It’s been a few months since I shared a personal and professional update. We have a lot of good news to report, and an invitation to a special event on September 1.

Concluding and Celebrating a Season of Healing

I’ve written previously about our engagement in the PIR process at Grace Anglican Church. Between April and June, I experienced many moments of affirmation and fruitfulness as this process came to its conclusion. I taught an adult Christian Education course on the Book of Isaiah, and preached twice in Sunday services.

I can’t say enough about how wonderful the people and staff of Grace Anglican have been for us. In fact, I was asked to share my story on the website of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh: “Finding Healing and Refuge at Grace Anglican Church.”

On September 1, during the 5pm communion service Grace Anglican Church, the clergy and our Refuge team will lay hands on us and “commission” us as the conclusion of this PIR process. If you are in Western PA, we would love for you to attend that service (directions here).

New Jobs

Starting in August, both of us have new jobs. Corrie accepted a teaching position at the school where our kids attend, Grove City Christian Academy. This is 3rd-grade position, in contrast to the K-8 music position she had at Saint Michael’s School in Greenville last year–music would be her preference. But there were some changes at SMS that made it clear to Corrie that she should make the switch, and now she has a much shorter commute (down to 5 minutes, from 35 minutes!). She’s excited to be part of the wonderful GCCA community, and is now busily preparing for the new year.

I have accepted a position as part-time transitional pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church up in Erie. This small church has been without a pastor for a few years, and I have substitute preached for them about once per month since January. The idea of this position is that their elders and I will work with the Presbytery (regional body) to help them in the revitalization process. The hope is that within 2-3 years, they will be prepared to call a full-time pastor.

The tough part about this call is that the church is just over an hour away from our home in Grove City. This means that most Sundays I will drive up there for the morning, and then as a family we will continue to attend Grace Anglican Church in Grove City on Sunday evenings (as we have been this last year). I will probably drive up to Erie once or twice during the week to meet with church members, elders, and people in the community.

I like this opportunity in Erie because I really like the people at this congregation, and their way of worshiping resonates with my convictions. I also like the Church Health Committee representatives with whom I’ll be working to help this church. If God can use me and the Presbytery to help them thrive, it could have a positive impact in a very diverse small city with a lot of needs (including many immigrants from all over).

Missions, Teaching

You might be asking, “If this pastoral call is only part-time, what will Benj be doing with the rest of his time?” 

In God’s timing, the hospice company I’ve been working with for the last year is changing their structure a bit, such that I will only be needed occasionally for vacation coverage. So I will actually be doing a lot less of that ministry.

Mainly, however, I will continue to teach and supervise theses remotely for the seminary in South Asia for which I’ve been teaching since 2022. In order to facilitate this ministry, and future overseas endeavors, Corrie and I are in the process of joining a missions agency. I will probably travel to South Asia about 3x/year for teaching trips at the seminary and other sites as requested by the director of the division I’m joining. The rest of the time, I’ll be prepping, grading, writing, and researching (I have several book projects in the pipeline–keep an eye on this site!).

I will provide more “forward-looking” updates on this work in the months ahead. In the meantime, we ask that you be praying for us as we go through the process of joining the missions agency, and that God would meet all of our financial needs for this season and beyond.

Other Stuff

June and the first part of July were taken up by house projects, visits from family, and a lot of baseball, softball, wiffleball, and ultimate frisbee. My sister and brother-in-law moved to Grove City from NJ with their children on August 2.

Another big moment in our journey was a visit to Lithuania, July 10–29 (praise God for credit card points!). This was our first time returning since we left two years ago. It was both difficult and joyful, not really restful–we saw many old friends and former students (and met several new babies!), visited our old places that were special to us, and tried to speak Lithuanian again (the kids were a bit apprehensive about that, but they found themselves understanding everything and speaking at about 80-90% fluency by the end of the trip).

I preached twice (here, start around 36:00) at our old church, Klaipėdos Laisvųjų Krikščionių Bažnyčia, and assisted with baptisms on July 21. (The photo is of Galyna, an 82-year-old refugee from Ukraine, the grandmother of Vlada, whom I baptized two years ago.)

Overall, it was a good and necessary visit for our family’s journey.

Thank You

It has now been ten years since we departed for Lithuania the first time (August 11, 2014); some of you have been reading this site only recently, and some of you have been part of it for all ten years (and even before). God uses your prayers, wisdom, advice, and affirmation to sustain us.

I will be in touch in the months ahead about further work in South Asia. Until then, please consider attending the September 1 commissioning service in Grove City, and keep us in your prayers.

“For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.”
(Habakkuk 2:14)