Tales from a Christ-follower, wife, mommy, daughter, friend, runner, cook, reader, maid, volunteer, and seeker of the lost art of sleep.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

eMi: our timeline


So often in life, God will allow you to go down a winding, weaving path...not to lose you, but perhaps to allow you to lose some of yourself, so that He may fill you back up.  I am so thankful!  The past 2.5 years have not been the easiest, but in looking back, I am so able to see his faithfulness.  He does not waste a minute that we are given!

January 2009: Jason, baby Jack and I had officially been at our awesome new church 3 months, and decided to participate in our church's 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting.  During this time, we also read Francis Chan's "Crazy Love," and it stirred something up in us.  We weren't sure what, but we knew God was calling us to something more...something bigger than us.  We stuck our "For Sale By Owner" sign in the yard and waited for Him to work His magic (annnnd tell us where we were suppposed to go. And what we were supposed to do once we got there). Fast forward 6 months: No sale.  No word from the Lord yet on where we were headed.  I checked "Obey God's promptings" off my to-do list (after all, maybe it was just a test to see if we were willing to obey), and had another baby.  It was a great year!

January 2010:  We looooove 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting!  Woohoo!  Read Chan's "Forgotten God" this go-round, and realized that so, no really, He's calling us to something.  This time we meant business, so we actually listed with a realtor. Six months later: nada.  And no Word.  I decided it was time to settle in and get comfortable...we had passed "the test" again!  I am in love with our cul-de-sac! And church! And friends! And by this time, I was working serving at our church, and LOVED that! And I got pregnant. Again. Which brought a whole new level of settledness and comfort to my sweet, perfect (loud) house and routine.  Another great year in the books.

January 2011:  Welcome to 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, round 3! YEAH! This year, the book o' choice for that season was David Platt's "Radical." (If you've read it, you probably know where this is going.)  Not only that, I decided to pray specifically for Jason (didn't tell him that), that he would continue to grow in his role as the leader of our house.  With us both being the youngest child from our families of origin, we are not what I would refer to as "decision makers." You know, the dumb stuff, like "Laredo's or pizza for dinner?".  Weeeeeell, as most believers can witness to, be careful what you pray for.  :) After just a few days of praying specifically for wisdom, leadership and vision for Jason for our family, he walked in one afternoon and announced with the most confidence that I've EVER heard from him, "I feel that we're supposed to somehow increase our involvement with eMi (Engineering Ministries International). I don't know if that means that we should move to Colorado (their base office), or Africa, but God has made this so clear this week."  Vision given! Having prayed so specifically for one, and for Jason in the middle of that, I knew it was the Lord who was calling us, not just an adventure-loving (snowboarding) husband on a tear.

November 2011: We finally flew out to interview with eMi in November (having a baby in May and TONS o' events throughout the summer and fall slowed things down for us).  A couple of weeks after our trip out, they officially extended a letter of invitation to us, asking us to join the staff in the Colorado Springs office.  Jason will be a project coordinator for building projects in developing countries all over the world for things like hospitals and orphanages, as well as the director for their new Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program.

January 2012: Still praying, and fasting again.  We have vision, we have plans, we have received our Word from the Lord.  He is so faithful; He is so good!  And holy moly, where do we begin to get this ball rolling?!

October 2012: We are in the process of raising our ministry team.  We would LOVE for our house to sell, but  have a total peace about renting it out if it doesn't sell by the time we have our support/team raised and are ready to move.

January 2013: They want us out there by January 13th for staff training!  The next staff training isn't until August 2013, so we would love to have everything set and ready by January. We have a LONG way to go (and a LOT of toys to get packed up!), but we are yet again trusting that He is going to provide, and in His time.

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