Part 5: The Decision and Moving…

This blog post is Part 5 of the Moving to Orlando Mini-Series.  Each post is designed to tell you a little bit about what our life has looked like for us the past six months, what we have been doing, what we are going to be doing, and the process that took place.  The theme of this mini-series is about our family making the decision to move to Orlando, FL.  The story is about what God has been doing in our lives that led up to this move.  I hope you enjoy this series and I look forward to all of your comments and questions.  God Bless.

Looking back at the Prophetic

All the way back in January (of 2010), Autumn and I tried to go to the prophetic rooms at Voice Ministries once a month.  There were many reasons we would go, one of those reasons is for the encouragement we received by hearing what God was doing in us.  It’s also very encouraging to hear how He see’s you (not just how you see yourself), and to know what He is going to do in you.  We also wanted to go to the prophetic rooms for direction for our lives, we were very much in transition and we wanted confirmation that what we heard God saying was the same as what He was saying through others.

So, all the way back in January, the first time we went to the rooms the prophetic team in that room gave us a word that at the time made no sense, however looking back it described our transition perfectly.  This happened to us many times throughout the next five months, where God gave us words that at the time weren’t clear or we didn’t understand them, but looking back, God was directing us.  Not every word you receive today is for today.  This is exactly what we experienced, many words given to us, all the way back to January, played themselves out.  This was a huge confidence builder for me, God was showing us things that He was preparing for us, that we wouldn’t understand until the right time.

Our Identity in Christ & Walking in Our Inheritance

At the Passion, Power, & Purpose Meetings w/Graham Cooke, Graham talked about our identity in Christ.  This was really good for me personally.  He also talked about walking in our inheritance, both topics kind of tied into each other really well, and confirmed in my heart that deciding to move to Orlando was the right decision.  In Part 4: Overcoming Fears… I talked about all the reasons why we shouldn’t move (basically fears and anxiety), but walking in our identity and inheritance in Christ will give you all the reasons for moving.  God’s Word says,

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1),

So the question is, am I going to walk in the faith and conviction that God has called me to or am I going to walk in fear and anxiety?  Again, the Bible tells us,

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ” (1 John 4:18)

So when I considered if we were going to move or not, the only reason for not moving was fear and anxiety.  However, if there is no fear in love, then where do my fears come from?  God?  certainly not, so I know that I need to take my thoughts and fears captive and turn them over to Jesus.  If I am walking in God’s call on my life, I can’t be deceived, I must realize that there is a spiritual battle going on and I am called to do spiritual warfare.  This means not accepting the fears and anxiety from the enemy.  It also means that not all of those fears are from me, but some are from the enemy, and we must not accept those or beat ourselves up over them.

Finally, when speaking to the disciples Jesus said,

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear?32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

This pretty much nails all the fears I was having, so I have to chosen to seek first God’s kingdom, and then I know that all those things will be provided for me.  With all of my fears and anxieties no longer reasons for not moving to Orlando, there were no more reasons not to move.  Not to say we moved because there wasn’t a reason not to, but rather because God had given us many prophetic words, urges, callings, etc, and on the scales of life those reasons were running even with my fears and anxieties.  When all the fears and anxieties were gone, it was plain to see what Gods will was for us.

Back to the conference for a second, Graham Cooke said that when God has called us to do something, He has already given us that thing as our inheritance, and since it’s something He has given us, He has already provided  for all of our needs to accomplish His will for us.  This means that if God asks us to go on a missions trip, He has already included the funds to go, if He calls us to move to Florida, He has already provided for all of our needs as an inheritance.  This was also a very big faith builder for me, because god won’t call us to do something that He hasn’t already provided for in advance!

Faith, Not Living Life by Default, & God’s will

Finally, I determined in my heart that I didn’t want to live a life that happened by default.  I didn’t want to live a life that I took as it came along, I wanted God’s will for my life.  I wanted to live life by faith and not by my own strength.  I knew that the opportunity for growth in my life was gigantic if I had faith that God would provide for us.  I also knew that if we didn’t move, the next time God asked me to do something in faith I wouldn’t be able to do it later if I couldn’t do it now.  I didn’t want that to be a part of my life.

