I've come to realize that our life is anything from what most would consider normal. Let me explain.
Two years ago (while I was pregnant with our third son), Jonathan left a great job at a big established church to move to Magnolia where he would help our friend, Casey Cease, plant Christ Community Church (C3) Magnolia. I very distinctly remember driving down Beltway 8 in Houston as we were talking about what God was doing in our lives and I laughed out loud and said "God's going to call us to plant a church, huh?" Ha! Little did I know.
God provided in amazing ways, and we moved from predictable and established to the new and unknown. And I wouldn't change one part of it! We have been privileged to see God move and work in awesome ways, as well as grow our faith in ways that would not have happened otherwise. In my mind, we would be here for years growing in and helping to grow the work at C3, but God had another plan...
Towards the end of last year/beginning of this year Jonathan really began feeling called to be a lead pastor and plant a new church. (See told you, little did I know!) After much prayer, discussion, and time in the Word, Jonathan talked to our lead pastor, Casey. He affirmed Jonathan's calling and was eager to send us out with blessing from C3. So our plan was to plant Restoration Church Bryan in January 2014. Our plan was to move to Bryan towards the end of the year.
A couple of weeks ago, we attended the Acts 29 Boot camp. As we were driving to drop the kids off with grandparents we began discussing our time frame. Both of us felt like God may be calling us to move sooner. In our training sessions with a panel of church planters, one of the men was asked "If you could go back and do it again, what would you change as you were starting the plant?" His words pierced Jonathan's heart. He basically said, he wouldn't parachute into the city, but get there and begin building community quickly. The final affirmation for us came Friday morning during our assessment. One of the recommendations of the pastors assessing us was to move sooner than the end of the year. To quote my very wise husband (from when I found out we were having twins), "When does God ever work according to our plans!"
While I thought we had months to prepare to move, at this point we are looking at weeks! Today we are having an open house for our home in Magnolia. Yesterday we were in Bryan house hunting. The "real-ness" of it all is very much settling in. And oh, my what a range of thoughts and emotions!
I am a so proud of my husband! He is so diligently and humbly seeking the Lord, and following His call on our life. His trust and faith in who God is and His faithfulness challenges me in so many ways.
I am so proud of our boys! Levi has recently added quite a bit of detail to his prayers (must be his Baptist roots). Love seeing him learn to talk to God. One of the regular parts of his prayer has become "God, I will trust your heart in love. God I will obey you and move to Bryan." The twins are a little timid about leaving friends and making new ones, but they are excited too. We have had great opportunities to discuss with them the importance of obeying God and trusting in Him.
I am extremely excited. I have always wanted to be a part of a multicultural church and be in a context where we can truly impact a community. God has confirmed Bryan and this church to us in many ways.
I am also terrified beyond all measure. Last night before going to bed, Jonathan and I had a very frank conversation. We both recognize if this work is completely on us, IT WILL FAIL! While that brings about great fear, it is also one of the most freeing realizations I could have. My trust is not in me, it's not even on my husband who will be a fantastic pastor, my trust is in the God who has called us to this work!
