His Mysterious Ways

The hardest part is over. I knew moving would be difficult, but going through it was ..... well, heartbreaking. Most of the time we were too busy to think about it, but as soon as we had a moment to think it hit us hard.

Thursday was our last chance to get everything done. Cleaning, packing the big stuff, making sure the yard was perfect, packing what we'd need for the month in Minnesota separately. I honestly didn't think we'd make it on time.

When I got up that morning, Josh was in the rec room sitting with his Bible on his lap. But he wasn't reading. When I asked him if he was okay, he just looked at me as the tears started to course down his face. He said, "I knew it would be hard, but I had no idea really. How can we leave all this? Our church. Our beautiful home. All these wonderful people. So many memories! In all the churches we've ever been in, they have never been to us what the people at Gospel Baptist church have become."

All we could do was hold each other and cry. Grieving is a process. And while we have undeniably had a lot to grieve recently, the Lord has given us even more to rejoice in!

The drive here was good, but I had to follow the U-Haul at a distance. Watching it sway like it was going to tip over every time we hit a bump was making me a nervous wreck.

When Jordan and Dillon got out for a potty break, they were pale and green. They stumbled over to me and said, "Mommy, we're riding with you the rest of the way. That truck rattles and rumbles and shakes so bad it looks like the dashboard is going to fall off. It's awful." Isaac and Nathan on the other hand thought it was the coolest thing ever to ride in "Daddy's big twuck!"

Snickers did so well. She's such a sweetie pie. We only stopped three times for about 10 minutes to fuel up and grab food, and she acted like all this was old hat to her. As soon as she got out on the grass she went potty then she was ready to jump back in the van for more.

We met Josh's parents and headed to the storage place around one o'clock Saturday afternoon. Pastor Hallet had arranged for several families from Birch Street Baptist to come and help us unload. We are so very thankful for them. They had that truck unloaded in no time, and the Lord held off the rain until the storage unit doors closed. Josh's parents headed home with the three older boys and Snickers. We then had plenty of time to return the U-haul, find a motel, and get some much needed rest.

After eating on the run for three weeks straight, we craved a nice, quiet, sit down dinner. The Lord led us to an Italian restaurant that had outdoor seating. The weather was sublime. The whole evening was almost magical it was so perfect. The only thing that could have made it better was being able to sleep once we got back to the motel. But Alia coughed nonstop until 1:30 a.m., and Isaac had huge welts that moved from one part of his body to the next, we THINK from something they put on the seats in the U-Haul. It was miserable. As a result we completely missed Sunday school, and made it to the morning service just barely on time.

After the service they had a church picnic. The first lady that I went up and introduced myself to ended up being my "divine appointment" for the day. It didn't take long before we were talking about Bible colleges, and I happened to mention that my mom told my sister that I was more "in prison" at college than she currently is where she is at. Which, of course, led to me having to explain that "yes, my parents are in prison," and "no, I don't mind explaining why."

She listened in dumbfounded silence as I gave her an overview of all that God has done, and when I was finished she told me her story.

She and her husband have both been imprisoned on identical charges.

By the time the afternoon was over, as far as I was concerned she was family. She was such a tremendous blessing to me, and I love how the Lord does that ~ giving us the most amazing gifts when we're least expecting them.

As we were packing up and getting ready to head to Minneapolis, Pastor and Mrs. Hallet, came over to talk. We told them that we were so glad to finally be here because we knew this was where God wanted us ~ He had made that perfectly clear. What wasn't clear though was exactly why. Pastor then asked if we had noticed that a certain family wasn't there; the one that had recently moved so he could serve as the song leader and she could play the piano. We had noticed, but we thought that they were just on vacation. He explained that, no, they had actually left.

That was a surprise.

The very first service we attended, everyone was excited about their arrival after anticipating their move for quite some time. They were filling a need. The need that we had anticipated filling since everything we have ever been taught has led us to believe that our current service is preparation for our future service. But we knew that if God wanted us here, He had a place for us to fill, and we chose to be open to whatever that was. Even if we ended up continuing to be just fill-ins as we were at Gospel Baptist.

As Josh and I were thinking about it and talking on the drive back to MN, we once again saw God's Almighty hand in the situation. He didn't have to work things out this way. From our finite perspective it would have been easier to not even have this other family be a part of the picture. For their sakes.

But He had other things in mind.

It was as if He wanted to see how yielded we were. How willing we were to do whatever He asked us to do, even if it meant having to get way outside of our comfort zone or be completely hidden behind the scenes.

Not only that, but it also solidified in our hearts how we really felt about Josh song leading on a regular basis and me being the main piano player. (If that's what Pastor Hallet ultimately decides he wants us to do.) Josh is willing to fill a need outside of his comfort zone if that's what God wants, and I expected to be relieved not to have to play the piano, but I was surprised to realize that I was actually disappointed.

It also just goes to show that you can't always rely on what you see in a situation. God is working behind the scenes in hearts and lives in ways that you and I could never even begin to imagine. He never makes a mistake and His way is perfect. He knows what He is doing. All He asks us to do is trust Him.

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In my last post, I mentioned that the company Josh is working for was providing an apartment for us to live in. We were supposed to get the information about it the next day, but it didn't come. We were so busy for the next week that we didn't have time to think about it. On Tuesday we realized that we were getting ready to leave and had no idea where we were going for sure.

That day things were not going smoothly. At all. We needed some good news.

God knew.

We got the email with the particulars of the apartment that evening, and we were floored by what we saw.

It's a VIP Furnished Luxury Townhouse, complete with a pool and gym. It is so beautiful! Especially when compared with what we saw online that we figured we would have to choose from. We will be here until until July 27th or possibly until we close on our house on August 3rd.

Once the U-Haul was unloaded, and we could finally give ourselves permission to relax, we realized how completely surreal everything has been since my parents went to prison. We have faced many of life's greatest stresses all at once. We're beginning to think we know what post traumatic stress must be like.

Essentially, God has provided for us to have a month long luxury vacation between moving out and moving in. Again, we are blown away by His abundant provision of needs that we didn't even know we had!

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I finally heard from my mom for the first time yesterday. It's been two weeks. She is doing awesome. The first thing she had to tell me was that she was able to lead a young lady to the Lord on Saturday night. Her name is Kendy. You'll never believe this, but she is Shannon's best friend. Shannon was the very first girl my mom was able to lead to the Lord the day after she went to jail. She actually named her first daughter after Kendy.

A lady named Tina whom my mom got to know while she was in Great Falls, also knew Kendy, and told my mom to make sure she looked for her when she got to California. When Kendy met my mom, and my mom told her who she was, she told my mom that she "knew God had sent her" there just for her. My mom has heard that so many times from many different people. Kind of like I've heard "Look, I have goosebumps!" after I tell people every little thing that God has been doing lately.

He is real. He is powerful. He is there just waiting for each and every one of us to be so yielded that He can do great things in and through us. He longs to be as close and as real to you and I as he was to Moses, and David, and Elijah, and to do even greater things for us than He did for them. He can!

He is not just good; He is absolutely magnificent!