Our First Official Election

I think I have mentioned before that Josh and his family have been heavily involved in politics since Josh was a teenager. So much so that Josh took law college courses by correspondence for one year in hopes of getting into the House or Senate someday.

All that was put on hold after Josh felt the Lord was leading him to Bible college the following summer. We actually officially met at a political meeting (Christians Concerned for the Constitution) our third semester at Bible college.

Ahh, the foreshadowing of our lives.

This past year we have been praying for clear, absolutely unmistakable direction from the Lord as to the work He has for us to do. We know He has something specific in mind, and He has been impressing on my heart the fact that it's not going to be in the direction that I tend to think. I've repeatedly found myself praying that I'll be open to the changes that will be brought about by the Lord leading Josh in the way that He wants us to go. And the verses on "lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths"; "the Lord shall make the path plain before you"; "Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path" (Psalms 27:11); and "the way of the righteous is made plain" (Proverbs 15:19) have practically jumped off the pages at me.

On a daily basis.

In all honesty, I was pretty sure that the Lord was going to call us into the ministry....assistant pastor, youth pastor, missionary, evangelist, etc. He may still. But right now, this is beyond a doubt the direction He is leading.

Last night the Republican Central Committee for Montana met to elect precinct leaders for our area. One man and one woman are elected for each precinct. The primary election process for Montana has changed this year. Only elected officials will get to vote for the primary election on February 5th. The general vote is not held until June. By then the nominees will have already been selected. General votes will likely make no difference that late in the race, and the nominees will already be campaigning hard for the election in November. Because of the bylaws, the state is only legally required to honor the elected officials vote, so the vote on February 5th will be decisive.

The Lord was so good to bring this to Josh's attention when he did. We were able to get our names on the ballot before anyone else in our precinct, and I'm sure that helped us win the vote. Amanda and Riky watched some of our children while we went and they saw the news clip of the event. Apparently we were in the clip they showed last night, but not in this one. Amanda and my dad were able to tell me exactly where we sat when we got back. :)

Our precinct was contested (meaning that there were several people up for nomination) so Josh got to speak; thankfully for both of us. :) We had several people come up to us while we were waiting for the voting results to say that they hoped that we won, and were looking forward to working with us. That was so nice! (One of those people was the lady in brown you will see walking in front of the camera; she has five children also.)

It was a very exciting event since both news stations were present. Of course, we will also be at the caucus on February 5th which will be televised as well.

This has been a very neat, but rather sudden turn of events in our lives. We are already so busy with commitments between church and family, but God's grace is sufficient. I'm clinging to the verse, "Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it."