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Give us peace in our time, O Lord; because there is none other
that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God.
-- 1662 Book of Common Prayer
May 2004
Friends,
Greetings, and the peace of Christ to you. As many of you know, Ami and I plan to move to St. Louis to attend seminary this summer; we write now in the interest of keeping in touch with those we’re leaving behind, as well as letting you know how you can pray for us over the next few months. It has been a nearly a year since we saw many of you at our wedding; I pray that this year has kept you well. For Ami and I, it has been both a good and complex series of months—we’ve learned much about the depth and cost of the vows we made to each other on that overcast afternoon in Smithfield, as well as the great and constant faithfulness of our God. In the deaths of close family members we have learned to look, in death, toward the day of resurrection; in the loss of my job and the destruction of my parents’ house, we have learned that God’s love for us is on His own terms, and in His own way—and that this way is beautiful and good. It has mostly been year of quiet time spent in each other’s company; games of dominoes on the deck, Cardinals’ games and Garrison Keillor on the radio, black and white movies inherited from Granddad in the VCR, playing cards in the winter by the woodstove. It has been a year of dinners and bridge with friends in the kitchen, a year of driving thousands of miles on the stretch of Rt. 20 between Charlottesville and Scottsville, a year of early morning services at church eating the Lord’s Supper, and learning, with the help of the Book of Common Prayer, to daily worship together. For me, it has especially been a year where my heart has grown in gratefulness for the sweetness and beauty of the woman God has given me.
Through all this we have sought to know better those works which God has prepared from before the beginning of the world for us to do, and in that seeking I believe He has continually confirmed in our hearts what He began working in our own lives years ago; that Ami and I have a call on our lives for formal Christian leadership and ministry. Because of that perceived call, I have submitted myself to the elders of our church, Trinity Presbyterian (PCA), and have been given opportunities this year to practice the gifts God has given me, teaching Sunday School and discipling a UVA student. After observing my work in ministry, and hearing my own testimony and sense of call, the elders at Trinity formally took me under their care in December. Following that confirmation and acting on their recommendation, I applied and was made a candidate for gospel ministry in the Blue Ridge Presbytery in April of this year. It has been a blessing to explore my call within the context of a local church that cares for and supports us; because of their continuing supervision of my internal call, I am confident that my pursuit of the ministrial vocation is not based some personal vision of my own making, but rather, the good will of God.
Because of that same will of God, Ami and I plan to move this summer to St. Louis, Missouri, where we will attend Covenant Theological Seminary; I plan to pursue a Master’s of Divinity, and Ami hopes to work toward a Master’s of Theology. In many ways, this step is an act of true faith for our young family; we are leaving good friends and family behind, as well as the state where we have each lived our entire lives. It is a step from a familiar community and close family to a large city where we will know only a few, as well as a movement from financial security and relative comfort to financial insecurity and relative discomfort. It is a large step, and a humbling one; I feel in many ways powerless to control what our lives will look like in the next half-decade, and find myself increasingly forced to trust another to care for us. Luckily, that other is the One who owns the stars, the earth, the sea, and even the storehouse of heaven, and He, who does not lie, has sworn to neither leave nor forsake us.
It is in the context of this attitude of humility that I ask that many of you will pray for and remember us in the coming years. Pray that God’s hand would continue to guide our lives, and that he, in his will, would confirm our vocational callings. Pray that he would give us older Christians to love and disciple us. Pray that he would give us children in his time. Pray particularly that God would guide Ami as she attempts to balance the various callings on her life—that we would know and do his will for her education as she also takes classes at Covenant. Pray that our Lord will care for our physical needs—that he would show his glory in showing us how the bills are to be paid. Pray that he would provide me with employment that would fit well with my full-time studies. Pray that he would give us good community and friends in a strange place. Pray that Ami and I would learn what it is to live as a godly man and wife—and especially that I would love and husband her well. Pray, as we are instructed by Moses in Psalm 90, that the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and he would establish work of our hands.
And so we go, and do not fear. For no matter what state we live in, the Lord, who is both powerful and good, has been and is our dwelling place. He has named us with his own name, and he will not forget.
In the peace of Christ,
Joshua and Ami
So now may the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13.20,21
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