Today is Josiah’s birthday, so I want to say “happy birthday son” and take a moment to share publicly that I am proud of you. You love Jesus and have been such an display of God’s grace as you have gone through the process of healing after your accident. You still bear, and always will, the physical marks of God’s grace in your life. Those scars are there to always remind you of His love for you, and that He has a great plan for you. When you look on those scars, remember that. You have been an inspiration to many. Continue to use that for God’s glory. Here is your story, or better yet, God’s story written in your life over the last 15 months.
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Josiah’s Day
Merry Christmas From The Petermanns!
Merry Christmas! It is hard to believe that this time if year has already come around again. Time flies they say, and this year it seems to have gone much faster than any previous year.
As I have studied, preached and contemplated the Christmas season this year, one thing has really grabbed my attention over and over again; and that is this: Jesus was born into a mess. The world was a mess, religion was a mess and all the circumstances about His birth (born of a virgin, Joseph and Mary were not married yet, the public perception of the events was not good) were messy. God could have sent Jesus to a respectable, rich and royal family, but He didn’t. God still works in messy situations today, and that should bring great comfort to us.
We have had a year of great transition… again! Let me share the brief highlights:
We started the year focused on Josiah and his healing after his car accident. The months after his accident were filled with long days of therapy, phone calls and traveling to Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor. Jennifer and I were able to keep working through all of this. Our jobs were very accommodating to us for scheduling, to which we were very thankful. We made it through those very busy and hectic days gaining an even greater appreciation for family and friends that loved on us and cared for us during this time.
In June, I started corresponding with Christ Community Church and their Pastor Search Team about becoming their next Pastor. Over the next few months we went through the process of answering questions and phone calls and then took a couple of trips to the church to seek God’s direction. On October 23rd, the church unanimously voted for me to be the next pastor of the church. We moved down here to Bartlesville on December 1st and feel like we are home! The church is so loving and has a great desire to reach people that are far from God. We are excited about the days ahead as God leads us in this new adventure!
As far as the kids go:
Jordan, Daniel and Madysen are still living in Wichita. Jordan is enjoying being a stay at home mommy, and Daniel works for Haverty’s furniture. They are now only about 3 hours from us, which makes seeing them much easier, and hopefully more frequent! They are expecting their second baby on July 4th!
Josiah is doing fantastic! He has made great progress in his healing. He was able to return to school and graduate with his class on time! He also returned to work at Starbucks and went back to almost a full time schedule after school let out. He also returned to driving and purchased a yellow 2003 Mustang to drive around in. He is currently looking for a job here in Bartlesville and plans to go to college starting this fall.
Joshua is in 8th grade and a typical Jr High boy. He enjoys being outside playing ball and riding anything with wheels. He also recently purchased a chameleon as a pet. He has a tender heart that I am praying God uses to reach others.
Jenna is in 6th grade and thinks she loves Justin Bieber. Her new room is scattered with posters and has the high-pitched sounds of his music coming from her room at most times. She is turning into a beautiful young lady and has an amazing love for people (as long as it is not her siblings).
Jaidyn is my little princess. I seriously think she believes she is a real princess. She has a great fashion sense and displays a different outfit about every three hours. She is full of joy and compassion and loves being around people.
Jennifer is enjoying being at home right now. God has blessed us with a house that has a lot of space in it, so she is enjoying setting up and decorating. We are both very tired of living out of boxes and storage facilities so we wanted to set up the house as soon as we could. It is great to feel settled and home. God has brought us through one of the most trying times of our lives. It has not all been good, looking at it from a human perspective, but it has all been part of God’s plan for us and has led us in our next steps as we follow Him.
We look forward to leading our family and our church in the new year. God has placed us right where He wants us and has great plans for us; of that I have no doubt! We pray that you know that you matter to God and to us, and that you see His hand in your life.
Praying you have a Merry Christmas and a God-sized New Year!
