Our Return to Billings...

I sat in my office that day a dreamed about what could be... I was 23-years-old, and had just set up my office as the Lead Pastor of Billings Praise Center, in Billings, MT. I was full of anticipation for what God was going to use us to do on the Southside of Billings. That day, God put such incredible vision and passion in my heart to reach the unreached on the Southside. I dreamed of ministry to single moms, and homeless teens, and hungry families. That was the day God put it in my heart for Billings Praise Center to become a sort of Spiritual Emergency Room for people in desperate situations. That day seemed so far away 15 months later when the church board of BPC suddenly asked me to resign... It's been over 8 years since that day, and I still have not been offered an official explanation as to why. The church was growing, and we were in the beginning stages of seeing some of those dreams and visions come to pass. We were only a few weeks away from starting a large scale food distribution ministry, and the first step would have been taken to become what I felt God had called Billings Praise Center to become. And then it all came to a very abrupt halt... We cried a lot during those days. We didn't know what we would do next, but that wasn't the main source of the tears. It hurt to have been rejected by people that you spent so much time praying for, and asking God to bless. It is almost like being asked to leave your family... For me, a huge source of the tears was knowing that the dreams that God had placed on my heart that day in my new office had just died. I knew that the people of the church would not continue the with the plans and dreams that God had given me, and they didn't. The vision to help the hurting left Billings Praise Center when I did... or so I thought... After leaving more than 8 years before, and inwardly vowing never to return, on October 5, 2013, we drove back into Billings. I never thought I would see that city again, but God allowed me to see something beautiful there, and He taught me some things about vision... When we lived in Billings, God gave me the incredible opportunity to meet a man named David Morales. David grew up on the Southside, and God had done some miraculous things in his life. He was doing ministry on the Southside for people that most churches wouldn't touch. He was reaching battered women, and women recently released from prison. He was touching people's lives in ways that traditional churches never would. I enjoyed getting to know David very much!! After we left Billings, David also went through some difficult things, and was also rejected by some people close to him. The ministry he had been doing, came to a sudden end, and the Southside was left without its Champion... But then God began to put broken pieces together again, but in a different way than they were before. David Morales became the Pastor of Billings Praise Center!! It wasn't easy for him to push through the desire of the people to control everything, but because David is like a pit bull, he was able to break through!! The church stopped holding Sunday services, and the people who had rejected me, left the church. Earlier this year, Billings Praise Center began holding Sunday services once again, and that is just one of the many incredible things we saw when we returned a few Sundays ago... Billings Praise Center now has a ministry that feeds hungry families, with a pantry full of food! They assemble and distribute kits of personal supplies to the teenagers who live on the streets in Billings!! My old office now has two commercial washers, and two commercial dryers in it, so that single moms can save the money they would use at the laundromat, and spend it on their kids instead! The house next to the church is being remodeled, and will be used to house women who have been recently released from prison, and need a safe place to try to restore things with their children. The church operates a day care for low-income families, and there was a family in church the Sunday I preached that have come to Christ through their relationship with that daycare!! The church building has been remodeled, and updated quite a bit, and the property looks great. And probably the most impressive thing we saw, was that there the atmosphere of the church was so much different than it was on the day we left. There seemed to be a genuine excitement about reaching out to hurting people. There was an honesty and sincerity in the way they talked about Billings Praise Center existing to help people in need. I almost cried like a baby when David told me that he viewed BPC as a type of Spiritual Emergency Room for the Southside!! God taught me an amazing lesson as we toured the property of Billings Praise Center. He showed me that His plans and vision never die. Situations might look hopeless, and it might seem impossible that God could ever fulfill His promise, and yet somehow He does it. I did not get to see my dreams and vision come to pass while I was in leadership at Billings Praise Center, but I did get to see them happen!! I am so thankful for the opportunity to have literally seen God's faithfulness to His promise with my own eyes. I would have never guessed that it was possible for our situation in Billings to have worked out in a good way, but God is too good to let His promise die!! As David and I have talked a little after our visit, we realized that we both really needed what happened that weekend. Our family needed to see how God has brought those dreams to pass, and David has said that there seems to be a renewed passion and a peace since we have been there. It as if something has finally and fully been reconciled. The hurt we never thought would go away, has turned to joy!! I know it seems simple, but it is so true: God is good!!! We had wondered for years about why God would have allowed this to happen to us. We had wondered why we had to endure this pain, or what we had done to deserve the things that happened. After going back to Billings, we have come to the conclusion that it wasn't really about us... We had given our lives to God and asked Him to use us, and He did. He used us to expose some of the unhealthy issues at Billings Praise Center. He basically used us to stir the hornets nest, so that the problems were easy to see. The difficult situation wasn't about us, it was about bringing His will to pass at Billings Praise Center. Now the Southside has a wonderful church that won't overlook the darkness of the neighborhood. The Southside of Billings has a church that loves the people, and is committed to reaching them!! It cost us some heartache and tears (as well as some from David and his family), but it was worth it!!

