WHIRLWIND

The past week has been the craziest week ever! We found out we are not going to Africa after all (at least not for a while) and moved into Gary's townhome in Saint Augustine. It's been so awesome decorating and putting our home together. We never really had a chance to do that because we moved in with Gary's sister to help save for the mission field. Because we found out it wasn't going to happen for a while, we packed up and started our new journey. I'm sure that as you have read my blog, you are thinking how Gary and I must have given up on what God spoke to us about the mission field. That's not the case at all. We faithfully believe that God directs our steps sometimes even when the voice is so clear about one thing, only to direct you to another place. Missions are our heart, 100%, but so is our commitment to our local church. We are under such a strong covering of Celebration here in Jacksonville. Our pastors truly care about us and want to lead us to places of growth and a deeper relationship with God. People do one of two things: we wait forever for God to audibly give us a calling and end up doing nothing, or we jump at the first or second thing that comes our way with plenty of ZEAL, but very little wisdom and accountability. We trust God has led us to an amazing church that has a mission field right in Jacksonville. We want to be apart of discipling believers from Celebration, only to see God take over the Southeast part of Florida, soon to be the whole region of the US, to the US, and then spreading all over the world. I think that if we continued on our path to Africa without that covering and blessing from our home, we would find ourselves alone in a lot of ways. (The missionaries never would have allowed us to come there anyways full time without that blessing though-praise GOD for the concept of honor and respect!)
Was it because we weren't ready? We weren't supposed to go anyways? We weren't holy enough? Coated enough in prayer?
HECK NO!
Our prayer was God, place us where there is the greatest need and alligns us with your word....
for now? Jacksonville, Florida
Will Gary always be in construction? Will I always teach? Those are the questions we don't even care for the answer yet. We just love to see what God is doing in our lives. He moves so quickly when we throw up our arms in surrender to what He wants.
So the moving? It's been awesome! My mom is coming in for SHINE tomorrow afternoon and i'm looking forward to some awesome messages from amazing GOD fearing women speakers and performers. Pastor Kerri and her crew always do an amazing job each year. My mom wasn't very open about God or church, but after going to Shine, she's opened up and grown so much-it's awesome to see God heal-even though it's always at His pace!!! Needless to say, i can't wait for tomorrow!!!!