2014 Was a year of adventure for us. I started off this year thinking my 2014 motto would be " Do less be more" sounded like a great idea. Well God had other plans.
Early in the year I was introduced to the speaking ministry of Graham Cooke. I listened to hours of his teachings. The stories he shared about his relationship with Christ captured me like nothing I'd heard before. A statement he made kept resonating with me..." With Jesus the light is Green until it's Red". I shared this statement with Bryce and we began putting this principle to work in our daily lives.
In the Spring I was given a book by Jennie Allen called " Anything" . Honestly rocked my world but not in a fun way. Basically she shares how her and her husband came to place where the truly prayed the prayer of " God we will do Anything you ask us to" . This lit a fire in me but scared me to death at the same time. Bryce and I discussed how we would like to be at that place in our walk but we just aren't there yet. We are like 70% out of 100%. But we did pray that we would hear Gods voice more on a daily bases and that we follow that voice.
In April we felt like God was telling us to hold Addie back from starting Kindergarten and homeschool. What? ( see blog post "when God asks you to homeschool" for more on that)
In June we found some property that we loved. We were excited to have land and build exactly the kind of house we want. So we put a offer in. ( The light is green until it's red)
They counter offered and then we got that "gut feeling" . The Red light. I have to be honest I wanted to blow through that yellow light. I wanted that land....that dream house. Thank God I have a wise husband and Dad who both spoke truth to me when I was functioning on total emotion.
So I pouted but we moved on.
In Oct together with other family members we were able to "plant seeds" in Haiti for a new orphanage due to be finished in Fall 2015. Can't wait to share more on that.
Also in the Fall we started looking at houses. Again we just didn't have a peace about moving from our neighborhood. (The neighborhood and house I've lived in most of my life btw)
To top it off our quiet little neighborhood all of the sudden wasn't all that quiet anymore. ( I'm going to try really hard to make this very detailed story as short as possible)
There had been police cars at a house on our street several times in September. One day I was outside with the kids and noticed a older couple in the yard of this house.
It was one of those God's voice moments again.... "Go talk to them" . As I'm walking over there I'm thinking " this is crazy... What am I going to say to them?
I introduce myself they tell me they own the house but it's their son and his wife who live there. A lot of bad things are going on and they are just going to let the bank take the house back. It's the only way to get them out.
I gave them my number told them to let me know if we could help in anyway and that was that.
On Nov 4th I got a call from this couple asking if Bryce and I would be interested in buying that house by the end of the month. Again the light is green until it's red. I went and looked at it. Not gonna lie It was scary!
But we had a peace to move forward. Every detail fell into place with little effort on our end.
So on Nov 22nd we had a 2nd home that needed a total renovation.
We went and prayed over every room of that house. As we were praying God gave us a clear plan for the house. He had a family He was going to place in there and it would be a place of prosperity and restoration for them. I didn't know what that meant but 3 hours later I got a message on Facebook from a couple we used to go to church with. They wanted to know if we were renting the house. They needed a place by the end of Dec.
I told them the soonest the house would be ready was Spring.
They still wanted to come look. I thought "sure come look and you will understand why it won't be ready until Spring".
Within minutes God said " This is the family..... Let them live there while you renovate. "
Long story short.... Bryce and I , the couple moving in and our sweet little retired neighbor have worked non stop the whole month of December to get this house livable.
In the midst of full time jobs, my busiest time at the salon, going on tour, caring for small kids, doing all the normal Christmas stuff and keeping a house hold functioning we have renovated a house!!!
There is still a lot to do but it's amazing how much we've accomplished in a short time span.
There are so many more details to this story that I'd love to share but that would make for a ridiculously long blog entry.
So I've learned that hearing Gods voice and following it is often uncomfortable and a little scary. But I'm praying for more of this in 2015. It's a adventure that I don't want to end.
A man's heart plans his way, But The Lord directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