New Job, New Page Title, Same Andy

So, I haven't written anything on my blog for a while, but it's not because there has been nothing to say... The name Pastor Andy was all over this page, and I stopped being Pastor Andy (for the most part) several months ago. (The last post on this page was my resignation letter to Mt Calvary...) So basically, I haven't written anything here because I hadn't invested the time into makes the changes to the page that were necessary. Now that I have, you will notice a few things: 1. I left the old posts. I thought they'd be interesting to look back at, even though I no longer serve in the same role. 2. The new posts will be a bit different. They will have more to do with the ups and downs of life as a missionary. 3. The tone is bound to change a few more times. Soon, we will be leaving for Language School in Costa Rica, and with that life change, the posts will likely change. Several months after moving to Costa Rica, we will move to Honduras, and the tone will likely change to what our every day, Honduran lifestyle is like. Writing can be pretty therapeutic for me, and with our whole life changing by the minute, I could use a little therapy from time to time!! With all that said, I'm sure I will be posting from time to time, so I guess you will hear from me later!!

I read this letter to Mt Calvary tonight...

I read this letter to Mt Calvary tonight... Dear friends and family of Mt Calvary, We have called a meeting today to discuss our upcoming pastoral vote, but I have an announcement to make before that happens. We will still be discussing the election, but the information I am about to give you will directly influence what happens with this vote. My family and I have some sad but exciting news to share with you. This last week, Jen and I were in Springfield, Missouri for some meetings with Assemblies of God World Missions. On Friday, we received full-time appointment as missionaries to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. As I'm sure you are quickly realizing, this means that tonight I am announcing my resignation as Lead Pastor of Mt Calvary, effective April 14, 2013. This has been a long and difficult journey as my family and I have followed God's leading in this direction. The Lord began to speak to us about this several years ago, but I guess we are slow learners, and it has taken us a while to truly understand what God was asking of us. The steps that have lead us to today have taken several months, and we want you to know that we did not arrive at this decision quickly or easily. Jen and I have talked, prayed, cried and then talked and prayed and cried some more. We have come to the conclusion that God has this move in His plan for our lives. We have always seen ourselves as the pastors that would lead a church that was very supportive of missions, and took several trips to help missionaries. We never imagined that God would someday call us to the Mission Field ourselves. Even though the wheels of this process have been turning for a while, this has truly caught us by surprise. We will be working with the organization Latin America Child Care. We will help run a system of 14 schools in Honduras that offer food, clothing, and a quality, Christ-centered education to kids in very poor areas. We will have the opportunity to literally be the hands and feet of Christ, as God's love is shown to kids who are many times ignored or abused. We honestly feel that God has spent our entire lives preparing us for this ministry, and we are. Excited to be a part of it. We are also very sad to be leaving Mt Calvary. This church has been our home for nearly 8 years now. We have grown to love you as our family. We would not leave this church family if it were not for this intense leading of the Holy Spirit that we have been feeling. We know that God has incredible plans for Mt Calvary's future! A church never belongs to a pastor, it belongs to Christ. The church is His Body. And because it is His church, we are confident that God will take very good care of our friends and family at Mt Calvary. Let me be very practical about what this means for Mt Calvary: This means that there will need to be an election to choose a new pastor for Mt Calvary. Our District Superintendent, Dennis Rivera will speak to you in a few minutes to help answer any questions about how this process typically works. As for myself and my family; after our last Sunday with you on April 14, we will be traveling from church to church as we raise support for our ministry in Honduras. We have a large monthly budget to raise, and the only way it comes in is as individuals and local churches choose to partner with us and support us monthly. It will take us around a year to raise our support, so for the next year we will be traveling around and recruiting people to partner with us in our ministry. After our budget is raised, we will spend 1 year in Costa Rica for language school before we move to Tegucigalpa. We are both sad and excited to announce this to you tonight. We understand your sadness or confusion, but we hope that you also be able to celebrate with us as we follow God's leading for our family. Thank you.