I want to remember how all this worked out, because God's hand was ALL OVER IT! When things happen like this, it humbles me to realize that God would take note of us and orchestrate things so beautifully on our behalf. I am so grateful.
We've become very dissatisfied at Cowarts – miserable, really – over the past year, and so anticipating Andy's graduation this month, we began to look for him a new position post-graduation. We mailed out tons of resumes to all kinds of churches. In November 2007 before we went to NYC for vacation, we got a call from Kim Tate – that Bethel Baptist was looking for a youth pastor and wanted to request Andy’s resume. Andy initially said no since he was really looking for a music position. After that it seemed like we ran into Bethel people all over Dothan the next couple of weeks! (And they were all NICE! haha!) Neither of us were comfortable with shutting the door so easily, however, so after a second call from them – he did turn his resume in. By January 2008, over 40 resumes had been submitted and of those resumes, the committee marked Andy’s name as their #3 selection. We didn’t hear anything further for a couple of months so we really had dismissed it, believing that they must have called one of the two guys ahead of Andy. In the meantime, no doors were opening for church positions at all for us. One large church had contacted us back, but they were lackadaisical about moving forward and we weren’t thrilled with them, but hated to shut that door either, even though we had misgivings. In early March, we got a call from Brian Thigpen that the new pastor of Bethel, Ricky Plummer, wanted to meet with him. At their meeting we learned that all of their doors had slammed closed also. We were still uncomfortable with a youth position and they were uncomfortable with Andy’s primary music background. Andy met with Ricky on 3/11/08, then we toured Bethel on 3/17/08. On 3/24/08 Andy had a three hour meeting with the search committee. On 4/2/08 Andy met again with Ricky and Tony Brown at Mia’s to talk about status – they were supposed to vote that night, but weren’t ready. They scheduled a “vision” meeting with Andy and me for the next Monday, the 7th of April and then on the 9th, they voted “yes” to take him before the church as the prospective candidate. Andy ate lunch again with Ricky on the 15th and then met with the staff on the 30th, the same night that they presented his resume to the church for consideration. We came to Bethel yesterday for a Q&A session with the church and to meet the youth. Tonight, during the evening service, Andy gave his testimony and they voted 93% yes to call him! Blessed be our God who takes care of ALL the details! We don't have to move, Andy gets to do what he loves, we get to be a part of a GREAT church!