I also knew that my life was at a crossroad, if I chose to do God’s will here, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we would be in Gods will.  However, if we decided not to move, I knew we would be miserable, we would regret it, and it would be hard to undo that decision.  So I asked myself, “Do I want to follow God or not?”  I knew that I could still follow God if we chose not to move, but I also knew that it wouldn’t be God’s will for us, I would be choosing to be the god of my own life instead of submitting to His will.  So I decided that I didn’t care if we moved to Florida and everything blew up in our faces and it was a complete failure, that no matter what I was going to choose God, and God’s will for us.  Right now, at this point in our lives, God has called us to OHOP, so that’s where we are going to be!  And as I am writing this, that’s where we are.  Since we moved to Orlando, and everyday that I am here, I am more confident than the last that this is where we are supposed to be, and God is going to provide for all our needs - abundantly!

“And my God will supply every need of mine according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19)

That was Part 5 of the Moving to Orlando Mini-Series, I hope you have enjoyed it.  If you missed one of the blogs you can read any of them by clicking here.

All the verses quoted in this blog post are from the English Standard Version, they have been copied & pasted from YouVersion.com

Part 4: Overcoming Fears…

This blog post is Part 4 of the Moving to Orlando Mini-Series.  Each post is designed to tell you a little bit about what our life has looked like for us the past six months, what we have been doing, what we are going to be doing, and the process that took place.  The theme of this mini-series is about our family making the decision to move to Orlando, FL.  The story is about what God has been doing in our lives that led up to this move.  I hope you enjoy this series and I look forward to all of your comments and questions.  God Bless.

Finding Out About OHOP…

To tell you the truth, I can’t really remember when or where I was when I found out about the Orlando House of Prayer.  For a long time I thought I found it online once we moved back to Indiana, but after further thought I may have found their website back in Branson, maybe as early as November, but I really can’t remember.  I do remember why I found it though.  I have often been intrigued with the International House of Prayer in Kansas City and if you look back on this blog you can read about our visit’s here and here.  Anyway, the IHOP in KC has a Forerunner School of Ministry that does internships etc, but when I looked into their program it didn’t seem very family friendly.  So I started looking for other House of Prayer internship opportunities, along with other schools of ministry (Such as the one at Bethel Church in Redding, CA).  However, the House of Prayer in Orlando stood out.

During our transition period at our parents houses I applied for lots of ministry positions, several non-ministry positions, and just didn’t get any feedback at all.  Sometime in January I called about the internship at OHOP and Autumn and I started discussing the possibility of moving to Orlando.  The internship/school of ministry followed by going on full-time staff seemed like the right fit.  It gave me an opportunity to get trained to do ministry, and then to move into a position after the training was over, there weren’t many prerequisites required, just the internship, it seemed perfect!  The only detail that didn’t seem perfect was that in order to go on staff full-time, you have to raise your own support.

All the Reasons not to Move…

As time went on, Autumn was more convinced than ever that we were suppose to move to Orlando.  We also started getting a lot of prophetic words that seemed to indicate that this is what we were suppose to do.  I on the other hand, couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that we would have to raise support.  Not only that, but where would we live, would I do the internship full-time or part-time?  It would be hard to do it full-time if we didn’t have any money.  On the other hand if I did it part-time it would take a much longer time to complete it, and it would mean a lot more time away from family.  I also wondered how the internship would make our life better off.  What would it help me to accomplish?  I think it would help me to get a position at a House of Prayer, but was that what I wanted to do for the rest of my life?  Work for a ministry?  In addition, I didn’t know if this internship would help me get a job in ministry at other churches or denominations.  Also, do I really want to work at a church – after all, I have never felt like I fit in at a church (from an employment perspective).  I am not a preacher, I don’t like having to smile if I don’t want to, and I just think I would feel like a fish out of water.

We would also have to consider what we would do with our house, since the tenants were about to move out. If we moved back in then we wouldn’t have to worry about a mortgage payment plus rent, and our mortgage payment isn’t very big, if I didn’t get a job right away we could still survive.  Maybe we could build on to the house later… What about my Census Job?  Would I leave early?  Does it make any sense to quit a job I am getting paid for and move really far away to take a position that is unpaid?  What about being away from family again?  We don’t really know that many people in Florida, so we would be starting over again.

