Anniversary thoughts and reflections

Anyone who knows DH and I well is thinking, "What anniversary?" In fact, that is probably what my husband is thinking too! :) It was 4 years ago today that we rolled into the city with our moving van (UHaul, of course, though we do not like them because of their awful business practices and our horrible first move, they were the only ones we could get. Gotta love a shady business with a corner on the cross country moves.) with attached Suzuki Sidekick. We had just left the only home we had ever known as a married couple in Brandon, MB and the only church that we had ever ministered in. We had taken a youth ministry that didn't exist and brought it to life, with many students that were excited about impacting their world and volunteers that we were confident could help those students lead the ministry without us. We were coming to a church where we felt DH could grow as a leader, be mentored in speaking and we would have an abundance of opportunity to minister to and help people grow themselves. We were also coming to a place that, though we had never lived here, was home, as my family was here.
In the past 4 years it has been a bit of a different ride than we thought it would be. In fact, career wise for DH it has been downright discouraging and, some days we feel, ministry ending. We went through a senior pastor leaving our church that we moved here for, the person who was supposed to mentor DH in being a leader actually (most likely not intentionally, though it did/does feel like it) killed any confidence DH had in being a good leader. Then we found out that the church was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the church merged with another church. DH stayed on, though in a capacity that was far different than what we came here for. There was parts of the job that he enjoyed, but for the most part it was a job, rather than a ministry and frankly, who wants to work in the ministry for the salary we seem to think those who are "working for God" should be paid? (I am sounding a little bitter here, sorry people. It is pathetic though that society and Christians seem to think that pastors should be making so little. Why should they have a lower standard of living than everyone else? It makes no sense, if you ask me.) Also it was tough to be working somewhere where you look around the table at staff meeting and think "All these people were chosen. They were stuck with me, they didn't have a choice." Do not get me wrong though, DH loved the people he worked with and the team was great. It was the situation.
On the other hand, we have be very blessed personally in the past 4 years. We travelled to Mexico in March of 2003. We moved into our first house in October of 2003. DH got given a sailboat, a Fireball racing dinghy, in June of 2003. He completed his Masters of Leadership from Royal Roads University in June of 2005. We travelled to Australia and New Zealand in June/July of 2005. We had R in October of 2005. DH is now working at an oil & gas start up, taking a break from ministry for awhile. (I don't think God has said we are done forever, as my husband's heart still burns for it.) We have made amazing friends (you know who you are! :), been able to see my family on a regular basis and DH's family probably 2-3 times more often than the previous years in Manitoba. We are now part of a church that we can be ministered to in. That is nice I find to see the other side of the coin, and later when we do go back, we will know from experience what it is like.
We also still keep in touch with various people from Brandon and go back to visit. Our ministry there lives on, just in a different way than we expected. It is more in the individual lives - one of our girls (ladies now!) is in South Africa with a student educational program called Outtatown. One is in Ethiopia with SIM working with a girls ministry. One is getting married in May to a young man studying to be a youth pastor and is wanting to be fully involved with his ministry. Two are at Capenwray studying more of what it means to have a relationship with God. One was working for YFC and then got married this fall and she and her husband moved from Brandon and started a small group for young married people at their new church because there was none. Two of our close friends who were our apprentice leaders of our small group took over the group, then became coaches for small group leaders and are now teaching and helping to lead the youth ministry at the church. There are more, but these are just the ones that come immediately to mind. So, God is still working through the seeds that we helped place in people's lives. It is good.
And I am here, on this journey, learning so much about God and myself and starting to consider the ways that I can get involved again. And though there was tough times in the past 4 years, I would not trade them. I like where we are at now, who I have become as a result of our experiences. I don't know where I would be if I hadn't had them. I don't think I would like to find out. I guess that the phrase "Father knows best" is true, because I think my Heavenly Father does.