Getting Started...

God has had this planned for a long time, a very long time. Long before He brought our interim-pastor, Jim to our church, long before He brought Pastor Paul and Laresa into our church family, long before He began working, moving and speaking in indivuals hearts. God has sovereignly and faithfully been orchestrating, moving and piecing things together for quite awhile and I will do my best to help bring you through every step of the journey all with us. Us: the church of W.M.C. , the church body of fellow-believers represented by other churches within the Wakarusa community, the many volunteers who are working to renovate the shared space of the Coffee House/the Compass, and of the volunteers who desire to be the hands, feet and face of Christ to the children we're believing God to entrust us with once the Compass doors are open.
Where to begin? The best place, the beginning. God revealed a need within this community and a call was born within Jeff's heart. God opened Jeff's eyes to the many children who seem "lost," afterschool and seem to "have no where to go and nothing to do." Through a special relationship with two children, it helped Jeff have a unique perspective, and sensitive heart, during that time, to what God wanted to say. After many months of listening, praying and seeking Him, Jeff begin to feel called to begin some kind of afterschool program. When he first approached me about it, I told him, "That's really nice honey. I think that's really cool God's calling you to that. I'm behind you 100% and I'll support you however I can, but I don't want to help you run the ministry or anything. I'm not really interested in that." We dialogued a little more about it and then, to my relief, Jeff dropped it. The subject came up, pretty naturally and innocently (on Jeff's part, and in his defense) when several months later, we were up at Willow Creek for a Children's Ministry Conference. It seemed like Jeff couldn't stop talking about it and was met by such enthusiasm by everyone else on the team. I began feeling pretty bad for not feeling the same way. I was excited to see Jeff called to something he truly believed in and knew without doubt that it was the direction God was moving him toward, but for me, that was basically it. One of the last days of the conference, however, God had different plans. God used a speaker's visual illustration to get my attention. The illustration was shopping carts filled with little orange balls. Three filled-carts represented the time that church ministry has to impact children and the homes they represented (included mid-week and weekly services). 12 filled-carts represted the time parents have to impact their children. I had to leave the auditorium and spend some time alone with my Father. I knew He was doing something in me. My heart was being pulled toward all of those families represented. My mind kept asking, "how do we reach the families? Isn't one of the best, easiest ways, through the children?" Even though I didn't realize it at the time, I had begun sensing the change God was doing in my heart to call me into this ministry with my husband.