This Sunday we will say goodbye to a part of our team. I haven’t written about it in the last month because I think I’ve been in denial.

We called Jeff and Angela on Dec. 26, 2005 about the possibility of them joining a church planting team. They were youth pastoring on the penisula and we had only met them at camp a few months prior. We waited until after Christmas because we wanted them to enjoy the holidays before we turned their world upside down. At that point, North Creek didn’t have a name, we didn’t have a location, we didn’t fully know what it would look like and what we were doing. We had a skeleton crew of people and were just in the process of discovering who God wanted on the team. Mark and I had never done anything but youth ministry in our careers. We had one $25,000 grant and a whole lot of faith.

And they said yes.

That pretty much says everything about who they are as people of God. They will sacrifice everything to do what God asks them to do. And that’s a rare characteristic.

The journey has been an amazing one, but now their dream and their career is taking them to Seattle. And no matter how hard that is for me and this church, the reality is that our commitment to them was to help them pursue what God is putting on their hearts and to be their dream maker. So, I’ll rip a piece of my heart out and let them go with a blessing because I believe that God moves people “for such a time as this.” They have a new season, a new purpose, and a new destiny beyond our cobalt blue stucco walls.

I’m really proud of the fact that our story will always include Jeff and Angela. And I’m sure that they would say the same about North Creek. We love them very much and are very thankful for the memories.

A couple of days ago my daughter Delaney had surgery on her ears. She’s been unable to hear very much for the last ten months since a sickness caused a blockage. This particularily became a problem when she began Kindergarten and was struggling to understand directions, etc.

I am very thankful that in a matter a minutes Dr. Sheppart was able to create a new world for my child to live in. What was once a lot like living life with ear plugs is now open to all of the sounds that we take for granted. The next morning Delaney jumped up on my bed and began to sing, “La, La, La, La.” When I asked her what she was doing, she said, “Mommy, I can hear my voice when I sing.” What a gift!

So, thanks be to God for healing my daughter. He may have used a doctor and a bunch of nurses in the process, but it’s still all glory to God. God’s hand is in it all and I was never so glad about that fact as when they wheeled her away to surgery. No matter what happened at that point, God is still God and it was going to be OK. It’s that peace that surpasses all understanding and I’m appreciative that it is tucked deep into my heart.