Here we go again...

Another long period of time has come and gone between posts and yet I cannot abandon this blog once for good, and I come back yet again with resolve again to be a faithful contributor.  In this roller coaster life, I find myself back in Birch Hills again after spending the past 2 years in Caronport again.  The effect of this move is quite odd:  although we have been gone for 2 years, it seems sometimes that we were only gone a mere week or so which then in-turn makes all the evident changes(kids getting older, trees that have grown) seem very weird.  The greater adjustment is having to in a sense start-over from square one with friends and social life in a place that is very familiar to us as some of our close friends in the area have moved on as well.  I have begun new work; this time I am working for Culligan in Prince Albert.  My new work has raised a looming question for many:  When will I return to ministry?  Some assumed that my completion of my Briercrest degree was to lead to bigger-and-better things in ministry for me; my mistake might have been in allowing people to think such.  The truth is, I don't know when a return will happen.  Being outside of ministry has allowed me to be reflective of my time within.  When people used to ask me how the ministry was going when I was in it I would often answer, "We'll know in a few years"  Well, a few years have come and I am beginning to see that my efforts were very self-centered and fruitless.  I realize now that I failed to really challenge people and encourage lasting change in their lives and don't see much fruit in the orchards I worked.  Most of the youth I mentored are not walking with the Lord, and the churches I worked with have often stepped back rather than moved ahead. So, it has been a struggle to grip a return.  And the only thing I can grasp and offer people as a response to when I return is that right now I am focused on paying the bills and getting Rachelle through school.  However, I realize the heat will intensify once Rachelle is done school.  For now, I am Moses tending sheep in Moab; once a person of significance, waiting for direction to the next big thing.  As for this blog:  I need to keep writing, even if I am the only reader.