Something new

Some of you know this news already, but last week our church announced that one of the pastors would be leaving to plant a new church...in Hillsborough. We were immediately interested, yet it would be a big decision to leave our current church and many of those we've become friends with. We thought, prayed, still felt excited about the opportunity, and then talked with the pastor. Now we have officially decided we will join the plant!

So what's it going to be like? Well, the church was already started by another pastor, who has now left, so there are a handful of existing members who we have never met. And then there are a group of families from our church that will join us, most of whom we know at least a little bit. 3 of the adults are Joshua's Sunday School teachers (and I think 2 more were his teachers in his old class) and most all of them have young children. I think there are 8 or so kids from Joshua's class and a few from Gray's. We'll start the new church in mid-January and will begin by just organizing and getting to know each other well and planning. I'm sure there will be lots to do, but we're excited to be a part of it.

We will miss our small group and the other families we've gotten to know, though. At least we aren't leaving Durham so we can still see them! We had a fun Christmas dinner with the adults in the group last night (Thanks, Stacy, for babysitting!) and I was reminded of what a blessing it has been to have joined the group in the Spring. It occurred to me the other day that this new church will be the 7th one we've been a part of in our 6 years of marriage, due to all the moves. Guess that makes it not quite as hard/weird to make this change, but hopefully this will be the last one for many years!