Who Says You Can't Go Home

Most of you already know this - but change is "a comin'" to our household....AGAIN! It seems the only constant in our lives over the past 18 months has been constant change. But this time, the change is not really a new change, but an old change. I am not sure if any of this is making any sense so here goes - we are moving home!!! As of January 9, Matt is the old/new youth pastor of First Baptist Church Oneonta. Let me give some details.

The day we were approved as NAMB missionaries to West Virginia, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to approve the Great Commission Resurgence . Now let me say up front that I am not here to talk convention politics about GCR. Your opinion on GCR is just that - yours. If you do not have an opinion - research it and form one. I am not going to argue back and forth about polity - just not really into that. But I will say that yes - changes needed to happen in the Southern Baptist Convention. And I agree with a lot of what GCR stands for, I just hate the fact that so many people will be losing jobs, and there was a HUGE possibility that we were one of those people. We were told that these changes would happen within seven years, but change seemed to be coming much faster than seven years. But we were trusting God about our future and our job and our income etc. We knew God was in perfect control.

Around the time of the SBC, some things were happening in Oneonta, and LONG story short, they were without a Youth Pastor. Our hearts broke for these students that we love like family. Our hearts cried out for that church that is our home.

Lots of things started happening that were only of God and doors starting opening and it was clear to us that God was calling us home! Let me answer some questions up front - Were we unhappy in West Virginia? No - we were not unhappy and we believe that God 100% called us here. BUT this job did take a toll on our family. We chose to homeschool Davis so that we could travel with Matt, but even traveling and being away from home is hard on a six year old. We also found out thru this process that Matt is not called to an office job. We are both very relational people - relationships and friendships drive us - they are part of who we are - office work - not so much!

I know this whole post has been "all over the place" but my mind is in a million places all at once. The movers are coming this Friday to pack and load our stuff and then it is going to Oneonta. We will stay in West Virginia (in an empty house) until Jan 28. we will then join our stuff at home.

We are just so thankful to be going home! Davis is will be attending "big" school. He and his best friend Ethan have already been talking on the phone planning a spend the night party and were even able to play together the weekend we were in Oneonta.

You all know that I just LOVE Bon Jovi, so let me leave you with some of his lyrics that seem very appropriate in our lives right now:

Who says you can't go home
There's only one place they call me one of their own
Just a hometown boy, born a rolling stone, who says you can't go home
Who says you can't go back, been all around the world and as a matter of fact
There's only one place left I want to go, who says you can't go home

I went as far as I could, I tried to find a new face
There isn't one of these lines that I would erase
I lived a million miles of memories on that road
With every step I take I know that I'm not alone
You take the home from the boy, but not the boy from his home
These are my streets, the only life I've ever known,
who says you can't go home

It doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter where you go
If it's a million miles aways or just a mile up the road
Take it in, take it with you when you go,
who says you can't go home


I am going to leave you with some pictures of why this precious town is home. Not because of Oneonta, but because of the precious people there! We are ready to be home!

Prepare for picture OVERLOAD!!!!




























So there you have it.....who says you can't go home! Please be on the look out....the next post will contain the new name of our blog and the new page address for our blog! We will keep you posted on the moving days that follow!