(not-so) Little Update

Alan sent off some resumes and cover letters this week. Both churches he sent resumes to on Sunday called and/or emailed him back on Monday wanting more information from him. This was AMAZING and a complete God-send. If any of you have ever been in a process like this with a church you know that the last thing most churches do is move swiftly. Whether or not either of those churches works out it was so reassuring to hear back so quickly. Alan and I agreed it gave us hope to move on as we begin this process all over again.

He sent off another couple of resumes and cover letters on Monday and received a phone call today from the head pastor of one of those churches. Not recognizing the number or area code on his caller ID, Alan went ahead and answered wondering who it was. 20 minutes later(!) he got off the phone to tell me that he basically had an impromptu phone interview right then and there! The guy wanted to know a little more about Alan - his experience, what he's doing right now, why this church in this particular state (I'm being ambiguous on purpose...) - and the overwhelming feeling Alan got from the conversation was positive. When he mentioned that he was currently serving and worshiping at an Anglican church (a real point of contention when Alan was interviewing with the church in Virginia), the pastor (a Gordon-Conwell grad with a son currently at GCTS) asked about one of our priests. It turns out he knows him from years ago when they both lived in Wisconsin! He seemed really excited about Alan. As it turns out this church is actually pretty far along in the process with "a couple of candidates" - we're not sure how many - but Alan piqued their interest enough that they were willing to risk the possibility of the process taking a bit longer in order to pursue Alan a little more. Alan hopes to receive a questionnaire from them and complete it before we head to California next week.

All in all, whatever comes from any of these churches and/or any of the few others to which Alan has sent his information, we have hope and encouragement again as we face this process. We also have additional confirmation in multiple forms at this point that the Virginia church really wasn't for us. I am so thankful that God has already revealed at least a little bit of his working in this situation. It makes this waiting time so much more manageable.

So keep us and the job search in your prayers - and pray especially for these three churches that we are moving ahead with. One is in North Carolina, one in California and one in Michigan. Any of those locations would place us closer to family in one form or another and we're excited about that prospect too. Also pray for the living situation as we are looking for a new place - still in the GCTS area. We're basically planning on being here till Christmas, although if that third church is really serious about Alan and having someone hired by the time school starts (or within a week or two of the beginning of the school year) it's quite possible we might just get that miracle that we asked for and really be out of New England by the end of August... although I'm not holding my breath for that one ;-).

For all you Californians, Michiganders, Texans and Hong-Kong-ians (whatever you call people from Hong Kong ;-) we'll be seeing next week, we can't wait!!!


Much love,
Meredith, for Team Conrow :)