Where have I been?

Busy, that's where.  Which accounts for the sparsity of my posts.  So much continues to happen: birthdays, soccer season, new jobs, old jobs, school at home and just the general life issues.  Plus, I must admit, we've been in a bit of a funk looking for our lives and where we fit in our post-Protestant days.  I know, we've been Catholic for almost 10 years.  You'd think we'd be settled in.  But we aren't.  Whatever glorious stories of Protestant Clergy Converts coming into the Church and finding a whole blessed ministry and new life in their new tradition you might have heard, it's not been our lives.

I think at this point it might be our bishop, who for some reason has made it clear 'I don't serve their kind.'  I have met with several over the years, including individuals high up in the diocese, only to hit a dead end when it was all over.  The last individual had me ready to sign up.  I would be in charge of multiple parish Religious Education departments.  It would be tough, and I would be traveling from place to place.   Wow!  Like pastoring a church?  I was so excited.  He loved what I had to bring through my experience, even though it's been years.  He was meeting with the bishop that very week, and was going to bring my name up.  After all, he said, they were having trouble finding people to fill such spots for all the parishes. It would be perfect.

And then...silence.  For weeks I waited.  I reached out, and heard nothing.  Just as I have so many times in the past.  And finally he responded: sorry, having' heard anything.  If I do, I'll let you know.  I'll keep you in my prayers.  Bless.'  And that was it,  Once again, we hit a wall and I fear it is our bishop, who isn't going anywhere soon.  But not just him.  As I wrote earlier, another diocese was hiring a person who would be in charge of Evangelical Ecumenical relations.  They needed someone with a religious degree (MDiv preferred), who knows the Bible and has experience with Church history.  I was denied the next day.   They hired a fellow with a degree in communications and web development.  He was a life long Catholic.  He knew some Protestant friends in college.

So that has left us swinging in the breeze.  Tomorrow, my wife and I meet with a priest to lay it out: we lost our lives when we became Catholic.  The lives my wife and I, and our boys, had together as Protestants.  We all took part in the ministry.  My boys and my wife and I were all together.  We all shared in the calling.  And then we became Catholic.  And while we're thankful we have jobs, and even some extra money, they are jobs.  Pushing paper.  Waiting for the departments to move or shut down and scramble for the next thing.

We're trying to homeschool, but it is nigh on impossible when both parents have full-time jobs away from home.  Our youngest is barely holding on.  And when all is said and done, our big ministry contribution is being able to make it to church on Sundays.  So where to go now?  That is going to be the question.  Not an ultimatum.  But definitely it will set the stage for where we might go.  At this point, we so desire to bring our family back together as it used to be, we've flirted with going into business!  Which isn't a solution, since neither my wife nor I have the skills needed for that.  But that's the point we've come to.  So we'll see.

There is much to talk about that has happened, as imprisoned state workers and murdered college students give us a portent of things to come for Christians in the coming years under the post-Christian secular leftist tyranny.  But for now, tomorrow is on our minds.  Please pray for us.