My wife and I are committed to follow Jesus wherever He leads us. We loved our last adventure: planting a church in Belle Plaine, MN and all the friends and church family members we shared our lives with. That Adventure ended July 31st and now it’s clear what and where the next ministry adventure is taking place.

I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday candidating with my wife to be the Lead Pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Virginia, MN and Sunday afternoon the church voted to call us to serve with them starting October 1st, 2021. Emmanuel is part of Converge (Baptist General Conference) denomination.

The people at the church are so nice. On the way up there my wife said she feels like we are foster kids going to see if we will get adopted into their church family. We really felt the Lord helping us be our best during this busy weekend. Sunday morning I was a little nervous and I talked kind of fast during my sermon and presentation (that sermon I preached could determine if I would get the job – I really needed a home run). I apologized for talking fast and an older gentleman said, “That’s alright. We just need to learn to listen faster.”

It’s amazing to me that exactly 20 years ago we moved down from that Iron Range area to plant a church in Belle Plaine, MN and now we are headed right back up there to serve a church surrounded by people we stayed friends with for all those years.

Now we need to find a house to buy in that area that’s big enough to have large groups of people over and we need to sell our house (real estate agent is all ready to list it as soon as we find something). Another family wants to follow us up there and they need to buy a house, too.

Not only does this adventure come with a great church building on 20 acres of land in a prime location on the highway and a new church family to serve alongside, it also comes with a bear that likes to visit the church garbage bin.

Virginia, Minnesota is home of Minnesota’s highest bridge, the world’s largest floating loon and near the world’s largest hockey stick. It is a retail hub full of stores to serve all tourists, adventurers, cabin dwellers and people who live in the other towns in Northern, Minnesota. It’s located 60 miles north of Duluth, MN and 100 miles south of the Canadian border. Now I need to go change my cell phone number to a (218) area code so I fit in up there on the ‘Da Range.

Pray for us as we make this transition and seek God’s provision for housing. And pray for River Rock Church – I am so excited to see who God calls to be their next pastor.