Called Out and following thru!

So let's recap. We both now KNOW Jesus and have answered the call to full time ministry, but have done NOTHING about it! Well in January of this year my brother in law- Mark's middle brother- called and confronted Mark. See God had been talking to Mark's brother. God laid Mark and our family on his heart so much so that he couldn't sleep. He spent many hours in prayer over Mark and our family. Finally he felt he needed to say something.

Let me tell you, Mark DID NOT like getting called out. Blake asked Mark out right what he was doing to fulfill God's calling on our lives. He point blank asked Mark do you fell God has called you to the ministry- yes Blake God has called me, then what are you doing about it? Mark couldn't answer that cause we weren't doing anything. Yes we were Sunday school teachers and that is a calling in itself but what were we actually doing to find out exactly where God wanted us. Nothing.

It's not fun to hear what you already know. Blake helped Mark realize things that we really already knew. See if God has never called you to anything you don't know the feeling of running. Or what God will allow to happen to you while you run. Slowly but surely material things started being taken from us. So much so that we wondered if we were going to loose our house or not. Did I feel like we were running- well of course not we answered the call., Surely that's not running! But what did we do to follow through on the call- nothing- that's as good as running.

So with new resolve and desire to do what God wants us to do we started seeking His face. Our church has these wonderful things called HIMpossible cards, they are cards you can write a prayer request on that you know that only through HIM can it be answered. Well we certainly had some HIMpossible things that need to be done. First we needed to know what our first step should be, then where do you really want us, then how do we go about doing anything. The questions went on and on. So we started filling out cards.

Our first step would be to fill out applications. Mark applied to 85, yes that's right 85, different churches from Miami, FL to Alaska and everywhere in between. We felt this was the right thing to do, but for several weeks heaven was quiet! That is very agonizing. We knew that God was calling us away from Commerce, GA. That we both felt deep in our hearts that God wanted us out of our comfort zone. But heaven was quiet, and it was painful and seemed to last forever!!

At this point we thought well maybe God wants us to move and Mark go to school. So we started investigating schools. See Mark only went to technical school after high school so he would be starting from scratch, which meant he couldn't just go to Seminary he has to get a Bachelors first. This narrows his options big time. Finally one night after silence that seemed to last forever, Mark prayed and listened and prayed and listened. He was up for six hours one night just talking with God. He asked God for some direction that if we were doing the right thing by him filling out applications then please let just one church respond back in some way. They could be telling us thanks for the application but no thanks and that would be fine. It would be an answer.

God works in very mysterious ways! Well the next morning was a Sunday so we went to church as always. Mark had his phone with him to keep time so we could get out for service at the right time. Well right in the middle of him teaching his phone goes off. He didn't realize that it was his phone until later. Well it was an email from a church saying thank you so much for submitting your application, and telling us about the area the church was in!! Praise God Heaven wasn't being quiet anymore!!! If this wasn't an answer from God then we were going crazy!!

For the next several weeks Mark continued to get email after email from churches, most of them saying thank you but no thank you. But it was still answers!! Finally a church from Missouri sent an email stating they had lots if interest in us. Wow! God really could be calling us to a church. In order to make sure we were pursuing all the possibilities that God may be calling us to, Mark meet with our pastor.

It's now August, and Mark had decided that we would wait for one month. If we had no further contact from any churches or we didn't get called to a church within a month then God was calling us to school. We had decided that New Orleans Baptist Seminary was where we needed to go, because it would be most cost effective for our family. Easiest to afford. Well while meeting with our pastor he suggested that Mark look into Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. We didn't even realize that there was one!

We started doing lots of research on Southwestern. It was in a good area- much safer- and wasn't that much more money. It is further away from our family. But if God is calling us and we don't go things will get worse! So we called and made an appointment to visit the campus. Oh yeah, the church in Missouri- well they had sent Mark a questionnaire to answer. He did and sent it back and we heard nothing for three weeks. Did you here that three weeks- just under the month timeline that we had put on things!! God works in wonderful ways! They wanted to do a phone interview. So on a Thursday night the church called Mark and engaged in an hour and a half phone interview. Then nothing again!

It was finally time for our campus visit to Southwestern. Mark's parents kept the kids for the weekend and allowed us to drive their bug out to Texas. Yes I said drive! Thursday afternoon we left around 2:30 p.m. and arrived in Texas at 3:30 a.m. Friday morning! While driving out there the church from Missouri called! They felt that God was not leading us to their church right now. Again an answer from the Lord!! Friday we do a campus tour and absolutely fall in love with the campus and the surrounding area. At one point I looked at Mark and said it feels like home!

Now we are up to date for the most part. Wednesday of this week, Mark got the email. We have been accepted to the College at Southwestern, a division of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary!! Wow!! God has been preparing us for this every step of the way. If we said we didn't see how God was working then we must be blind. See even the bible study I have been a part of at church has gone right along with what God is doing in our lives. The bible study is Beth Moore's The Patriarchs, Encountering the God if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- you know what the first chapters are on? Abraham being called away to leave his family!! Wow God was speaking!!

So, what now? Well I will chronicle our move and what God is doing in our lives over the next few years. This is one way I feel I can stay in touch with people! I hope you can see God moving as much as we have and that it will encourage you. I am so excited to see what else He has in store for us. For now.....


LOOK OUT TEXAS THE THOMAS' ARE COMING!!!!!

The Call

Let's continue our story.....
We are both now followers of Jesus Christ. Mark was driving down the road one day and had a strange feeling. He immediately started praying. He felt like there was something major going on and couldn't put his finger on it. Well after much prayer we both realized that God was calling our family into full time ministry. Great! Wonderful let's do this. We were glad to know what God wanted from us and to answer the call. We made it a public announcement at our church that God was calling us into ministry. Awesome! Now what?

So what do we do now? That was our biggest question. Well we were already serving in our church as Sunday school teachers so that had to be moving in the right direction, right?! Basically after answering the call to ministry we did nothing! Not one thing! We just kept right on doing exactly what we had been doing before we answered the call. So this is when God starts moving in ways we may not be to excited about.

This is all happening the summer of 2007. Well that summer Mark lost his job. After looking for a couple of months he found something but it was kinda far away and he hated it. So then he left that job and went to work in a lawnmower shop. The whole time he is looking there is a company near our house that he has applied to and continues to call even though they have no openings. Finally in the Spring of 2008 Mark gets the job at the company close by. What an answer to prayer. Shortly after that though I lost my job! This is where our finances really really start to suffer.

They say hindsight is 20/20, and boy are they right! We both believe that through the loss of both our jobs and the financial hardships that we went through the past four years that God was teaching us and preparing us. He was teaching us a lesson for not following through on what He called us to do. He was also preparing us for all the He has for us to do. So that is a brief history bringing us up to Janurary of this year. Again instead of going on forever in one blog, I will write again!

Brandi