As with all moves, it’s a time of sadness and mourning while at the same time being a time of excitement and looking-forward. It’s now getting very “real” as we see the piles of boxes in the garage growing quickly.

God has been exceedingly good to us throughout this difficult time, and we’re now thankful to be able to look forward in a more concrete way. I start work at Concordia Lutheran Church in Penticton on Aug. 1, and we’ll see what God has in store for us as we begin this next chapter in our lives and ministry.

I was there to prepare with the team for this coming Sunday, which will be my last official Sunday at Redeemer. It won’t necessarily be the last actual Sunday there, but it’ll be the last time I’m there as a called worker. (if you don’t know our story leading up to this, best give it read so the rest of this post will make sense…)

So I’m going to be helping to lead music for the later 2 services and preaching at all 3. There was a previously scheduled congregational meeting for 11:45am on Sunday, so I will use part of that agenda to ask the congregation to peacefully release my from my call, and then we’ll gather after that meeting for a reception to say an official farewell, but (probably more importantly) to celebrate the 4 years that God gave us to live and work together for His kingdom.

So if you’re reading this and you’re Redeemer folk, or in the Spokane area, I hope you’ll be able to join us at 8:00, 9:30, or 10:45 for worship, and then again around 12:15-12:30pm for our reception. (And if you are Redeemer folk – come to the meeting to give your voice to the budget and election of officers.)

It truly will be a bitter/sweet day. Bitter because leaving was not what we had planned. Sweet because we will get to celebrate God’s goodness in the midst of struggle, and because I will have the opportunity to share God’s Word with the church family through word and song once again.

God is Good. All the time. Even on bitter/sweet days.

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
John 3:8

This verse from Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus should be my life verse, at least for a little while. At least over the last few months, it has certainly felt like I’m being carried only by the Spirit of grace, not really knowing from where things are coming or where they are going.

You may know that we’d been living in Spokane for the last four years and I’d been working at Redeemer Lutheran Church. This spring we ran into some immigration issues, and had to leave the country while we sorted them out. So since March, we’ve been somewhat nomadic, living in various places in Western Canada with gracious family and friends. We were waiting for an answer from the US government about whether or not we could get a new visa to continue living and working in Spokane.

This past week, we still didn’t get an answer. But what we did get was clarity about one thing: we are not going to be able to continue our life and ministry in Spokane.

How did we get clarity about that? We were going to need to have an answer by August 15 of this year, and it became clear this week that it is just not going to happen. Though we could still wait until Aug. 15 to see what happens, we believe that would be foolish to do so; it’s all but guaranteed that we won’t have an answer by then, and it longer makes sense to keep waiting.

That’s all worded rather generically, and obviously there are a lot of details missing. The whole story is just so complicated that it would require a good supper and good beverages to tell, so I’ll not attempt to tell the whole thing in these pages.

But the bottom line now is that Suzanne and I have decided that it would be best to seek a new direction for our life and ministry. Since the door to working in the US is now shut, that new direction will lead us back to Canada. As with the wind of John 3, we’re not yet sure where that will be, but God is gracious – we are exploring some opportunities already, and He’s taking care of us in the midst of it.

It’s been a rough week, discovering that we cannot continue to live and work among people we love dearly. We are feeling pain, loss, and grief. For me personally, a big part of the pain is that God clearly called us to Redeemer four years ago, and I believed that He wanted us to stay. I believed there was so much work I had yet to do there. And if I’m honest with myself and with you, I still believe that.

Yet it seems that God is now calling us away. Right now I’m really struggling to come to grips with that. Yet His sovereignty is often a mystery, and He calls people according to His purposes, not ours. And when we can’t see His purposes clearly, it’s often hard to take. But I take comfort in two things: 1. if my feeble human mind could fully understand God all the time, I sure wouldn’t respect Him very much, much less worship Him (Romans 11:33-36), and 2. the Biblical example of Joseph, whose earthly circumstances seemed hopeless, yet God used all of those events not only for Joseph’s good, but for the good of an entire people (Genesis 37-50).

