Putting Down Rural Roots

{Part 3 of 3}

When my husband and I first started dating, it was close to Easter. Because my younger siblings were not quite past the Easter-basket stage, my mom asked my husband what kind of candy he liked so she could include some of his favorites in his Easter basket. He assured her that he liked Smarties. So, when Easter came, he received his goodies with many packages of what Americans call “Smarties,” the little, powdery roll of pastel-colored candy wrapped in rainbow-striped cellophane.

The problem is that Smarties in Canada are actually chocolate candies that are very similar to M&Ms, so my husband was a bit disappointed while we all had a good laugh over the difference.

It was evident that we were definitely from different places, and as we anticipated our ministry life after seminary, we had to ask the question, “On which side of the border should we live?”

We began to pray and talk and sift through the options we had before us. I checked out the one book on Canadian history I could find in our local public library and began to recall how I had sensed God’s call even as a young girl to be a missionary. It wasn’t a call my husband had ever sensed. Suddenly, it was clear – we were going to Canada! I could be a missionary in a country that wasn’t my own, and my husband could return home to fulfill his call to pastor his people.

So, how did we end up in Canada? The pastor of our church in seminary days was a frequent conference speaker in our denomination and knew about a church in northern Ontario cottage country that was looking for a pastor. In the spring, one full year before my husband was scheduled to graduate, we received our first phone call from one of the men from the church. When my husband got off the phone, he remarked, “I think I just had a phone interview.”

Several phone calls later, a ten-day candidating trip was arranged for that summer. One night halfway through our stay I remember saying to my husband, “I feel at home already. I don’t want to go back to Colorado!”

A few months later, my husband received a job offer from that church, and we were set up with a job nearly a year before he graduated! Every detail pointed to God’s hand, and it all seemed like this was going to be the happily-ever-after-ministry-fairytale ending. We began finalizing my paperwork to enter Canada and sorting out all the details of the move, thinking we’d settle down there, raise a family, and serve as the long-standing pastor and wife in that community.

But we all know that life doesn’t always have the fairytale endings we envision. The first few years of our time there we had a lot of positive ministry. Turbulent days ensued, however, as the years passed by, and there were many times we doubted God’s call to this place. Did we misread God’s call? Can other Christians really treat eachother like this?

We should have known that the fact that everyone of us is a sinner is good job security for a pastor! We are part of a church of redeemed sinners, and we shouldn’t expect perfection this side of eternity.  

Only God is a sure thing. Only His calling is a sure thing, and we have had to look back many times in our rough years of ministry to remember that He had called us to faith; He had called us to full-time ministry; He had called us specifically to that church for that time; He had called us to learn what He desired in that time, even if that meant suffering.

The reminder of that sure calling still keeps me going today as my husband and I shepherd our current rural and small-town community.

Dear sister, no matter your ministry circumstances, embrace our Sure One and step out in faith in the sure calling of a rural and small- town pastor’s wife.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

Part 3 of 3

Go here for Part 1
Go here for Part 2