Moving is such a difficult thing to do!  There is so much to be done and so little time.  These last few weeks seem like a blur.   We have packed, moved to the downstairs of our former parsonage (so they could paint the parsonage), taken twenty-two youth and a hand full of college students on a mission trip, said our goodbye’s to a congregation that we loved, and packed and unpacked a 26 foot moving van in one day.   Moving is one of the hardest things we ever have to do.  Yet it is a part of being a United Methodist minister’s family.

          My family chose to move this year, sometime late last fall.  It was a family decision with Bethany going to High School and Benjamin beginning Middle School this seemed like the right time.   So as a family we began praying about moving, our next appointment, good schools, taking care of my mother and going somewhere where God could make a difference through us.  Selwyn and I began looking at churches within forty-five minutes of my mother’s home, where the pastor had been at his or her church for four or more years.  We looked at four churches, checked out there websites, drove around each church and earnestly began to pray for God to lead us to one of the four churches.  This all happened in late December.  One December evening we drove over to Pine Grove and parked around back and prayed in the parking lot.  We were not sure if Sylvia was moving or not, but we prayed anyway.

We continued to pray and try to discern where God was leading us.  Over the next several months we met with Dr. Hurley Thomas on several occasions.  In one of these meetings, Hurley mentioned that Pine Grove would be coming open in June.  So we prayed fervently about that possibility and on=2 0more than one occasion asked Hurley to work hard for Pine Grove.   After the last Cabinet meeting, Hurley called all the ministers who were moving in to tell us where we were going.  I was very pleased to be assigned to Pine Grove United Methodist Church.

Fast forward a couple months to Mother’s Day, my family was visiting my mother in East Bend.  As we got ready to leave, there was a beautiful double rainbow in the sky.  It was as vivid and beautiful a rainbow as I have ever seen.  It made a perfect half circle, horizon to horizon.  Now I believe in signs from God, the Bible is full of them, with the rainbow being one of the most recognizable signs of all.   The day we moved in at Avery’s Creek UMC (on the other side of Asheville) we saw a wonderful rainbow and we had the best five years of ministry we have ever had.  When we moved from there to Milford Hills UMC (in Salisbury) we saw a rainbow from our moving van.   Now once again we see the sign of God’s promise to always love us and be with us.  It truly is hard to move, yet knowing that God’s promise is here makes moving so much easier.

We look forward to getting to know each of you!  We look forward to doing ministry and celebrating the promises of God together.   May we continually see God at work in each other, in this Church, and in this community.  Our journey together began with prayer last December…  was confirmed by a rainbow…  the possibilities abound…

So the Journey continues…

Neill   

Stop by anytime.  (especially on Sundays)