Church is dividing...

I don't know how many of you know that since our church has out grown the benches for quite awhile already...there has been actions taken to start a new church. First a committee was set in place to look for a location, preferably somewhere east or south. Then last summer we had 2 ordinations, one for deacon, and one for 2 ministers. About a month ago the location committee finally had a proposal which we all had opportunity to vote on. They wanted at least a 3/4 vote...it passed by a 94%! The location is about 10 mile SE of Bamberg on rt 362 if anyone wants to look it up on Google maps. It is a rented facility, so may be a temporary location, but will be a start. Then it was decided how the ministry would be divided, with Mark Hochstetler, Gordan Amstutz and Carl Heatwole being the ones 'sent' to the new location, with Gary Hege, Chad Brubaker and Michael Strite remaining at Barnwell. The next step was that we were given opportunity to choose which church we are willing to attend. They wanted it to be a fairly balanced divide, meaning, not to have a mother/baby church, but 2 sister churches with at least a 40/60 divide. Also that some of each age group could be involved with each church also, if not, they would take liberties to do a bit of 'tweeking'. Last Sunday those votes were all to be back in. Wed evening the report was that the votes were not quite all in, but of those that were 46% chose the new church with 54% remaining at Barnwell, and the age levels were all fairly balance out! Wow, another sign that God was at work! This morning the list of families of who chose to go to which church was in the mailboxes, when the final count was in, the dividing line was 60/40. It will be sad to leave the ones remaining at Barnwell behind, but as of the first of June, we along with 16 other families will be starting a church in the Hunters Chapel community. There are still a lot of details that will need to be worked out...but so far we are amazed at the working of God thru each of us! Praise the Lord.