A God thing.

Garth and I went to New Leader Training at our church last Thursday night because we want to become small group leaders. We were part of a small group last year and met some amazing friends, but due to lack of leadership our group fizzled. It was a bummer, but we made some good friends so it wasn't a loss. All that to say, the experience encouraged Garth and I to begin the process of becoming leaders.
Let me provide some background first: The church we were married at required us to meet with a couple for 11 weeks and go through the book Preparing for Marriage by Dennis Rainey. We had an incredible experience with our mentors and we cannot wait until we have been married long enough to become mentors. We love reading about marriage and giving (and getting) marriage advice. It has become a passion for us and we feel it is where God will use us in His church.
But our church requires us to be married 5 years before becoming mentors (which is wise) so we felt we needed to volunteer elsewhere in the church. Leading a small group seemed the most logical next step to us so we attended the 3-hour training. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't want to go. I didn't want to miss The Office and I was exhausted from work. But we went and as soon as we walked in one of the small group pasters, John, came up to us and asked how long we had been married. He began casting his vision of married couples hosting a small group with engaged and newly married couples and he asked if this is something we would be interested in. Ummmm yes! After that encounter I felt there was no where else we should have been, but right there at training. It was a God thing.
After the training John took us to his office and gave us his card and we gave him our applications and he said he would contact us about starting this new type of group, which is supposed to launch in January. There were other young marrieds at the training, but he talked to us about his vision. As I was thinking this in my head John said "I just felt God wanted me to talk to you guys about this new idea." It was a God thing.
Flashforward to this weekend. We were coming home from vacation Sunday night and stopped at Walmart for some groceries and ran into a young married couple we met at the training. We talked for a while and they invited us to come to their small group. This is perfect because the new small group John asked us to lead doesn't start until January. It would be a great opportunity to get back into small groups, get in the Word, and meet new friends. It was definitely a God thing.