Today ends the longest break ever from my Morning Devotion ministry.
The absence of words poured from my heart into your computer has not been due to complacency, I assure you.
In fact, I’ve worked 18-to 19-hour days nearly every day for the past three weeks.
What have I been doing?
Oh my.
There’s so much that could be packed into answering that question that it literally would take hours to explain. I have just a few minutes of your time, though, so I’ll keep it brief.
First, the factual stuff….
I am now the English congregation pastor for SouthWinds Christian Church in south Miami, Florida. I am incredibly blessed to be in this role as pastor/preacher/shepherd for a wonderful group of people who genuinely love the Lord and want to see His Kingdom grow. It has been a wonderful courtship between a lovely, humble congregation and myself and our recent union has already proved to be a rich blessing to me and, I pray, to the congregation.
In order to serve SouthWinds full-time, Lori and I moved to a community just north of Cutler Bay called Kendall. We were able to lease just the right place that will allow us to easily host fellowship gatherings of church members, dinner gatherings for family and friends, and “Come on over. We’d like to meet you” coffee nights with neighbors.
It’s a single-family house 12 minutes from the church that has a typical yard, a two-car garage and screened patio. After more than four years in crowded, too-small condo residences, Lori and I are thrilled to be back in the type of residence that best suits us.
I could go on and on about how God intervened to place us in this house, but I’ll simply say “Hallelujah!” for His provision of the setting and features and “Remember me” regarding His provision for the $1,800 a month rent.
Remember that we’re talking about a 1,900+-square-foot house in a nice, quiet family neighborhood in one of Miami’s better neighborhoods, complete with a huge garage that allows me to avoid renting storage space for business equipment we have to sell. Oh yeah, and the landlord takes care of the yard work.
This move three hours down the road from Sebastian, Florida was made far more challenging because of two factors.
First, Lori was unable to help me with any aspect of the move because she temporarily relocated two months ago to rural north Georgia to be with her terminally ill mom. Joyce had inoperable cancer and was awaiting her appointment with glory and we decided that Lori should accept a clinical dietitian job near Joyce’s home so that they could be together as much as possible.
In fact, Lori provided a big portion of the nursing care that her mom required before her passing last week. I’m so proud of how Lori served in that way and I’m pleased that Lori was able to spend big chunks of time with her brothers Mark, Scott and Keith as they — and Lori’s diligent sister-in-law Pattie — all cared for Joyce with respect and compassion.
It has been very difficult for Lori and me to be apart but we’re both convinced that it was the right thing to do. It might be several months before she is back with me full-time because she now has to find a suitable job in south Miami.
Lori desperately wanted to help me pack and to move, but she was doing what she needed to do and I am thankful for that.
God was with me in the process of packing 75-80 boxes and bins. Nothing was broken during the move, a personal record for me. Wow!
Thank you, Lord. Thank you, also, for the furniture-loading/unloading assistance of dear friends in Sebastian and new friends at SouthWinds Christian Church. I’m now making progress with unpacking boxes. I just have to be patient and settle for getting the house situated one room at a time.
Now for some spiritual stuff….
It has been more than two years since I was serving as a pastor and I’m now sure more than ever that this is my calling. From the first time I preached on a guest speaker basis to the folk at SouthWinds, I’ve felt a peace that was clearly beyond human origin. Multiple occasions followed with the same sentiment.
At every point in the dialogue and deliberation, I’ve been relaxed because I felt the hand of God leading me through the journey. The past couple of years have been a difficult time of shaping by the Lord’s hand, not so much in terms of squeezing filth from my life but instead in terms of stretching my understanding of who I am at the core and what struggles others are facing with economic stress, vocational uncertainty and the lack of feeling “settled” in a church home.
It almost seems now as if the Lord has called me from the wilderness and placed me in His temple so that I can minister to/through/with people who want His Kingdom to grow, first within themselves and then within their corners of the world.
It’s going to be an even greater journey in the days ahead. I look forward to sharing my discoveries with you so that you can experience vicariously the joy of serving the Lord who has set my feet on solid ministry ground.
It’s time to wrap it up for today. But please keep reading the Morning Devotions as they get back on track. For sharing them with you is the whole reason I do this.
As always, I love you
Martin
