The Cat is Out of the Bag

I wrote this three weeks ago but never posted it!

Our church family is now aware that we are leaving the area. Originally we had thought that we wouldn’t disclose to our church family that we are planning on leaving until January 2022. However, it became clear that we should not wait that long.

Our family and close friends were already aware. We began talking about this in 2019. At that time D was working at Chick-fil-a and we wanted to give him plenty of time to make plans to support himself. I never thought that in less than two years he would be married and working for an electrical company! What a blessing!

My women’s mentoring partner, Kimberly S., suggested a few weeks ago that I should speak with the Women’s Ministry Team soon so that the future of the mentoring program could be planned for. But I didn’t want to tell them before Dale had a chance to speak with the Elders, so on September 29 Dale did just that. The following week, on October 7, we met with Pastor Brett about our plans and what to do about filling our role in ABF. After that discussion, I went to women’s Bible study and Dale ended up speaking one-on-one with all the pastors about it. It really worked out well. It does feel like this was God’s timing.

We have yet to tell our ABF family and I won’t be meeting with the women’s team until later this month, but we are most definitely open to discussing it with people if they mention it.

This was a big step for us. It seemed almost as if once we announced our plans, there was no turning back.