Announcement Day

Today was Announcement Day in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and many churches all across the conference heard today that their pastor will be moving and also learned who will be coming to replace them as of July 1. And today the Staff Parish Relations Committee at Faith Church announced during worship that Mommy will be one of those pastors who is moving this summer.

Daddy graduates from school in 13 days. He's been approved by the Florida Conference as a provisional elder and will be commissioned in June. This means he is available for appointment as a pastor starting July 1st. We had a conversation with the District Superintendent about our situation a few months ago and expressed our wish for Mommy to stay at Faith for a few more years if there was something within a reasonable commuting distance for Daddy. However, there simply aren't any openings available here locally.

So come June 30th, the moving van will be coming to our house to load up all of our stuff and take us to.......drumroll please..... OCALA! Daddy has received an appointment as the pastor at Druid Hills UMC in Ocala and Mommy has received an appointment nine miles away as the pastor of Belleview UMC in the town of Belleview. Daddy will be following a string of 3 female pastors at his church while Mommy will blaze a trail as the first woman pastor of a congregation with 125 year history!

We are very sad to be leaving all of the wonderful friends that we have made here in Hudson. We have such a wonderful support system of people who love us and our boys and take such good care of the entire family. That was especially evident this past week after Daddy had surgery! We have enjoyed being so close to parents and family and being able to get together with them frequently. However, we are also very excited at the prospect of moving for one reason - because Daddy will finally get the opportunity to do what he has been training to do for so long. And what a blessing that will be!

There's a lot to work out over the next two months. We will be entertaining at some point the new pastor for Faith and showing him around. We will be scheduling a visit to Ocala to visit folks at both churches and tour both parsonages (so we can decide which one best fits our family's needs). We need to register Parker for kindergarten and Wesley for childcare. And we'll have to do the inevitable sort of all of our accumulated stuff, begin the packing process and leave this house in spic-n-span shape for the next guy.

Anyone want to come help pack boxes, wash some windows or babysit so we can do those things? Feel free to show up and in exchange for some help we'll be glad to feed you!!!