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by Martha

Another Sunday, another new church. We're striking out on every church we find. Sad thing is today was the last option for us, as it's not a very large town here, and there just aren't that many churches here (and, many are Catholic, which we aren't or Spanish-speaking, which we don't). The closest church to us is 25 miles away, and we've gone to churches up to 40 miles away. We've been to two Methodist, one Presbyterian, and two Christian churches. The first two are the only ones we could even stand, as the pastors at the last three have been terrible! We're very frustrated, as we don't feel like we're asking for a lot in finding a church with a decent pastor and some programs for any/all of us. We're going to go back to the first two and have to pick one of them, but both have MAJOR problems. One is a mega sized church, making it too big for us, in our opinions. Plus, we're just not sure we even like the service-very contemporary, maybe too contemporary. It's the type of church no one knew we were new because it's way to big to begin to know anyone/everyone. The other is a Methodist church, but the average age is over 75 (no joke)....not that it's strange to find that here. All of the churches we visited had congregations much older. In fact, two of the churches had 150 people or so in the service, and Madison and Luke were the only kids there. It's just not a young town, and that's reflective in all the churches we are finding. The Methodist church has a great pastor, but the kids are probably the only kids in their age range (were only 12 kids or so total from Luke's age to 15 or so when we went), and Sunday School starts at 8:00. Now, when you live over 30 minutes away and have two small kids, that's pushing it. Plus, the Sunday School is tiny and we're not sure there's anywhere for Madison and Luke to go. It has no kids' programs or Children's Church for Madison. We've met with the pastor, and while we like him, he agreed that there aren't young people even close to our age our kids in the age range of our kids.

Please pray for us. We feel like God put us here in the desert for a reason, and because of that, we feel like there is a church for us. However, finding that place has been a struggle and now, whatever we do settle on, we feel like we are doing just that, settling. Some people have said, "Oh, it's just for three years, and then you'll move again." That's part of our frustration. We feel like three years is a long time, and if we go with that mentality, we'll never really live our lives anywhere. We are in the Army, yes, but that doesn't mean we put our lives on hold for the next 20 years as the Army moves us around. This is our live, now, and we want to find a church that fits our current needs. We can't find that, and it's frustrating. We hate settling on anything, let alone settling on something so important to both of us and to the future of our kids. We want our kids to grow up in a Christian environment. We provide that at home, and we don't feel like it's asking too much to find a church to provide the basics of being biblical and following God's Will. Sadly, it seems like we'll be settling for the next three years in whatever church we decide.

Another week, more church visits and decisions...uggh.