Well, Will, Abbe, Luke and I went to a different church today. It is called Grace Bible Church in Portage. It is about 20 minutes north of here, and Sauk is about 15 minutes SW of here. I have had a heavy heart for my little kids lately that they don't have an official Sunday School, and they don't have a Christian club to go to on a different night of the week. And in small towns, there are not a lot of options. I had held out on Sauk for quite a while, because I wanted my kids to go to church with kids they went to school with. I was stubborn on that point, but the fact is, that just wasn't working out. Will didn't like River Hills any more, and I was neutral on it. The main reason I kept going is that I wanted Issa and Emma to go, but they basically weren't any more, so what was the point of continuing on going to a church that was not meeting my families needs? However, I was leery of leaving because Will was raised in a family that church hopped. As soon as someone offended his mom, they left. And why did Will not care for River Hills so much any more? Because some people had offended him. But last week, after being gone a few weeks, I was going to give it one more try (at River Hills) and when we got there, they had cancelled the second service that we were heading for without letting us know. I just felt like in my soul that was God closing the door of River Hills to us. And as far as attending church in Sauk, we could go back to SPEFC, however I did not want to do that. Most of the people who attend there are good people, but there are a few in leadership who have their own agendas that they place above God's agendas, and seeing that soured my ability to worship. And the other churches in town are either VERY legalistic or liturgical. Neither of those options appealed to me. So, I began searching for a church in Baraboo. I was basing my search on what they had to offer to school age kids and I ran into a roadblock. Just couldn't find what I was looking for. Well, Will suggested we look to Portage since it really isn't much further from our house than Baraboo. We looked on line and found two churches. The one we decided to try today was Grace Bible Church. I am cautiously optimistic that we have found a new church home. They have Awana on Wednesday nights, Sunday school on Sundays for kids AND adults. The pastor preached from Acts, and it was not a watered down sermon at all. And sadly for me, he was easy to listen to. I say that because I have had a hard time in the past paying attention to very good knowledgable pastors because their style did not hold my attention. I guess the closest thing I can say is that it feels like the Anoka Covenant Church I grew up in. It is pretty traditional, but that is comforting in some ways, at least for Will. I am just putting one foot in front of the other, praying that God would lead us where he wants us to be. Today, it felt right. We will go to Awana on Wednesday and see how that goes. Also, they have a choir that practices Wednesdays while the kids have Awana. That would be good for me. If any of you want to pray that God would cement in my soul whether this is his will for us right now, I would appreciate it. Sorry for the lengthy post, but that is what is on my mind today.
Love, Tonja
