thankful Thursday...Moving on.

Today's Thankful Thursday post is a bit different...Our Bayfield buddies are moving to Huston today, and I wanted to take a few minutes to honor them and thank them for the friendship we have. We spent a good part of the day Tuesday helping them pack, load up the moving van, clean a bit, and just generally try to help them out...John and Lindsay have become close friends of ours in the last 16 or so months, and we're going to miss them a lot... although, it does make our own move a little bit easier, in some ways. John took Adam under his wing in a mentoring sort of relationship about 9 months after we came on staff at the church. He was the youth pastor of the Foursquare church (the same denomination as ours) out in Bayfield, a little town about 1/2 an hour away from us. They had met at a conference we both took our kids to that summer, and a few months later began to meet bi-monthly to talk about youth ministry things. As we drove home Tuesday, Adam was talking about how his friendship with John and John's influence in his life has caused him to grow personally, spiritually, and in his work ethic more than anyone else. It's true, too-I've watched my husband become even stronger in his relationship with God, his ability and passion to be the spiritual head of our home, his desire to support me and my dreams, and his leadership as a youth pastor. I reaped the rewards of much of John's mentoring at home--he's a man who is in love with God and has his priorities straight: God, Wife, Kids, Ministry. Not all pastors get this, or at least put it into practice in their lives; but John does. He's the one who encouraged Adam to come home at lunch every day-something both Pax and I love! I know there are probably people out there who think I asked Adam to do this, or nag him if he goes to lunch with others...but I never have. It was completely his decision, based on John's recommendation, and when he saw the benefit it has had on our family he wanted to continue. I know not everyone has the luxury of time or distance to do this (we live about 2 minutes from the church), and i know we are entering a season of our life when this might not be possible...but I am so thankful for the lunches we've had.
John has also been the one to whom Adam could go with anything, joys or frustrations, and know he had a safe place to talk. He's given Adam wise council about decisions in our lives--he's the one who got Adam thinking and praying about med. school again. Adam has maybe 5 people in his life that he would call true friends...John is definitely one of them. I am so thankful for their friendship; I know how much those friends are needed, and have seen the difference it makes in Adam's life.
Our families started hanging out sometime last winter...usually dinner at their house followed by cards. I quickly discovered that John and Lindsay were both people I liked to be around, for many reasons. They are real and simply themselves...John is one of the most driven people I've ever known and jokingly gives Lindsey a hard time often; Lindsay is pretty mellow and just gives him this look that says "yeah, whatever, bud." They're great. I wish I could have had more time to get to know Lindsay-we pastors wives can sometimes put up a barrier until we figure out if this person really likes us and wants to be friends with us. I'm not proud of it, but it can be true. But I do know that I really like this creative, talented woman and I knew it from the minute I walked in her door and saw how she had decorated. It was so similar to what I would have done-great colors, pictures everywhere-that I knew we would get along if given the time..thankfully, I also know our friendship doesn't end just because they are moving!

John, Lindsay, Brooklyn, and Jonathan....

I am so thankful for a Godly mentor and true friend for my husband. He needed help and guidance as we started out in youth ministry; he got that and an amazing friendship.

I am thankful for your boldness to do as God tells you, regardless of how others may mis-perceive (is that a word?) it.

I am thankful for John's passion for a deep relationship with Christ as well as his wife and family...a passion he passed on to my husband.

I am thankful we had a chance to help you pack up your home.

I am thankful for the way you opened your home to us continually, not worrying about whose "turn" it was to entertain...and for nights of hand and foot!

I am thankful for your sunny little girl's love of playing with (and sometimes running away from) her "baby brother".

I am thankful for second chances...the first impression I had of John at camp several years ago was very different than the man I know today! he reminded me too much of a guy I knew in collage...but seeing his heart through my husband changed my perception of him, and getting to know his family helped me see him as he truly is.

I am thankful for Lindsay's love of her kids, and both her and John's open arms to our little guy. I'd just had Pax when we met; she was pregnant (and very sick!) with her second until last July...somehow she still found the energy to make new friends!

I am thankful for a set of youth pastor friends outside of our church...there are things that only other youth pastors understand!

I am thankful for their sweet little blue-eyed boy, who wasn't named after his daddy, no matter what people think :)

I am thankful for creative husbands who were determined to make our last date together (Valentine's) a spectacular event. And caramel apples as an appetizer.

I am thankful that true friendships can outlast changes in location.

Thank You, Lord, for these dear friends....thank you for the time we had with them, the wisdom we've gained from them, and the future You hold for them. Bless them as they start a new life in Houston, and continue to watch over them, guide them, and provide for them.