The Petermanns
Our Next Steps
For nearly two years my family and I have been praying for God to show us where our next steps in ministry would take us. We know that being in full-time ministry is where we need to be. It is our calling and our driving passion in life. We also knew that our next steps would be different than any steps we had ever taken before because the desire that I have to be a lead pastor of a church.
With all of that being said, we have had nearly two years to learn from not only many life experiences that we have had, but also to learn from a church that is growing and reaching countless people for Jesus. It has been a huge blessing to be a part of Granger Community Church. We are thankful for the time we have had here. We have made friends that we will have for life. They have made a mark in our lives, and they have caused us to love Jesus more.
Now for our next steps, I am excited to announce that on October 23rd, I was unanimously voted to be the next pastor of Christ Community Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. We are packing up things on this end and making plans to move down there right after Thanksgiving. My first official Sunday there will be December 4th.
We will be closer to our granddaughter (and Jordan and Daniel too). We will also be close to Josiah at Baptist Bible College, where he will be attending starting in January.
We appreciate the many prayers, calls and notes of encouragement on Facebook over the last two years. God has been good to us. He has shown Himself so faithful in so many ways during this time.
We are excited to lead a church of people that love God and are doing their very best to love and reach people for Jesus. Please continue to pray for us as we make this transition. And pray even more that God will show Himself strong at Christ Community Church.
Update on Josiah: July 27th
It has been quite some time since I wrote about Josiah’s progress. God continues to do great and mighty things through Josiah’s recovery. I still will weep and just stand in awe as I look at Josiah and see him now compared to what I saw the first night at the hospital. Maybe I am a wimp for being so emotional about it, but I am humbled and in awe of not only how God made the body to heal, but also in how God chose to spare Josiah’s life and heal him.
Medically speaking, he is doing great. We had our last visit to Ann Arbor last week. They said that his facial nerves will continue to heal and they really do not think he needs to come back. We visit Mary Free Bed next month, and hopefully he will be released there as well!
He graduated and started back at his job all in the same week of June. He just recently got his full-time work schedule back too! We have filled out all of his paperwork for college and are shooting for attending Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo this January. He has a drive and passion for youth, and will be pursuing that in school.
We are in the process of getting drivers rehab started so that he can drive again. He is SO anxious to get a car and start driving again. More anxious than I am for him to drive, that is for sure!
Once again, I would have never chosen this path for our family, but the last 8 months have been a time of growth, humility and a display of God’s grace that I would not want any of us to have missed. Josiah will carry the marks of God’s grace the rest of his life through the scars that are left on his body. I pray they will remind him daily that God loves him and has a great plan and purpose for his life. God has a plan and a purpose for all of us. You may feel insignificant, unloved or without direction, but God, by His love, mercy and grace does have a purpose for you. Seek Him and you will find all you are looking for.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 - God told me, “My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.” Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.”
She Makes Me Happy!
22 years! That seemed so far away the day that we said “I do.” But here it is, 22 years later and it seems like we are just getting started on the best days of our lives. She constantly makes me smile. She makes me a better man. I love you Jennifer!
Proverbs 5:18 “…may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.”
Josiah Did It!
We are so blessed! I realize that most of my blog posts over the last 6 months have been very personal. It has been a record of the journey that our family has walked with Josiah due to his accident. We have not liked every minute of it. In fact, there were moments that I really did not know how I would make it another minute, let alone make it to the point where we would see the things he has accomplished.
Yesterday, I blogged that he completed a 5k (his first by the way!). Today, he crossed another finish line… He graduated. I am proud, humbled, filled with joy and grateful to my God that He allowed Josiah to heal so well. I am confident that Josiah’s future is one of huge influence and impact in the lives of others. His story is one of being a miracle of God.
We Ran the Sunburst!
I ran a 5k today. It is not my first time, and it will not be my last. I always enjoy running, but today was a special one. I got to run it with my dad, which is way cool that we can do that together. But I also got to run it it with Josiah. He crossed the finish line, and I wept. This boy has come so far in 6 months. He crosses another line tomorrow, and I will blog about that too. But for now, here are a few pics from today!
