Wandering in the Desert

Well, it's been 5 weeks since Doug quit his job. I have to say that I have loved him being home. He got our shed and fence put up. Made a dress-up cabinet for all of Jazzy's dress-up clothes and has been keeping the house clean. I even came out one day and he had washed and waxed the van. It's just been awesome. He's also went fishing and disk golfing with the kids and we're just able to spend a lot of time together as a family. I would love for this to just be our life. Unfortunately, he will have to get a job at some point. He has been looking, earnestly in fact. He had an interview and test with a company last week and we're waiting to hear how the test went and see if he gets a second interview. I know something will come up. I totally trust that God has something for him in His time.

But...

Sometimes I just feel like the Israelites. I started a reading plan to read the bible through in one year. I like to read all the commentary that goes along with the chapters I'm reading, so it's going to end up being more like a two year plan. Anyway, I'm currently in Exodus and the Psalms. I learned so much about how God brought the Israelites out of Eqypt, things I never understood before. So now they're out of Egypt and every time something is not perfect, they wine and complain and question why they ever left Egypt. Sometimes I can totally understand where they're coming from. Every once in a while I get a glimpse of what we left. Doug would be Sergeant making about $70k a year. Jazzy would still be near her best friend and heading to the same school as her in the fall. Austin would still have a friend to hang out with. Live would be good. But then I stop and think that if we would have stayed, we would be in slavery. We would be slaves to money, to comfortableness, to our own selfish desires. Right now I am FREE! Freer than I have ever been. I have often referred to myself as a worrier, but I'm not worried right now! I can sometimes get stressed out if things feel out of my control, but I'm not stressed. All I am at this point is in awe. Just in awe and humbled that God chose Doug and I for this journey. In awe and humbled that He can use us to help further His kingdom. Just in awe and humbled by the awesome God I serve.

We're on this journey. This journey called life. And I am so thankful for the freedom from myself that God is teaching me through it. He can keep us wandering for as long as He needs to, we'll just keep our eyes on Him.

Road Trip!

Over the weekend, Doug and I and the rest of the Core team for SCC took a road trip. We visited Elevation church in North Carolina and New Spring in South Carolina. I'll give you all of the boring details first. Doug took a half day off on Friday and when he got home we headed to Indiana to drop our kids off with my mom. We then headed to the church where a charter bus awaited us. We left that night at 7 and headed to London, Kentucky where we spent the night. We hit the road the next morning and made it to Charlotte, NC late that afternoon. We attended Elevation and then headed to Anderson, SC. We attended New Spring on Sunday Morning and then were back on the bus to head home. All in all it was a whirlwind weekend, but I am so thankful I went!

Pastor Matt has talked about Elevation a lot. Not that we as a church are going to copy them and be our own Elevation in Fishers, but it is a very close model of his vision of what we are going to be. They are only 5 years old and run over 10,000 people. We watched the video they put out on the story of how they started the church. There was a group of families, just like SCC, that left their homes and moved to Charlotte with a vision for this church. It is the most amazing story. The funny thing is, is that Doug and I and several other families are living that same story right now.

I was blown away by the generosity of the church. They were expecting us and had two people that gave us tours of the building. They told us everything and answered any and all the questions we had. They gave us all their brochures and print outs and even Tshirts. After the service, the associate pastor, Joel, sat down with us and answered even more questions and shared with us. They were so ready to help us. It was amazing.

I was totally unprepared for the service. I thought I had an idea of what it would be like, but it was so far beyond what I could have imagined. It was the most intense experience I have ever had in a worship setting. You were so focused, it was crazy. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when I can attend a church, serve a church like that every week. How can they not run 10,000? How can we not be a huge impact in Hamilton County?

I was also amazed at both churches how God used the messages to speak to our group. He knew exactly what we needed to hear. We took this trip with a main focus of gaining knowledge to plant. God still used the time to grow us spiritually. It was awesome!

The other great thing about the weekend was just getting to know all of the couples better. There were a couple of families that we really didn't know well. It's amazing that God put this awesome group together. It was so much fun to sit and chat and laugh the miles away. I feel like I know everyone now and I can truly say that I love all of them. There's not a person in the bunch that I could say I don't like. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. We are going to be so tight with this group and what if there was one bad apple? I'm happy to say that I guess God knew what he was doing :)

To top off the weekend, it looks like we should have a finalized offer this week on our house. Looks like we'll be permanently in Indiana the first of February! I can honestly say that I cannot wait!