What a year it has been for our family! As all of you know, last year around this time we were in a pretty tough spot with a lot of uncertainty about the future. This year we're reflecting on everything, filled with amazement and gratitude for all that God has done and those he used to give us the love, support, and guidance we needed. Our biggest news of the year was clearly that we moved to Erwin, TN for Andy to begin a new job as Youth Minister at First Christian Church in June. We're not sure how many of you know the full story, so if you'll bear with us we want to share it with you in hopes that you too can be amazed and grateful at what God has done.
In October of 2009, Andy got the news that he was being let go from the Youth Minister position at Dade City Christian Church at the end of the year. We were devastated by the news, but not in disagreement that it was what was best for everyone, even though we had no clue what was next for us. The entire church, including the leaders who made the tough decision, could not have been more loving and gracious to us as we left. We have many wonderful memories in that place, with those people and they will forever hold a special place in our hearts.
Initially, we tried to find a church in Florida, and early in the year had some promising leads, including a church in Groveland where Andy would have been the Minister and that would have allowed us to stay in our house in Dade City. To put it lightly, that didn't work out, and by February our inability to find any work made it clear that we would definitely need to move, broaden our job search and consider some other "last resort" options like moving in with family that had graciously offered to take us in for a time. We put our house on the market and began packing for the inevitable move. Along the way we had several opportunities to visit other churches to see friends, family, and get ideas for the future which was a fun experience.
From that broader search we began pursuing some leads up in the Georgia area in March and went up for a visit to see if we could even find other work in the Adairsville area. in case we decided to move in with the Ulreys. At that time Andy spoke with a church and Kim got an interview at a Chick-Fil-A, but again it just didn't work out. When we returned home, Andy started up the local job search again and was hired on the spot at a local Chili's restaurant. It wasn't enough to live on long-term but bought us some time to keep looking and gave us the flexibility to be out of town if needed.
In April we celebrated Hannah's 4th birthday. It was a little bittersweet to realize it would likely be her last in the house we bought a week before we she was born. Soon after we learned about an opportunity at a small church in east TN from Andy's sister, Amber. We began talking with some of the church leaders, arranged a visit later in the month while staying with Kim's mom and step-dad in Mountain City. On the surface it wasn't the largest most amazing church we had ever been to, but we loved the people and felt like it was a great fit for us. It soon became clear to us that this was the opportunity we had been waiting for God to call us to.
Throughout the month of May we continued Andy's job search, in case things didn't work out :-). We went down to south Florida to look into another church opportunity and visit Andy's family, but our hearts were already set on Erwin. After much anticipation we finally got the news from the church in Erwin that they had unanimously decided to offer Andy the position. Once the new job's start date was decided Andy put in his notice at Chili's and we began more aggressively packing, selling stuff at yard sales, and making other arrangements to move to Tennessee. We also temporarily moved in with Kim's dad to save on the cost of utilities and aid in our final packing.
In June, we got the sad news that Aaron Stamper, the son of the minister at FCC Erwin who had been battling a rare form of leukemia for nearly a year, had died. We had actually learned about Aaron on the website of a church in Memphis, TN that Andy was looking into several months before we ever heard of Erwin and had been praying for him since that time. We were going through one of those times when we were feeling kind of sorry for ourselves about our circumstances and learning about his life and struggles and faith through it sort of put our situation in perspective. So when we heard the news of his passing it wasn't a difficult decision to decide to drive up immediately for the memorial service, a week earlier than we had previously planned to leave Florida.
We loaded up our van with most of the day to day possessions we had brought to Kim's dad's house and made arrangements to stay at Kim's mom's house for a couple weeks while final renovations were being made on the church parsonage where we would be living. We left at some crazy hour like 9pm for the 12 hour drive through the night, hoping to arrive in time to go to church that morning and be at the memorial service in the evening. As we were driving through the mountains of North Carolina, about 20 minutes from Erwin, the van started overheating and smoke started pouring out of the hood. Our radiator had sprung a major leak and left us stranded on the road at the end of a long drive with 2 energetic preschoolers who were just waking up. :-)
Needless to say we never made it to church that morning. We called Kim's mom and step-dad to come help us out and since we had tons of food with us we had some breakfast and tried to keep the kids entertained. When they arrived we were able to add some water in the leaking radiator and get up to the top of the mountain to the Tennessee welcome center. From there we added more water and managed to coast down the other side of the mountain the rest of the way to Erwin with no problems and waited for a friend of their's from Mountain City to tow the van to their house so we could change out the radiator later. That night, Andy and Kim drove down for the service, and learned a lot about a pretty amazing young man and the impact he made on many lives in a short time.
Since then quite a lot has happened in our new lives in Erwin and at the church we now serve. We've settled in to the new house, taken in a lot of the beautiful local scenery, made lots of new and wonderful friends, said goodbye to some of those new and wonderful friends, enrolled Hannah and Noah in preschool, took Noah back out of preschool (it didn't work out :-D), enjoyed our first family experience of the colors of fall and wonders of snow and have learned a little more each day about why God might have brought us here both for our benefit and we hope the benefit of others. Looking back it's hard not to feel very blessed and say in true "It's a Wonderful Life" fashion, we're the richest family in town.
I know that not everyone who may read this among our family and friends will necessarily understand the choices we've made this past year or agree that God was somehow leading us to a certain place to do a certain thing through our circumstances. That's OK with us if you just see it all as coincidence or luck that things worked out for us. For our part though, we feel like we've walked a difficult road of faith this year, trusting God when it wasn't easy, and at the end of it we found God to be faithful in all his promises. As we celebrate Jesus this week, and every week, we are looking forward to the fulfillment of the greater promises of Jesus in our lives and yours too. May 2011 be for you a time of walking the road less traveled and finding God faithful in your life as well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Fraziers!
