I have been out of the blogosphere for a couple of weeks now and I have suffered serious withdrawal pangs. It has not been a case of "won't" but more a case of "can't." My family has been in a bit of an upheaval the past few weeks and we are undergoing a serious time of transition right now.
We have served Hunting Creek Baptist Church now for six years and three months and have had a blessed time with the saints of God there. However, there has always been a tension between serving the folks here and serving our extended family who lives about six hours away from us (often a much longer drive with five children). My wife and I had began praying about a year ago that God would move in a significant way in our lives so that we could be closer to our original home, which is the Greenville/Spartanburg, SC area.
As is often the case, God moved just as we had prayed but yet has called us to another place of ministry and service in a totally unexpected community. We are going to be moving from Nathalie which is in southside Virginia (about 400' above sea level), to the mountains of western North Carolina, in Waynesville (about 3,000' above sea level). The church I will be serving is Grandview Baptist Church, with the added benefit of being only just over an hour from our folks' homes.
This has been a bittersweet transition for us. We have grown to greatly love the Hunting Creek folks and her surrounding community. They have been an easy group of folks to serve; they love the Lord, love each other, and have loved us. We will miss this area and the people of God here. They also will miss us--they have made that abundantly clear. Many tears have been shed over the past three weeks. We have made some extra special friends, people whom we shall never forget.
I would desire that you would pray for us as we make this transition--pray for the hearts of the folks at Grandview to receive us and pray also for Hunting Creek. If God can use me, certainly he can raise up someone imminently more capable than I am to carry on the ministries there.
Transitions are difficult. I am thankful for the grace that has been shown to us by Hunting Creek and look forward to serving Grandview. Thanks everyone for your participation on the blogs and I hope to "be back at it" soon. Remember us in your prayers when you think about us.
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14 comments:
Bro. Tony,
God has blessed you at Hunting Creek and He will bless you at Grandview Baptist church ! My prayers go out to your family and Hunting Creek and also the people at Grandview Baptist ! You will have another good story to share with your grandchildren one day !
Blessings.
Ron.
Tony,
Glory be to God for the work He has done through you at Hunting Creek and for the wonders to behold in the days ahead at Grandview!
Les
Tony,
I am praying for your transition. Sometimes I am up in the Greenville area, I might try attending your church sometime.
God Bless,
Earl
Grandview will be blessed to have you serve them. I will pray for you and your family during this time.
Everyone,
Thanks for the kind and encouraging words! I am blessed and undeserving to have a readership and friends such as you afford me.
What a blessing to be able to minister closer to your family and to be able to meet needs there, too. And what a blessing to be able to leave your ministry at Hunting Creek knowing that you have served God and His people well.
I am praying for you as you move on, for the folks back at Hunting Creek and for your new church family as well.
I'm disappointed, Tony, that you weren't more up front about what all went into this decision.
In the interest of helping Tony with his full disclosure, readers, the list of reasons for Tony and family desiring this move are, in descending order of priority:
1. Closer to a Starbucks location
2. Closer to the Sensenig family
3. Closer to his and wife's families
4. Because North Carolina is an awesome state in which to live
There, that needed to be made more clear ;) hehe
Well, just so all of the readers are aware, I'll have them know that being in North Carolina had absolutely NOTHING to do with our decision.
;)
Those look like valid reasons to me.
BTW, Tony, have you ever read this blog?
http://crummychurchsigns.blogspot.com/
I know you have an interest in church signs.
Steve,
Ha! Yes! I read that blog frequently. It has been one of my favorites for a while. It has been a while since I linked to it.
I like posting church signs here because I typically get some good, interesting discussion following.
The bad theology behind a lot of the signs usually provides good fodder.
Well, well, well. So, I pick up the Emphasizer for the Haywood Baptist Association.
I read it.
Hmmm. "Grandview has called Pastor Michael Anthony (Tony) Sisk and his wife..."
HOLY COW!!!! I KNOW HIM!!!!!
Daggone, dude. My wife went to Grandview as a child. Holy camolie. We live in Canton, just, well, 15 minutes from Waynesville. Yep, we homeschool, too. No, we don't attend Grandview, but this is like, really weird, having somebody I've met and come to like in the blog world actually move nearly NEXT DOOR!
Daggone. Welcome to Haywood County, Tony. We need to do lunch or coffee or something equally magnitudious sometime after you get settled in.
Hey Bernard!
Man, that is too cool! I will definitely look forward to meeting you; perhaps next week sometime?
I would have never thunk it. Email me and we can trade phone numbers! My new address is here. Too bad there isn't a Starbucks just as close, huh?
Awww...Blogger choked on the email insert. I guess I did it wrong. If you mouse over the link you can still see it, just subtract the unnecessary stuff.
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