I also wondered if I knew for sure that I agreed with the House of Prayer movement enough to go make major life changes.  After all, I have never spent time in a House of Prayer – Prayer Room.  Will I like it?  Do I place the same value on their Core Values?  Do I really want to participate in Prayer sieges as abortion clinics?  I know the fruit of the movement, but I don’t understand everything about the movement…  Plus, we were already attending a House of Prayer in Michiana, why couldn’t we just attend there?  The easy answer was that they didn’t have any internships that I knew of (more on this later), and I didn’t see where it could lead, because they didn’t have any staff positions available.

Deciding not to Move to Orlando…

In the end, after thinking about it, analyzing everything to death, I decided it would just be best not to move to Orlando.  I could find a job, any job, just as long as we could survive, we could move back into our house in South Bend, it wouldn’t be ideal, as a matter of fact we (Autumn and I) would both hate it, but we could make it work.  And, we could take the next six months to a year to pray about where God is leading us.  This would also give us time to save some money, and we could have some stability in our lives.  No more moving back and forth, I would be showing everyone that I was responsible for getting us back on our feet and getting a job.  I wouldn’t have to keep asking people for help, and they wouldn’t feel obligated to help us, we would be close to family, and life would just plain flat-out be easier for a while.  I also knew that Autumn really wanted to be around family, maybe this would be best for us.

When I came to the conclusion to just put the idea of moving to Orlando behind and not go, I thought that Autumn would be happy about it.  I knew it would be tough moving back into our old house, but doing that and getting a job locally would definitely be easier than the alternative.  So, I waited for the right time to talk to Autumn about it and settled my heart about it, we wouldn’t be moving to Orlando, I let out a sigh of relief and started thinking about our next step as a family.

Next I told Autumn that I was content to not move to Florida, lets move back into our old house effective June 1st, the tenants will be moved out, we won’t have to worry about finding a new tenant.  I will get another job, we can afford to be there for several months before we have to worry about finances, and we will be close to family.

Autumn’s Response…

In an un-anticipated turn of events Autumn said that if God said we were suppose to go to Florida, we should go.  She also said she didn’t want to go move back into our old house if that wasn’t where God called us to be, and to be honest she said that it felt like that chapter of our life had been closed.  This kinda threw me for a loop.  She asked me why I didn’t think that we should move, all I could come up with were fears.  Interestingly enough, it seemed like she had already determined we were suppose to move and had been waiting on me to figure out the details.  In my mind I was trying to figure out the details of how we could move, and then decide if it was feasible or not, and I had determined it was not.

At a church service or class around this time the speaker talked about not doing things out of fear vs having faith.  I then determined that I wasn’t going to miss out on God’s will for my life just because I had some fears.  I wasn’t going to live life by default, and I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity for the Lord to grow me spiritually, especially in the way of faith.  God started to increase my faith and really began reassuring me that this was in fact His will.  So, within a week of Autumn and I’s conversation I came back to her and said, ‘OK, let’s move to Orlando and become a part of OHOP, let’s make this official and start making plans.’  She said OK.  At this point I settled this position in my heart that if God wanted us there He was going to have to take care of that.  Not only that, but if He wanted us there then I wanted to go on staff full-time after the internship and we were going to need the Lord to provide the funds for this to happen.  I wasn’t going to miss what God had for us due to fear.  Over the next three weeks God confirmed our decision time after time after time.  Even though we didn’t know all the details, we knew that this was the right decision and we were willing to take a chance, even if we failed.

That was Part 4 of the Moving to Orlando Mini-Series, next will be Part 5: The Decision and Moving

Part 3: The Prophetic Process…

This blog post is Part 3 of the Moving to Orlando Mini-Series.  Each post is designed to tell you a little bit about what our life has looked like for us the past six months, what we have been doing, what we are going to be doing, and the process that took place.  The theme of this mini-series is about our family making the decision to move to Orlando, FL.  The story is about what God has been doing in our lives that led up to this move.  I hope you enjoy this series and I look forward to all of your comments and questions.  God Bless.

