The below was sent to me from a wonderful family that moved to another state. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent! LOL) It was so encouraging I had to share!
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Hello Pastor,
I hope this email finds you, Sister Donna and the girls well. We really miss you guys and the rest of the CRCC family. Please send them our love! We have connected to a local church here, but when we say Pastor in our conversations, we are still talking about you. :-)
I've been meaning to reach out to you for several weeks now to let you know that you would be so proud of Tim. I hope that some day you and him will get to connect about the details (because they are too many to list), but I just wanted to mention a few things. I guess I can sum it up by saying that Tim is changing from the inside out. I can hear the change in his prayers and I see it in everything he does on a daily basis - EVERYTHING. It is clear that whether at work, or at home with us and the kids, he filters everything through his Jesus lenses and what comes out is the most patient, loving, gracious husband and father that I have seen in the almost 7 years that we have been married - and I thought he was already worthy of the "most wonderful husband/father" title, so this says a lot. :-)
The extent to which he takes the lead spiritually in our home right now cannot be captured in words - mainly because some of it is tangible, but a lot of it is not. Here's what can be captured . . . before we would have family devotions because I would gather the kids, come get him and he would participate (sometimes unenthusiastically). Now, he's the one gathering the family, leading devotions, helping the kids memorize scripture, reviewing catechism questions, purchasing (AND READING) christian books, initiating discussion between the two of us about our marriage, etc. He's also the one motivating everyone on Sunday mornings and making sure we get to church on time . . . that's huge! I mean, Tim enjoyed going to CRCC because he always felt challenged and knew you were going to preach the Word, but he could have easily gotten the notes from the church website and have been content. :-) I am not telling you anything he would not tell you himself - lol.
So not only have I seen his approach to church attendance change, he is even helping the facilitator of an Apologetics class we are taking on Wednesday nights at church. Did you catch that? LOL. He went from a Christian with lots of questions and doubts to a defender of our faith! He even has scripture painted on our walls now - not framed - I am talking wall art here - that covers entire walls in some rooms of the house. My personal favorite . . . Romans 1:16 in the family room ("For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ . . . ."). Wow!!!! What an awesome reminder of what God has done in Tim and our family! Praise the Lord!
I have already told Tim how proud I am of him for taking the journey that he did and being open to wherever that journey would lead. I know this journey is not over, but I wanted you to know what has taken place because I know you invested one-on-one time with him to help him start to find the answers to those tough questions that most Christians (and non-believers) have but are afraid to ask. I thank you for taking him under your wing and getting him started down this path. I thank you (and the rest of the pastoral staff at CRCC) for your prayers. I prayed for years that God would bring Tim a circle of men that would challenge him and keep him accountable. God started that work at CRCC and He is picking up where He left off at our new church in our new state. We knew that our move here was bigger than a new job and being closer to family, but I personally did not expect to see the changes I've seen happen so quickly. To that we give God *ALL* of the glory and we pray that as God continues to change us from the inside out, that he will use us to help change others in our community as well.
In Christ,
Susan