So we’re preparing to move back to Canada, hurting and wounded right now, but confident that God is leading us, even when we don’t have a pillar of fire, or (as a good friend recently put it), a great big neon sign, to follow.

Thank you to everyone who’s been praying for us and encouraging us. We will continue to covet your prayers as God leads us by His Spirit to a place we don’t yet know, in a timeframe we don’t yet know, but with the absolute assurance that He is with us in the midst of it.

Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

We had the pleasure of re-connecting with our good friends and colleagues, Craig and Donna Tufts, this weekend. Craig is the pastor at Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Parksville, BC (just north of Nanaimo where we’re staying for now) and we joined them for worship this morning.

It was a little odd to be the only young family there, seeing as how we’re used to being surrounded by them. But the congregation was able to dote on the kids, which was fun. Ellia and Caitlin went up for the kids’ message, and then Ellia went out with Donna as she worked with the kids for their own age-appropriate time.

Their theme verse for this morning was from Psalm 100:1 – “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!” So they made and decorated tamborines. Ellia, being the big sister that she is, made an extra one for Caitlin and brought it back to her when they came back into the service. For the last song, Donna brought the 5 kids up to the front with their tamborines to accompany the songleaders.

It was a joy to see the girls up there helping to lead! Ellia began her worship leading career last summer at Redeemer’s VBS, so it’s Caitlin’s turn now to get into the act. Look out, church. There are more of us coming.

(I’ll also have to start taking my blog cues from Pastor Mark Beeson of Granger Community Church, who is an avid photographer as well and takes pics to accompany each post. This would have been a great one to have pic’d.)

I’ve got some projects I need to work on, but I will have some time to contribute to other projects that I might not normally be able to take on. So while I’m here, I want to offer to work on developing some resources that might be helpful to you and your church. This next little while will become a bit of a sabbatical time for me. So to help me learn and sharpen my skills, while at the same time contributing to the mission of God’s church, I’d like to be able to share some things with you.

So let me start by asking, what would you and/or your church find helpful in this time to help you in fulfilling our mission to be salt and light in the world? I have a variety of interests and experiences, and could offer some skills in a few different areas:

• writing resources (studies, devotionals, reflections on various church issues, etc.) for church leaders and members
• theological, musical, technical, and other practical helps for corporate worship
• graphic design (curriculum logos, “branding”, etc.)

There may be some opportunity for short-term travel in Canada as well (for something like leading a workshop/seminar/retreat/etc.), but I’d have to play that by ear and look at any of those possibilities on a case-by-case basis.

So please let me know – post a comment, send an email through my Contact page, or through any of the various “inboxes” I have. If your church might be looking for some short-term help, I’d love to be able to explore with you.

Normally.

This trip is different, however.

It’s a trip we weren’t planning. There’s no way we would ever plan a trip that would start A. 9 days after our son is born, B. 2 weeks before our senior pastor’s last day at Redeemer after taking a call, and C. 4 weeks before Easter. But that is what we’ve been faced with.

I can’t tell you all the details since we’re still in the midst of it, but to make a long story short and boring, in order to finish the processing for our immigrant visa application to be able to permanently work and live in the US of A (as we so choose), we had to return to Canada and wait for the National Visa Center in New Hampshire to package up our application and send it to the US consulate in Montreal, (which is now the only US consulate in Canada that processes immigrant visa applications), then wait for a letter from the consulate asking us to appear for a personal interview, where they will determine our eligibility to return to the US, and to our house, and to my work.

We’ve been told that it can take 2 months for the NVC to get the package to the consulate, and the interview could be a month after the letter is sent. But we don’t know for sure. It could be a couple weeks, but the “typical” time for this process is 2-3 months. Yup. Months.

So we are in Nanaimo for now, and will be for a while. We may do some traveling in Western Canada, but maybe not – it depends on how Suzanne and baby Jonathan are feeling, and whether or not they may be up for some road trips.

We are hoping and praying that this process is anything but typical, and that we will find  case officers at the NVC and consulate in Montreal that will speed this along so that we can resume our lives and the work that God has called us to do in Spokane. Please pray for those things with us as well. It’s about all we can do at this point. Wait and pray. And trust that God can and does use times of wilderness wandering for refining and strengthening of faith.