***DISCLAIMERS***

- In several of these post in the mini-series it can be easy to get off track and talk about all the details of life.  I try to stay on topic and show what God’s doing in our family and our individual lives.  However, in this post in particular, more than any other, I hope to show you what God has been doing from now all the way back to the beginning of January – and where it’s all going.

- This post is going to be long.  I had originally wanted to go through every single prophetic word that had been given to us that related to moving to Orlando.  That alone could have filled an entire five-part mini-series.   One day while thinking about writing the prophetic words we were given, I had a check in my Spirit.  I don’t know exactly why, but there is wisdom in not sharing them all I think.  First of all if different people view them as meaning something else they may think our decision or interpretation is wrong.  Giving the words on this blog wouldn’t be to *prove* a defense of our decisions, rather to tell about our journey.  Instead, I will share about our journey and if you have questions about the words I may be able to share some of them with you one on one.

- This isn’t a place to debate the validity of whether prophecy is or isn’t for today.  If you have fundamental theological differences then let’s agree to disagree.  This is also the second reason for not putting all of the words we were given in this post.  The third reason is that some of them are personal, so let’s proceed with the post.

Tuesday Nights: The Rhema Prophetic Rooms at Voice

Back before we moved from Branson, and don’t ask me when because it was so long ago, we found out about Voice Ministries, and we decided we really wanted to visit.  Once we got back to Indiana I spent a bunch of time learning about the church from their website and found out about their Prophetic Rooms.  These prophetic rooms are a place were you can go on Tuesday Nights at Voice and there will be two people in the room, 1 guy and 1 girl.  They ask you to limit the amount of times that you come to once a month.  The people will generally tape the session for you and burn it on to a CD, and they will start out by praying for you and asking the Lord to give them a word for you.  This process usually happens goes on for 15-20 minutes before everything is said and done.  Generally when you go into these rooms you don’t give them a lot of information about yourself, usually just your name.

Autumn and I attended in January, February, March, and May I think.  One time we went in the room together and the gave words over the both of us, and three times we went into separate rooms.  I have to admit, many times for us the prophecy we received seemed very general or we had no idea what it meant.  However, looking back things just seem to fit so well that it’s hard to doubt.  The very first night Autumn and I attended we were given very specific prophecy about us and our process of moving to Orlando (although we didn’t realize it at the time!) and the second time one of the prophetic people just absolutely nailed it.  There was no questioning what it meant, it was very direct, very timely with what I was going through, and very good for me.  Each time there were parts that related to our current position and parts that related to our future position.

One of the things that the ask you to do is to go home and study what was said.  Compare it to scripture, other words, what God is saying to you, etc.  Most of the time I listened to the CD’s once or twice.  Each time I listed I realize more and more about what God was saying to me.  I think one of the greatest attributes of God is His ability to know just what we need and when we need it.  Every time I had doubts or questions it seemed like God provided just that.

The Seer Class – Discovering the Seer in Me…

I didn’t know there was a seer in me, until I went to the class… Seriously though, I went to the class because I knew it was about the prophetic and I wanted to learn more about it.  There are different ways of receiving from God, some people are hearers, some people are feelers, and some people are seerers.  Me, I am a hearer, and I learned very quickly that there is a big difference between a seer and a hearer.  Namely that one person see’s from God and the other person hears from God – Thats a BIG difference!

One of the things that I believe God wanted to do during our time of transition, was to draw us to Him, focus on our foundation, and provide for our move.  This class was an amazing opportunity to focus on our foundation and draw close to Him in new ways, and hear from God about our move.  Towards the end of this class there was a time were we were divided up into groups, seers, hearers, and feelers, I had grown enough through this class that I actually went with the seer group!

There were two primary things we did every class, we read the book Discovering the Seer in you by Dr. Jim Goll and we did Activations.  Now activations are basically practice.  We pair up with someone who we don’t know very well, and we ask God to show us something for that person.  Next we tell them what we see, and we pray into that thing and prophecy over them.  Now if this sounds like a mystical experience then let me explain, nothing mystical happens to you physically or mentally.  But spiritually God is giving you vision for that person, so mystical?  Yes.  In a way that you think?  No.

