The Adventure Begins

Most of you remember, recently John and I went through a very intentional 40 days of prayer about careers and where God wanted us in life. Let me just say, the hardest part of all of that is praying genuinely, and having faith that God will do what you are asking Him to. You better be prepared for Him to actually do it.  You might recall I wrote a post on that recently, you can read about it here. So I made the decision to pray with my whole heart and tell God that I want to live into any adventure He has for me, no matter what.

And God showed up. Big time.

During the very beginning of our 40 days of prayer, John got a phone call from a pastor at a church in Goldthwaite, TX. John's youth pastor from high school knew the guy and knew John was looking for a job and the connection was made. When the pastor from Goldthwaite called John, they had a 2 hour phone conversation about all sorts of things and John realized they were on the same page in a lot of ways. I was at Ponderosa that week that they had that conversation, and I was experiencing all kinds of cool things. God was teaching me and loving on me that week in some pretty miraculous ways. So when I returned home and told John all the cool things God was doing in me, I didn't have any idea God had done some cool things for John as well. We walked around the park near our apartment for a long time that night, lap after lap, just talking about what we thought God might be doing in our lives, of course never fully able to realize what that might be. While everything John was telling me about Goldthwaite sounded ideal, there were two major things that made me feel very uncomfortable. One, it's a Methodist church and two, it's Goldthwaite, TX. That would mean uprooting from Lubbock, which I have come to like very very much and moving to a random small town in central Texas and working at a church that has a completely different system from what John or I had grown up with. Luckily, the pastor was about to begin a 3 week vacation and said he would be in touch with John when he got back. So Goldthwaite Methodist went straight to the back burner while we searched for other options.

Fast forward 3 weeks. Nothing else had come up in our 40 days, and we were nearing the end of it. We were discouraged and frustrated that we had no clear direction. Then out of nowhere, the pastor from Goldthwaite called John. He was almost done with his vacation and he had taken the liberty of speaking with the committee who would do the hiring about John. They were very interested in us coming to visit and had put together a package. So, we halfheartedly agreed to come spend part of a weekend down there and check things out. So the date was set to go visit. As it got closer and closer, we started second guessing the whole idea. I mean, a small town we've never heard of and a church we are completely unfamiliar with? Sounds a little crazy, really. So the Wednesday night before we were supposed to go down for the weekend, we had pretty much decided that we weren't terribly interested in making a visit because we really didn't think it was going to work out. Lo and behold, as we were walking into small group that night, the pastor calls. John looked at me and said, "uh oh, what should I tell him?" and I so wisely replied, "the truth." So John answers and tells him that we aren't feeling very positive about the whole thing and just aren't sure it's worth everyone's time for us to go down there. Shame on us, for asking God to send us somewhere and the politely saying no thank you, not there. The pastor started telling John how excited they all were about meeting us and how he felt so strongly that God had put all of these things in motion and he really thought we needed to come check it out. When John hung up the phone, we both knew that we needed to go.

So the whole way down to Goldthwaite I'm asking all sorts of worried questions like, do you think it's big enough for a Dairy Queen? Do you think it's going to be run down? Do you think we're going to move there? What if we like it? What if we hate it? Of course, all of these questions drive John crazy but I ask them nonetheless because I'm a little bit crazy. We ended up having a great drive down there, I don't remember the last time John and I laughed so hard at each other. We were both crying we were laughing so hard at the silliest things. Funny how we had such a spirit of happiness and laughter as we drove into our possible future.

When we arrived. I like the town immediately. It's beautiful country. Green rolling hills, huge green leafy trees, and big open pastures. And not to worry, they had a Dairy Queen AND a Subway! We drove to the church building and met Carlos, the pastor. He gave us a quick tour of the facilities and then we went to dinner to meet some of the people from church. We had a wonderful time. Everyone was so friendly and kind, we laughed and told stories and I felt peaceful.

Sunday morning was a little bit different than I'm used to, but not a whole lot different, and we were surrounded by new friends that had loved us instantly. I still just felt so much peace there. After church was a potluck, which was amazing, and we got to visit with even more kind people. From there we went to check out the mobile home that someone had donated for us to live in. They had offered us a 4 month trial period to check things out and this was the place we would live during that time. It's the cutest little mobile home you've ever seen. In the middle of a big pasture, our next door neighbors were a couple of horses that paid us no mind as they grazed in their wide open field. There was even a little fence around the yard for Izzy to play in. Picturesque, really.

So after many more prayers, John and I have decided that Goldthwaite, Tx is going to become our new home. We are really excited about what we feel like the Lord is going to do there. We have tried so hard to discern His will for us and we feel so much peace about this door that He flung wide open. I am going to miss my family and friends and I am not looking forward to saying goodbye. I know deep in my heart though that if we are going to live called according to His will, then we better be prepared to do what He asks us to. And we know that this is what God is asking us to do right now.

So, next Thursday, September 16 we will drive away from everything familiar and embark on a big huge adventure in a tiny Texas town. Stay tuned to see how our adventure unfolds...