After surrendering to the call to serve the Lord, we kept doing exactly what we were doing. We stayed faithful to the Lord and to that little church....Carnesville Baptist Church. While there, I taught a children's Sunday School class and Chas taught the youth and at times, an adult class. The adult class was called the Alliance Class...we were incredibly blessed during those first years. We look fondly back at those years as some of the best of our lives. We loved each other in the class and the youth were, well, youth!!! They went through things all youth go through & we loved them all not because of anything they did, but in spite of all they did ;). One Sunday morning when we were leaving church, two of those youth, Grover & Craig, jumped on the back of the truck (we had a Toyota diesel w/no tailgate). They were sitting there bouncing their feet on the pavement singing the Flintstones' song. As we made the first couple stops & turns, they didn't get off & go back to their cars. Chas had just told me that he was gonna have to turn around and take them back when the unthinkable happened. Just as Chas looked up into the rear-view, Grover's tennis shoes grabbed the pavement and jerked him off the truck into the road. We stopped immediately & ran to him. As Chas turned him over in the road, he immediately went into a seizure. Chas turned to me & said, "Go get help." Well, I think I must have been a bit in shock, so I simply yelled, "HELP!" Of course, then Chas emphasized that I needed to GO GET HELP, so I jumped in the truck, strung it out & came around the curve at the church yelling for Tina, the resident nurse. Long story short, Grover had a hair-lined fracture and a blood clot. He had seizures all the way to Athens Regional (the ambulance decided to by-pass the local hospital due to severity of the injury). When we finished filling out police reports and got to the hospital, we were expecting Grover's parents to be poised to stone us. Instead, they allowed us to go into the ER to see him. Later, Grover's dad came to Chas & told him that he, in no way held him responsible, as 'boys will be boys.' Grover spent 2 days in Neuro-ICU. On the third day, I was at work & looked up to see Grover outside my classroom waving at me through the window! He had been released from the hospital and he had his mom bring him by to see me. I was so relieved and humbled. When Grover went back for his re-check, the doctor told him that 'medically speaking, (he) was very lucky.' Grover responded to the doctor that his God was a healer. How awesome is that? Yup, pretty awesome on SO MANY LEVELS.
We spent a total of three years at that little church just doing what we were doing: loving Jesus, loving the people in our lives and being loved by Him and them. That last summer (1993), we felt the Lord calling us to pursue a pastorate. Chas prepared a resume' and gave it to our Associational Director of Missions to critique. In the meanwhile, Chas had been share at a local church's Senior Adult group. That church's pastor resigned and Chas was asked to come and do some supply work. While all of this was going on, our DOM had given Chas' resume' to another church (um, he was supposed to critique' it). Anyway, that church called, wanted Chas to come and meet with them. They wanted to have him come in lieu of a call. So, here we are, dealing with two churches at the same time. What to do? What to do? Well, the church Chas had been supplying at wanted to extend a call & we felt if the Lord wanted us there, the vote would be as such. The vote was. We were officially serving at Shoal Creek Baptist in early December, 1993. Chas was ordained there and we move into the pastorium like a week and a half before Christmas.
In the next post, I will reflect on the Shoal Creek years. But, before I end the Carnesville Baptist Church years, I just want to say again that those were some of the best years of our lives in so many ways. We were blessed to have built relationships that have stood the test of time and geography. To all of you who were with us at Carnesville Baptist, we love you and are looking forward to seeing you all for the Youth Group Reunion you have planned for August. I still have all of your names listed in a Bible and pray for you all regularly. I am blessed to be able to have contact with so many of you via facebook. See you soon!
We spent a total of three years at that little church just doing what we were doing: loving Jesus, loving the people in our lives and being loved by Him and them. That last summer (1993), we felt the Lord calling us to pursue a pastorate. Chas prepared a resume' and gave it to our Associational Director of Missions to critique. In the meanwhile, Chas had been share at a local church's Senior Adult group. That church's pastor resigned and Chas was asked to come and do some supply work. While all of this was going on, our DOM had given Chas' resume' to another church (um, he was supposed to critique' it). Anyway, that church called, wanted Chas to come and meet with them. They wanted to have him come in lieu of a call. So, here we are, dealing with two churches at the same time. What to do? What to do? Well, the church Chas had been supplying at wanted to extend a call & we felt if the Lord wanted us there, the vote would be as such. The vote was. We were officially serving at Shoal Creek Baptist in early December, 1993. Chas was ordained there and we move into the pastorium like a week and a half before Christmas.
In the next post, I will reflect on the Shoal Creek years. But, before I end the Carnesville Baptist Church years, I just want to say again that those were some of the best years of our lives in so many ways. We were blessed to have built relationships that have stood the test of time and geography. To all of you who were with us at Carnesville Baptist, we love you and are looking forward to seeing you all for the Youth Group Reunion you have planned for August. I still have all of your names listed in a Bible and pray for you all regularly. I am blessed to be able to have contact with so many of you via facebook. See you soon!
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