You may have heard I'm leaving Detroit Hope, but may have heard some rumor about the reasons, frankly no matter how many times I say it, I think people think I am making the decision for reasons that are not valid, or they would rather have me in Detroit forever. Well folks. It is not about me. It never has. It is about God, and what God is doing up here. And what God has blessed and will continue to. I just want to set the record straight.
I have been on the ground, in some way, intern or pastor, for the better part of seven years. I worked in 2004 with John Atkinson, and there were some of the children from that summer camp program. The way I have measured this, I met David McCray when he was 14, and now he is 21. I have had 7 years influence on his life, and the many lives in the community thanks to the Grace of God letting me be apart of it. We have accomplished so much. Helping families, creating a culture of faith, education, confidence, and working through every struggle and every concern. We have also focused on building a body of Christ that has become a spiritual family that bares each others burdens and lifts up the Yo Buddies and the Me toos in good times and in bad to emphasize the fact that we can care and help each other.
Rachel and I knew that when Levi was born, it was the beginning of a countdown clock in our minds, that we were either 1800 miles from Rachels Family, or 1200 miles from our family. We began to think about Levi's relationship with family so far away, his schooling, his family life, and his extra curricular activities as well as family time with his parents. If Residence Life and Urban Church planting continued to run on the same time table, while he would be at school I would have the mornings off, but I would be working until after he is in bed, and so would Rachel. She just got hired in a new job at the University of Western Florida. We thought this job would come more in like the summer, but it came as early as December 1. Her Job has benefits such as spouse tuition benefit, and other perks that made this move to florida, close to her family, a blessing dropped in our lap.
This is just the beginning of the discussion, and I will continue with this discernment decision in the next post. My computer is dying.
