Well, it's been a few weeks and I haven't been able to keep eveyone up to date on what's been happening with the Baxters. The short version is.....
God is Awesome!
The long version starts the week before Graduation so I'll travel back in time to May 8th.
May 8th was a Thursday night. We have youth group on Thursday nights so we don't get home until about 9pm. Around 9:30 Matt's cell phone rings and it's his academic advisor at Moody. He told Matt a church in Arkansas had contacted him looking for a Youth Pastor, explained what they were looking for, and wanted to know if he knew anyone he'd recommend. He and the head of the Youth department discussed who they thought would be a good fit and they both thought of Matt. So he was calling to see if it would be OK to forward Matt's resume to the church in AR. Both of these men knew that Matt had interviewed at Grove Level in Dalton so they weren't sure if he'd be willing to check out this other church. Well, at that time it had been a few weeks since we'd been to Grove Level and we hadn't heard anything back from them. We thought it had gone well and were quite disappointed but knew we needed to press on and keep looking for the church where God wanted Matt (us) to serve. Matt got off the phone and told me and my first gut reaction was (and I was screaming internally) "NO! NO! NO! God, I want to go HOME! I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO ARKANSAS!!" Just imagine a child pitchin' a fit in the floor - kicking and screaming. That's what I was doing on the inside. Externally, I just got really quiet and left the room to wash bottles for the next day. I just needed something to do to keep my hands busy. I wanted to be by myself and think this over, but Matt followed me to the kitchen and kept asking what was wrong. I kept telling him, "nothing" but was really just trying to get him to go away until I was ready to talk. But he persisted. It took me about 15 minutes of internally wrestling with God, while Matt hovered nearby asking again and again what was wrong and what I was thinking. I finally looked up from washing the bottles and said, "you know, I really can't say I love Jesus and will follow Him anywhere unless I am willing to go where He wants me to go. Call him back and tell him it's OK to send your resume to that church."
The next few days were a whirl wind. Friday, Matt's advisor contacted the church. Monday the church contacted Matt. They talked on the phone for a couple of hours and scheduled another phone interview with the youth pastor at the church for Tuesday. Tuesday Matt talked to the current Youth Pastor for over an hour and by Wednesday they had booked him a flight to Little Rock for the following Saturday through Thursday! It was crazy! There are many, many details and little things that really led us to believe that we'd be heading to Arkansas. I told several people that I wouldn't be surprised if he came back with a job offer but we both were wrong. Just wait for the rest of the story. On a side note, thank goodness Matt didn't have to do any finals because he was in Arkansas the entire week of finals!
When I would ask him how it was going and whether he felt this was "the one" he was evasive. Matt's response was, "I felt indifferent. It's a great church with great people and great things going on but I don't 'feel' anything here. I don't feel excited about what I can do for God here. I just can't explain it..." So he returned on Thursday feeling like he'd wasted a week of their time (as well as his) and their money. He asked me to start searching for more youth pastor openings, so I did. By that afternoon, I had about 10 possibilities to present to him. Keep in mind it had been about 5 or 6 weeks since we'd heard from Grove Level. Before I left work for the day, I checked Matt's email to see if he needed to take care of anything before Graduation rehearsal on Friday, etc and lo and behold what do I find there? It was an email from the head of the search committee at Grove Level. It was short but basically said, "Sorry we haven't contacted you before now and that we are taking so long to come to a decision. Please don't be discouraged." We did not know what to think of this email. This was Thursday the 15th.
Graduation was Saturday the 17th. It was a crazy day! We almost didn't make it in time because of the crazy traffic here. They had the stinkin' interstate down to 1 lane on the Express lanes of the Dan Ryan. Now, mind you, we had been listening to traffic updates for about 30 minutes since we had left the house and they NEVER said a word about those lanes being shut down. All the while we sat there watching the traffic on the Local lanes zip by while we were stuck - separated by a huge concrete wall which prevented us from getting on the Locals. What a helpless feeling! I kept telling Matt to put his emergency flashers on and drive up the median until he could merge onto the Locals. Patience is not one of my virtues nor is it a spiritual gift I have. Well, we did make it with just enough time for Matt to get lined up and us to find seats. Anyway, during the ceremony Matt texted me and said "CBridges just texted me." I wrote back, "what did he say?" and all I got was "I'll tell you later." Well, excuse me! If he was going to tell me later, why didn't he just wait until after the ceremony? Now, I had to sit there through the rest of the ceremony wondering what in the world "CBridges" had to say. For those of you who don't know, "CBridges" is the Senior Pastor of Grove Level. Let me also say that Chip Ingram spoke at Matt's graduation and it was great and all but someone should have told him to keep it short - like under 15 minutes because there were over 500 graduates, Moody Church was packed, it was hot as blazes in that balcony, and I had a 3 year old and a 5 month old with me. I know it's not all about me but have you ever tried to keep a 3 year old and a 5 month old entertained for 2 and a half hours during a graduation ceremony? Avery was great until the very end. She watched DVD's with headphones contently until her snacks ran out and then she kept telling me she was hungry and wanted lunch. Rather loudly I might add. Titus was amazing. We brought our friend Jessica to help out with the kids and she took him down by an open door where there was a nice breeze blowing in and he fell asleep. When he woke up we fed him and he just sat contentedly watching his sister watching her DVDs. Praise God for such a laid back little guy! He cried a little before he fell asleep and after he woke up because he was hungry but other than that he was great. By the time they both started to get fussy, the whole thing was almost over and I didn't care anymore if they were quiet. I was feeling fussy too! We ended the afternoon with lunch at Maggiano's. It was delicious! Oh, and the text message said, "Congratulations! We'll talk next week."
