An Open Door...

Psalm 111: 1 “Praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.”

More Steiner Family Adventures and Leaps of Faith... This is a continuation of last night's post...

As our first summer in Ohio was coming to a close, so were our finances. We had enjoyed our little church in the country, “Ruggles Church”, but we knew that we could not live on the $100.00 a week we were receiving from them. John was already enrolled in the Intensive Greek program at the Seminary, which was exactly that… “Intensive”! What he didn’t realize when we started this venture was that the regular classes would require that he have a reading knowledge of Greek from day one! He had never had a Greek class, and did not feel that linguistics were his forte’. Fortunately they had this “Intensive Greek” class that lasted for three weeks just prior to the regular semester. Amazingly God quickened his mind so that he was able to learn enough Greek in that short amount of time to be able to start his classes as planned.

Since his regular classes would be starting in a few weeks, he needed some compatible employment soon. It is so easy to give in to despondency when things don’t happen as quickly as you think they should, or to the “specifications” that you had dreamed up! We were beginning to second-guess God and wonder if we had misinterpreted His leading. There just didn’t seem to be any jobs available for either of us.

One afternoon we were really starting to feel the pressure and felt the need to get out of town for a while and take a country ride. We wound up driving through the little town of New London, about fifteen miles north. I told John that I thought there was a church from our denomination in that community, but I didn’t have any idea where. Suddenly, there it was, right there on the road on which we “just happened” to be driving ! We pulled in the driveway to look at the church and noticed a log home behind the church building. We figured that was probably the parsonage. About that time we saw a man in a suit walking from the church toward that house, so obviously we determined that he must be the Pastor! We pulled around a little closer and he turned and saw us driving in and started walking toward us. As we stopped the car he came alongside of us and said, “Hi there! May I help you?” We asked him if he was the Pastor, and he said, “No, but I am a member of this church and I live here.” He added that this was the Pastor’s day off, therefore he did not expect to see him.

We explained to him who we were and that we were just out for a ride and admiring the church. He gave us a warm welcome and offered to take us inside. Of course we hated to impose, but since he was so nice and actually insistent, we said we would love to. As we began a tour of the building, we passed one small office and the man said to us, “That is our Assistant Pastor’s office, but we currently don’t have an Assistant.” John and I looked at each other with big eyes, and then we looked back at him and asked, “Are you looking for one?” He said that they were. We then asked, “Is that a paid position, or voluntary?” “Paid”, he answered.  John gulped and took the plunge and asked, “Do you mean paid as in a regular salaried position?” And the  man patiently smiled and replied, “Yes, it’s not a lot of money, but it’s pretty good for a part time position!” John and I were both getting very excited under the surface, but trying hard not to appear too anxious.  Then it just kind of came right out…we couldn’t hold back any longer. John began to tell this man, who happened to actually be an Elder in the church, about our current circumstances and that we had just been praying about finding a job that would be compatible with going to Seminary, and that we did not know anything about this church before taking that ride out there that day. Then this man did something very special. He said, “Why don’t we go into the sanctuary and pray about this?” And so we did. As we all knelt there at that altar to pray it was as if we could feel the presence of God in that room right there with us. I will never forget how comforted we felt at that moment, and how God’s Holy Spirit flowed through us,enveloping us with His peace.

When we stood up from the prayer altar and started to walk out of the church, there was a man dressed in overalls walking through the door. We were surprised to discover that this was the Pastor, and that he had a garden planted behind the church, which he was coming to tend on his day off! The Elder appeared very surprised to see him and immediately introduced us and explained our situation. He was very happy to meet us, and we spent the next couple of hours talking! He never did get to his gardening that day! And to make a long story short, a couple of weeks later John was installed as the new Assistant Pastor for Music and Youth at the church! (Can you tell this was in the late 70's? Salmon Suit! :)


                                                                               
In Isaiah 55: 8-10, God reminds us, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”


More of this story to follow... keep watching... Thank you!  Part Three: Bells, Whistles, Sirens