God's Faithfulness in the Midst of Hardship pt 2

    When we celebrated the new year, 2016, for the first time in a long time I felt a sense of relief. It hadn't been all chaos the last couple of years, but there always felt like we had anxiety hanging over us. Now we had finally paid off a huge medical debt, our family was healthy, homeschooling was going really well, and I was hitting my stride with my essential oil business. We were even thinking about looking for a bigger house, as the last 12 years we had lived in what was basically a two bedroom, one bathroom house. We loved that house, but with three growing kids and a need for a homeschooling space, we were feeling a little crowded. Just for fun, I made out a "wish list" for a new house that included a laundry room (we didn't have one of those, either), a master bathroom, a carport or garage, and a homeschool space. I smile thinking about that list now.

Mission trip 2015 to Turkey

    One thing that we were always open to from the beginning of our marriage was God's leading. Joe, at the time, was an associate pastor and had been at the church for almost 18 years, and we had been married for 11 of those years. As a couple we had been on 3 overseas mission trips together during our marriage and were very involved in ministries within the church. Our love for missions had casually led us to talk about going on the mission field ourselves. I'll have to admit, though...change wasn't as easy for me as it once was. When I was young and single, I loved change and adventure. Now I liked having roots and a nest for my little family. I also finally felt like I had an established group of friends and a place in our community, which are things I had prayed and longed for for several years. My husband and I began to sense a need to begin praying more intensely for a direction for our family...to stay where we were or to go somewhere new...specifically in the area of my husband's job and ministry. We had no idea where God wanted us to be. We cast the net wide and some of the things my husband suggested made my heart skip a beat. I hoped that I could be as flexible and willing to go to the ends of the earth as a tired mom in her 30s as I was as a single 20 year old. Once again, we had to put this in the Lord's hands and many brothers and sisters in Christ were lifting us up in prayer. We prayed for guidance, wisdom, and clear direction from God, but to be honest, I felt like that longed-for time of relief was fading fast.
    A few months into the new year, a small church that had been without a pastor for several months contacted Joe. They had received his resume and felt led to reach out to him. It would be only 30 minutes from where we currently lived, closer to my family, and in a rural area. Joe visited with some of their search committee members and came back very encouraged. Initially, I was very hesitant. I wasn't sure how God was going to work out all the details. As we continued to talk to those in the church and I visited with Joe one Sunday, I could see why he was so encouraged. Even as a visitor I felt loved and embraced by the members of this church. I soaked it up.

Kids watching the rain at our old house

  We were faced with a tough decision that we had no idea what the answer was: continue where we were currently living or move and accept this new position at the church? These were the two options that God had opened the doors to. We sought counseling because we were so uncertain which way God was leading us. We weren't sure how God was going to provide for all of our needs. A counselor we met with gave us some wise advice. He said a lot of people depend so much on a divine word from God to make decisions and when they go with what they thought God told them and it doesn't turn out the way they anticipated, they question whether they followed God's will or not. He advised us to first look at the Bible and see if our choice would match up with God's word. Is it Biblical? (this is the vertical) Then we needed to go horizontal. Did the choice meet our physical needs? Is it a good match with ones strengths/weaknesses? etc. If the answer is yes, then it is an acceptable decision from God. What if things don't go well when you make the decision? It doesn't mean that you were acting against God. It could mean He moved you there to move you on to something better. It was just what we needed to hear at that moment. We felt God was leading Joe to become the new pastor at the church...but there were a lot of question marks that we were taking on faith. Would we continue to homeschool? If not, where would the kids go to school? What about our house: would we need to sell or rent it? Would I need to go to work? How would we like living in a more rural setting? So far we had lived in a neighborhood where our kids had other kids to play with and we wouldn't have that when we moved. My heart was heavy with all of these questions and what was going to happen. I could not have imagined how God would provide.

Packing...

   On my first visit to the new church, a church member showed us the pastorium, or the house that was provided by the church for the pastor and his family to live in. We had never lived in a pastorium before. Joe had seen it and told me how nice it was, but I was skeptical. His version of really nice and my version had often been very different over our 12 years of marriage ; ). I was cautiously optimistic when I went in. My little "wish list" was still in my mind, and once again, God knows how to make me smile. The house had everything on my wish list. A nice laundry room, a master bathroom, a kitchen that opened up into the dining area that was perfect for our family and would be a big enough area if we wanted to homeschool, three total bedrooms that would be plenty for us, and a carport that was just right. Not to mention a very large living room area and beautiful views...even a front porch that we could sit out on, which was something I always wanted. We were also able to move in
whenever we needed to. God couldn't have planned it more perfectly.

Thankful it wasn't worse...

    We accepted the call to our new church in June of 2016, after much prayer and counsel. I learned later that some of my friends thought we were crazy for taking this leap of faith, but God knew this is just where we needed to be. June was filled with my packing up our house while Joe worked during the day. I was, again, pretty overwhelmed. Friends old and new came to help me when they could. My parents were on vacation most of the month of June, so I was thankful for all the help. Some church members gave us a going away party and at the party my son had an accident and broke his leg. He had to stay overnight at the hospital and that was the beginning of a series of events that still amaze me. More later....