Now, on to Sunday the 18th. When Matt got to church to do his usuall "intern" duties like bringing donuts, setting up chairs, etc, the youth pastor pulled him aside and informed him that someone from Grove Level had contacted him the previous week to get a reference on Matt. You really have to know Pastor Jim to understand just how funny these next statements are so let me try to give you a mental image of him. He is a martial arts expert, he is a big man from Philly that always speaks his mind, and is not afraid of confrontation so all around he can be an intimidating person. He just has this presence, even when you are talking with him on the phone. He is also pretty funny and has a somewhat boyishness when he thinks he's done something sneaky, etc. He'll just grin this funny grin and bob his head up and down. So, he told Matt that he gave him an outstanding recommendation and, I quote, "you guys should know that he's had several churches looking at him very seriously so if you want him then you need to do something quickly." He said this while he was just nodding and grinning at Matt. When Matt told me this, I laughed out loud and then we both said that this explained the email and text message he got.
Monday, May 19th, Matt got a call from Pastor Bridges. Basically, they felt that God had confirmed that Matt was the one for their church and wanted him to come back to Grove Level to be presented to the congregation and allow the congregation to vote. WOW! When Matt told me everything that had been said all I could do was sit in amazement (while I was rocking and feeding Titus before bedtime) and ask, "Really, God? Are you going to allow us to go home?" I cried, I prayed, I sang "Bless the Lord! Oh my soul and all that is within me bless is holy name!" in my head over and over while I cried and prayed. It was unbelievable to me. It looked like we were actually going HOME! All that was left was a vote! Well, it turned out not to be just a vote. Bear with me we are on the home stretch now.
Thursday May 29th we loaded up a rental mini-van with ourselves, our luggage, two kids, and a bulldog and headed down to good ol' Rocky Face, GA. Almost sounds like an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies! On Friday, Matt met with the church staff and other pastors, etc. all day long. Saturday we both had to be at the church. He met with the Deacons, then we had dinner with some of the parent/leaders and people from the search committee. We then met some parents of the kids and had a time for questions, etc from parents. Then Matt had to give a 15 to 20 minute message and have an activity for some kids. He had no idea how many kids would be there he was just told anywhere from 7 to 30 kids. We were there about 5 hours. It was exhausting and we still had Sunday to go. On Sunday, Matt had to be at the first Sunday School at 8 am. The 2nd Sunday School and 1st Service are at 9:30 and we had to be at both so I got there at 9 to drop the kids off in their respective classes. Avery had a melt down and would not go into the 3 yr old class. I'm just thinking to myself, please not today, Avery. This is such an important day we need to at least appear to be good parents with good kids. Avery NEVER refuses to go to class (but she's always been with the same people for 3 years. Everyone at Bethel knows Avery Baxter - she's the life of the party) but this day she refused and I had to take her to the 2 year old class. Oh it was so stressful. We were introduced to the kids during the second sunday school and were then taken to the 1st service where Matt had to give his testimony to the congregation, we were both introduced, the Pastor prayed and then the congregation voted by ballot. Then we went back to the Sunday school class (back to our element with the kids) for question and answer time. Then we had to repeat the whole thing in the 2nd Service. It was nerve racking. Did I tell you it was pouring down rain? Oh my had the flood gates been opened. To top it all off, not only did have to get myself and 2 kids ready for church on my own but I also had to worry about how in the world I was going to get 2 kids and myself into the church during a monsoon without looking like a drowned rat on the day the church is to vote on hiring my husband. I could just hear the comments in my head, "yeah he seemed nice but did you see his wife...?" Anyway, we persevered and made it through the meetings and the vote.... and Matt is now the new Minister of Middle School students at Grove Level Baptist Church!!!
We are so excited about this new time in our lives. This is something we have been waiting for for such a long time. We now have many, many new and exciting things to keep praying about so because this has been such a long post, I'll save the prayer requests for tomorrow!
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us! Praise God! It never ceases to amaze me just how much He cares about the things that I care about. I was so excited to come home for the last part of this interview process because the first time in 4 years we got to go to Matt's niece's birthday party! It was a blast! That seems like such a small thing but now He's arranged for us to be HOME!
Bless the Lord! OH my soul, and all that is within me BLESS His Holy name!
