"Your ways are perfect" - ZHOP's completion

as I said in my August newsletter, ZHOP is closing. this announcement was made about 1 month ago. Greg Burnett, the man who was going to be taking over leadership from Kirk (who was moving to IHOP) declared confidently that he was not the person for this job and did not have the grace from the Lord to do it. all the staff understood and knew it was the Lord. He was saying, "You're done here, well done, assignment complete." but that didn't make it any easier. the day it was announced, i wept bitterly, and for the next 2 days as well. i am moving to Sudan in January, and the closing of ZHOP meant i was losing my home. since then we've been through a roller coaster ride of emotions. for most staff, this is liken to a job transfer, and as the whole leadership team is moving to IHOP Kansas City, so now are most staff. it's different for the community - people with full-time jobs for whom ZHOP is their church. most are not making a move to KC, so they are experiencing a lot of pain and grief over the loss of ZHOP. one man put it this way - "the reason i'm so hurt is because i am so grateful for this place. it has changed my family's life." it has been nothing less than painful to walk through this for everyone.

i am making the move to IHOP. the family i live with, Tom and Hilary Lacy, invited me to move with them (the night we got the announcement and i was destroyed because i didn't know where to go between now and January. it brought instant peace and security). the biggest burden we now have is selling 8 houses (families rent houses from one owner and house singles as well). i think i am alright now. i am looking forward to resting at IHOP. it's been hard the last few months here, being a shift leader and worship leader. i've heard the prayer room at IHOP is amazing - you sit down and are immediately sucked into heaven. that'll be really nice.

i decided to not try to figure out why this happened, all the spiritual reasons. none of us will know until the age to come why the Lord did this, and then it will make sense and we'll say, "Your ways are perfect."