New to me, perhaps not to you

On the morning of January 10, I went to work to do my job and at the end of the day, I left without a job. At almost 53 years old (Feb. 18), this was my first experience of losing a job. Wow! So many emotions - shock, fear, confusion. And then I had to go home and tell my wife Robin. It was very difficult to walk through the same emotions with her, but it was even more difficult to experience her intense anger over the whole situation. But through the love and support of a number of friends, the Lord has helped us to process and to pray through this trying experience.

Now, 3 weeks later, we both firmly believe that God allowed this to happen for his purposes to be fulfilled in our lives and especially in our call to bless the whole church of God through First Loved Ministries (FLM). Over the past 3 years, I have served as an associate pastor at Bethany Church. I absolutely loved my job because I had the unique privilege to serve the Lord and his people there, out of my strengths and passion. What a joy. Consequently, having to be let go due to a budget crisis, has been extremely difficult and deeply saddening.

On the other hand, because of my job at Bethany, I had done very little with FLM. But now, as best as we can discern at this time, we are believing that the Lord has removed me from my position at Bethany so that I can once again devote my entire energy and focus to serving the Lord's people through the various teachings and trainings offered by FLM. At the moment, God is bringing together many gifted people to help me with getting FLM back on line and developing it into a much more effective vehicle to serve His people. Please pray with us that the Lord would provide necessary resources and people to complete this revitalization of FLM.

It's great to be back on line. Blessings to you all. Mark