My wife and daughter took the pics. They did good!
Prov. 23:24 “The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.”
Why Not Me?
The last 18 months have been a season of more struggles than my wife and I have seen in our previous 21 years of marriage. Not struggles in our marriage, mind you, but things like the death of a close family member, failing marriages in the family, family “issues” that seem to creep up on a regular basis and then of course, our son’s accident in December. We have never experienced so much pain, sadness and frustration as we have in the last 18 months.
Now, I do not write that because I want anyone’s pity. I don’t. In fact, for the last 20+ years of my life we have been fairly sheltered from having to deal with these types of things. So, starting with getting the word that we were being laid off, we have experienced things that I never thought we would have to go through. I have never struggled to have a job. Since we were married, we have never had to live with anyone else. We have not had a lot of death or divorce to deal with in our families and we certainly have never had a child almost die in a car accident.
There have undoubtedly been moments that I have asked God “Why?” “Why do I have to go through all of this? Why can’t I find a church to pastor, why can’t I do this or that? Why is my son having to go through all of this pain?” Those are all questions that I wanted answers to. Those are questions that we all would want answers to. I believe God knows that we want those answers. I was sitting in the hospital room watching Josiah sleep one night, just thinking and being quiet before God when I got an answer.
“Why not you, Jason?” And that was it. No other answers. Nothing more specific. Just, “Why not you?”
I thought about that for several days. I never expected to be immune for bad things in life. I never held to the thinking that if I was a good and performed for God that I would somehow have a magical life. But, I also never expected these things to “happen to me.”
We have learned much over the last several months. Though many of the situations we have faced are not pleasant, we have been able to walk through them, day by day, knowing that God was in control; knowing that He has a purpose and a plan for everything. I may not know all of the “why” surrounding these struggles but I do know that through everything that God says “why not you, Jason?” that He will use it to make His name famous. He will use my struggle to allow me to be more compassionate, more loving and to be able to help others because of what we have faced. I am thankful for that.
Just this morning, I read Romans 8:35:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?”
No matter what we face, we are not separated from the love of God. In fact, our struggles make God’s love more real and evident. Verse 37 goes on to say:
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
I am a conqueror because of the love of God. His plans and purposes advance when I ask “why not me” and I lean in to Him, and then reach out to others.
Update On Josiah: April 21st
Today we had a follow-up appointment at the University of Michigan with Josiah. The doctors here have been looking at his facial paralysis over the last few months and tracking his progress. His nerves had already started growing back together. We knew that, as we could see his smile coming back. But today we received some great news! They informed us after the testing that his nerves had made significant progress, that there would definitely be no surgery needed and that he would not even have to go through this procedure again (sticking needles in his face to test the nerves). He was thrilled about that! He still has to come back to Ann Arbor one more time for a hearing test and check up. And he has at least one follow-up visit at Mary Free Bed and with the eye doctor, as well as a bit of therapy to complete, but other than those visits, we think he may actually be done seeing doctors for the near future! God has continued to pour his love, grace and mercy on us in regards to Josiah and his health! We are so grateful for all that He has done! We appreciate all the prayers, kind words and notes over the last several months. Please continue to pray for the following specific things:
- Pray that he finishes strong in school. I am so proud of his hard work to get caught up in his work so that he can graduate with his class this year.
- Pray that his strength continues to return. He still has some weakness in his body.
- Pray for him as he contemplates his future. His plans have been put on hold for at least 6 months to a year. That is frustrating to a teen boy who is looking forward to his independence.
- Pray for us that we would be prepared and ready when the time comes for him to get behind the wheel to drive again. That is not something we are quite ready for and probably never will be, but it will come.
There are no words to describe the wonder, awe and humility that we feel at God’s goodness, comfort and providence in our lives. It has been an amazing road that we have walked the last few months. We look forward to seeing what God has next for Josiah and our family!
Ephesians 3:14-19
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
