere hope to leave on good terms and I truly believe we did that. Daniel's last day at work was October 20th and on October 23rd, we were officially voted in at First Southern Baptist Church in Central City.

The Lord, in His loving kindness, has allowed us to stay here in Fort Smith! It wasn't His plan to move us far away and for that I am SO grateful. We get to stay here and continue the relationships we started and form new ones at our new church. We can hardly believe it! 

But of course, we can't just do one major life change...we have to do at least two. We are trying to sell our house and move closer to FSBC. Right now it is a 30 minute drive (one way) from our house in Van Buren. We would really like to move into East Fort Smith so we can drastically reduce our drive time. It has been a pain in the rear to get our house ready over these last 2 months, but we finally got it listed last Friday! If you know of anyone looking for a GREAT house in a wonderful neighborhood, send them our way! The sooner we can move the better! 

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Tutoring

Daniel got a new job! He is going to be tutoring middle school and high school students in reading and math through an organization called A-Plus Tutoring. Such a HUGE blessing for a few reasons: One, it is only going to require the same amount of time he is currently working at the dry cleaners. Two, he will be getting paid double what he makes now. Three, he is so passionate about teaching and I think this will be a great niche for him--not to mention what a great ministry opportunity to be around those kids and their families! Needless to say, we are uber excited about this! It is going to be a bit of a transition since he is trying to juggle this new job as well as finish up his job at the cleaners....not to mention his last couple of weeks in school for the semester. So if you could just be in prayer for him--that he doesn't get too overwhelmed and that God would just multiply his time so he would be able to get everything done. So that is what's new with my hubby! As far as I go, I'm just working mostly--still trying to find a full-time job in my field. Recently, I was looking into a pharmaceutical sales rep position with a company here in Louisville. Unfortunately, they had already filled it by the time I got all my stuff in, but the manager told me that he would keep my resume on file for when another position opened. Still just praying for God to lead me in the right direction, but thankful for the jobs i DO have--i get this feeling that they are teaching me things and preparing me for what's ahead. Another new thing is we have talked to the pastor at Kenwood about joining and they are going to set up a time for us to be interviewed here in the next couple of weeks. I am really looking forward to becoming a member of this church. We have been visiting for about 6 or 7 weeks now and just continue to love it more each week--the teaching is solid, the fellowship is wonderful, and we get lunch every Sunday (who doesn't love that?). 

On a lighter note, we get to see family in ONE WEEK!! Daniel's parents are coming in next Monday and are staying until Wednesday morning (we have not seen them since the day we moved up here) and then my family is coming up Wednesday afternoon/evening and staying until Sunday morning. To say we are excited is an understatement! CANNOT WAIT.

Well, that is all for now. Allow me to leave you with this:

"Let us hold tightly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful."--Hebrews 10:23