There are certain times in life when we all face major
changes, and major decisions. It is in
these times, we must follow the Lord where He leads. My family and I did just that when we left
Alaska for Papua New Guinea over eleven years ago.
Now, the Lord is leading us to return!
Mariann, Levi and I will be leaving Papua New Guinea in just a few
short months. The Lord has led us back
to Alaska, where I will be serving as pastor of my home church, the Independent Baptist Church of Anchorage.
I will leave behind in PNG two churches and one other man,
whom I have helped train, who is pastoring in the capitol city of Port
Moresby. Both churches in New Ireland
will have national pastors and be self-supportive. I do not see this as an end to my ministry
here in PNG. Lord willing, I would like
to return each year to be a help to the churches and continue to help the
pastors I have trained.
Below I have put down the details on how the Lord clearly
led me to make such a major decision. A
decision which was months in the making:
Back in October of 2013, I began to feel a nudge that the
Lord was leading us in a new direction.
I was not certain of anything at this point, and highly doubted within
myself the Lord could be leading us to return to the States. However, the nudging grew stronger and I
began to pray about it every day. I knew
this tug on my heart as I had certainly experienced it in the past; a time when
the Lord led us to leave Alaska and head to Papua New Guinea. I told no one of what I was praying about,
with the exception of my wife. As I
prayed, I kept asking the Lord to do just like He did when He called me to PNG,
and make it very clear so I would be certain.
I prayed and told the Lord with the nudging I had on my heart; it was
not enough to get me to make a decision to leave the field. Every day when I
prayed, the nudging would happen and I would ask the Lord for more certain
direction.
Mariann and I also had several things going on in our life
which we felt were circumstantial in leading us to return: We had a daughter that would be graduating
college; Mariann had a few health issues, as well as Levi, and two other items
as well. I did not see any one of these
items as a need/must return, as I could also see the Lord intervening in each
in different ways without us having to return. I continued to pray each day,
telling the Lord I need to really know You are in this. Without that, I could not make a decision to
return.
Then on January 22nd, 2014, I decided to get
counsel from my pastor. I called and
told him what I had been praying about. I talked about the things going on and
the nudge on my heart. I told him I was
trying to determine if the Lord was leading us back, or if this was just me. After I finished speaking, the phone was
silent for a second or two. Then pastor
asked me, “So you are praying about coming back?” I said, “yes”. He then told me that the first week of
January he met with the leadership in the church and informed them he was going
to retire and go into evangelism in the next 12 to 36 months. He told them he wanted the church to have the
next pastor settled before he retired.
He believed this would be the best way to go about this type of major transition. He started the church back in 1989, and has
been the church’s only pastor. At the
meeting my name was brought up to come back and pastor the church. Pastor, however, did not want to call me and
ask me to leave the field. The next week
the church leadership met again, and it was decided that pastor would call and
ask me to pray about returning to pastor the church. After the meeting, Pastor Roach began to pray
that he would not have to make that call, but that I would call him and let him
know I thought the Lord was leading us to return, which of course is exactly
what happened! When he told me that, I
knew clearly now the Lord was leading us to return.
In May of 2014, we flew to my son’s graduation from
college. After that we headed to
Anchorage, for three weeks. On our last
Sunday, I was voted in as the next pastor of the church.
We plan to arrive in Alaska in late June or early July. We have my son’s wedding and daughter’s
graduation from college to attend first.
It has been a privilege beyond measure to have served in PNG
for more than 11 years! This is what
missions is about, planting churches and moving on.