(Click on the bottom-left button of the slideshow to go full-screen.)

Jonathan Michael Schutz

born

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 6:17 pm.

8 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long

Pics will be up later tonight or tomorrow morning!

A lot of people ask, “What the heck is Twitter?” If you’ve not used Twitter before, it’s a tool for “micro-blogging”, where you send out updates kind of like on Facebook or myspace, but you have only 140 characters to do it. It’s being used for all kinds of things, and you might think “who cares what so-and-so is doing 24/7?” But rather than always answering their question “what are you doing?”, interesting Twitterers also answer the question “what has your attention right now?” I find links to interesting material online, thought-provoking questions, and more. You sign up to “follow” whoever you want, and when they post an update, you see it immediately.

So we’ll see how it goes. It’ll be an interesting experiment.

ESV Study Bible

If you’re looking for a good study Bible, look no further than the recently released ESV (English Standard Version) Study Bible, published by Crossway. It’s a great Bible filled with notes, references, and all kinds of material that will help deepen your understanding of God’s Word.

The icing frosting on the cake is that when you buy the paper version of this study Bible, you get access to the online tool at esvstudybible.org, which has not only the same material as the paper version, plus more, it also has space on the site for you to make your own notes as you read and study.

A most excellent tool for studying Scripture.

We’ve been researching for a while, test-driving a few prospects, and trying to decide which van would suit us best. Today we made that decision, and are now the proud owners of a Honda Odyssey van, which will be a great addition to the growing Schutz household.

The van will replace a little ‘96 Civic hatchback, which was our first car together, and has served us well since getting our first real jobs in 2000. I’d come to affectionately call it the Tin Man. There was nothing special about the car at all – 5-speed manual, no A/C, nothing fancy at all. But it’s a fun little car to drive, and I’m gonna miss it a little (but not in the summer).

So we replace one silver Honda with another, and we’ll enjoy the practicality and space that the new one brings. Tin Man 2.0, we look forward to the journeys ahead.

(Xhibit, if you’re reading this, even though it’s a nice van, West Coast Custom could still put some finishing touches on it. I’d be ok with that.)

Maybe if I just crack enough of these...

What’s the one word we all loathe around this time of year? Yup, resolutions. Make ‘em and break ‘em, that’s the spirit! That’s really what goes on, isn’t it? There’s just one thing that keeping a new year’s resolution takes: resolve. Seems like in most of us, me included, that resolve isn’t really resolve. More like wish. Resolve is something altogether stronger than wishing.

And isn’t it interesting how companies love to capitalize on our wishing? Look at any flyer in the newspaper from the past week. I saw a Walmart one where the first four pages were exercise equipment, and the rest of the flyer was full of “healthy food choices”. Well done, “free” market economy!

Of course, it’s become fashionable now to not make new year’s resolutions because we know we’re not going to keep them. I become one of those people a while ago because I knew my resolve wasn’t strong enough. Or, perhaps more accurately, I always resolved to do way more than was realistic. If I’d just choose one SMART goal, I’d have a far better chance of keeping up the resolve. But not making resolutions is passé now too, since it’s become too easy.

Does anyone else see the irony of not making a resolution to avoid failing at keeping said resolution and thereby becoming successful at keeping the resolution to not make one?

The coolest light wave/particle experiment. Ever.

So 2009 will be a year of experiments for me. New Year’s Experiments will be those things by which I’ll satisfy my curiosity for a time, whether short or long. This blog itself will be one of those things. I won’t approach it with the resolve of a NYR (not a New York Ranger), but with the resolve of one who is curious. Will it continue to be fun and engaging and helpful to people? I hope so, and my hunch is that it will as long as I put some effort into it. (What a good scientist am I. Oh, apparently not.)

This is no way implies that I am not committed to things. I simply think (or maybe I just think simply) that changing the approach from a legalistic one to a more fun, curiosity-fueled, grace-based one will make all the difference. Wait, could that also be true for other areas of life, not just personal change?

Yes, yes it could.

Yes, yes it is.