God Calling IV
How does one retire when there is no biblical precedent for retirement? Some of the most faithful work recorded in Holy Scripture was undertaken by people called by God in their senior years, not to mention the conception of babies for God’s special purposes! Shirley says she has no sense of calling for a Sarah experience! Together we have eighty-four years of pastoral experience with complementing gifts that have allowed us to share in a wide range of ministries. Each parish has called us into a different emphasis in ministry ranging from front line evangelism to discipleship conference work, grief and healing prayer ministry, and providing pastoral …show more content…
Here we built a warm relationship with the Faith Baptist Church in Poetry, Texas and had the joy of making many new friends. On returning to Manitoba, we were unprepared for a series of events that again can only make sense through the eyes of faith. Each time we visited family near Winnipeg, we were cognisant of the escalating price of housing. In order to have better access to family, we recognized that at some point we needed to move closer to one of our girls and to a larger airport so that visiting the other two would be easier and less costly. Also being closer to a larger center would make health care more readily accessible. We had been watching real estate trends and the availability of reasonably priced housing. Over a two year period, nothing had come up in our price range. Anything that even came close was bought up instantly or was bid up in price. The very thought of making a move and having to negotiate selling and buying, timing and pricing, financing and moving on a tight budget seemed overwhelming to say the least. We had been doing this investigating in the natural but never had any prompting in our spirits to step out in …show more content…
Even if something came available, we had no indication that our work in the north was complete. Working on the street is a never ending demand for ministry dealing with the needs of up to sixty people daily and ten thousand meals yearly. Beyond that was a deep love for the north and the many friendships over seventeen years which made the thought of leaving incredibly hard to even consider. We started to pack up and get ready for the seven-hour trip north and put all the stuff that was too big for us to deal with out of our minds. God was not calling us from or to anything, and we were convinced He would do that even in retirement because there is no such thing as retirement in kingdom living, just a season of new opportunity! Shirley has always been the one to venture out and investigate or test the water where as I am hesitant to complicate life with decisions that don`t call out to be made. However, on this early morning, I heard myself saying, “Check out the listings in Carman before we leave.” She did, and there was a new listing that had come on that morning exactly in our price range. At a glance, we both could see that it met over three quarters of the criteria that would be important to us. We phoned and made the first appointment of the morning to see the home. It was well cared for and
How does one retire when there is no biblical precedent for retirement? Some of the most faithful work recorded in Holy Scripture was undertaken by people called by God in their senior years, not to mention the conception of babies for God’s special purposes! Shirley says she has no sense of calling for a Sarah experience! Together we have eighty-four years of pastoral experience with complementing gifts that have allowed us to share in a wide range of ministries. Each parish has called us into a different emphasis in ministry ranging from front line evangelism to discipleship conference work, grief and healing prayer ministry, and providing pastoral …show more content…
Here we built a warm relationship with the Faith Baptist Church in Poetry, Texas and had the joy of making many new friends. On returning to Manitoba, we were unprepared for a series of events that again can only make sense through the eyes of faith. Each time we visited family near Winnipeg, we were cognisant of the escalating price of housing. In order to have better access to family, we recognized that at some point we needed to move closer to one of our girls and to a larger airport so that visiting the other two would be easier and less costly. Also being closer to a larger center would make health care more readily accessible. We had been watching real estate trends and the availability of reasonably priced housing. Over a two year period, nothing had come up in our price range. Anything that even came close was bought up instantly or was bid up in price. The very thought of making a move and having to negotiate selling and buying, timing and pricing, financing and moving on a tight budget seemed overwhelming to say the least. We had been doing this investigating in the natural but never had any prompting in our spirits to step out in …show more content…
Even if something came available, we had no indication that our work in the north was complete. Working on the street is a never ending demand for ministry dealing with the needs of up to sixty people daily and ten thousand meals yearly. Beyond that was a deep love for the north and the many friendships over seventeen years which made the thought of leaving incredibly hard to even consider. We started to pack up and get ready for the seven-hour trip north and put all the stuff that was too big for us to deal with out of our minds. God was not calling us from or to anything, and we were convinced He would do that even in retirement because there is no such thing as retirement in kingdom living, just a season of new opportunity! Shirley has always been the one to venture out and investigate or test the water where as I am hesitant to complicate life with decisions that don`t call out to be made. However, on this early morning, I heard myself saying, “Check out the listings in Carman before we leave.” She did, and there was a new listing that had come on that morning exactly in our price range. At a glance, we both could see that it met over three quarters of the criteria that would be important to us. We phoned and made the first appointment of the morning to see the home. It was well cared for and