It’s as normal as talking to anyone else and it’s easier than you think.  However, my learning curve was trusting what I saw.  Many times I would see a picture but I would attribute that image to my own natural mind.  Many times I would go up to the person later after class and say to them, ‘I saw ‘x’ when I was doing our activation but I didn’t say it because i thought it was just me.  However, when I sat down I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I thought I would tell you.’  Many times, come to find out, this was the most accurate, most impact-full thing I said to them.  After doing this several times I just started telling people everything I saw, the worst thing that could happen was that I could be wrong and grow from the experience.

Saturday’s:  The School of the Prophets

Every third Saturday of the month Voice hosted what was called The School of the Prophets.  These would be 2 – Two hour classes.  The first class would be taught by Paul Keith Davis, and the second class would be taught by Graham Cooke, with a small intermission in-between.  Each class would be about 60-90 minute long DVD and afterwards we would do activations for 30 minutes or so.  This was once again such a huge learning opportunity for me.  The DVD sessions that we listened to were just phenomenal.  I haven’t received teaching like that anywhere else, it was off the charts good.

However, once again, the best part was the activations.  One of the most challenges situations was having everyone line up in two lines facing each other.  Then, they would start a stop watch and for 30 seconds you would ask God to see and prophecy to the person in front of you, after 3 seconds you moved on the next person.  There were 20+ people in each line and after we were halfway through they had the other line prophecy for the next half of the line.  In the line right ahead of me was a member of the Tuesday Night Prophetic Rhema rooms, so this was a bit intimidating following him and prophesying to the people he just did.  What was even more intimidating was prophesying to one of the members of the Prophetic Rhema rooms that had been absolutely spot on to me!  It was very rewarding though, something that makes you grow!

The Passion, Power, & Purpose Meetings w/Graham Cooke & Jason Upton

Talk about the absolute best topic for the absolute perfect time!  I don’t know why this is, but I have a tendency to overlook the obvious.  Just like when I overlooked the name of the SEER class and didn’t put 2 and 2 together to get 4, I didn’t really know what to expect with this conference or what it was about.  However, the topics were great, Graham Cooke talked about living out your purpose through knowing your identity in Christ.  Which come to think of it is really emPOWERing… The Identity part was very big to me, I want to go so much more in-depth, but there was information overload that weekend and I don’t have the DVD’s yet, so it will have to wait for another time.

The other speaker at the conference was Jason Upton.  He led worship Friday Night, Saturday afternoon and evening.  He was also the speaker Saturday afternoon.  He told the story of being adopted and talking to his mother for the first time that will bring anyone to tears.

On a Final Note…

I hope you can see the process in place.  I know there are a lot of details missing, but I think that each one of these classes/events made me more confident in our decision to move to Orlando.  In some ways it might sound silly, but when I showed up at church, classes, events, and prophetic rooms I always felt confident that we were suppose to move to Orlando I always had faith, I always knew it was the right decision.  When I was home alone, at work, thinking while laying awake in bed, or just thinking about finances, that’s when the doubts came, that’s when the fears came.

I have always wanted to live in Florida, however, I can honestly say that was never a part of the decision.  It seems like there are 4 major Christian centers in the USA, parts of California, Denver, Kansas City, and Orlando, living in any of these area’s is very appealing to me.  However,  the ONLY thing that pushed us forward was the prophetic process.  Trust me when I say this, if it wasn’t for all the prophetic words, that God spoke into us, we wouldn’t be moving, no matter how much I want to live in Florida.  The reason for it?  Fear, doubt, worrying about what people think, etc.  I don’t want to get to far off the topic, because that is Part 4: Overcoming Fears… but I do want to make the statement about the Prophetic Process, it’s what brought us through.  It’s what said that ‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’ (Hebrews 11:1)

The Prophetic process was God giving us vision to see what He had for us, even back to the very beginning, speaking it forth through the people around us, at class, in the rooms, at the conference, etc.  And He is accomplishing it through His sovereign will.   He guided us and spoke to us through the prophetic, and He gave us timely words, that was part of the process.  But, the most important part of the process was, He gave us faith.

That was Part 3 of the Moving to Orlando Mini-Series, next will be Part 4: Overcoming Fears

Part 2: The Daily Struggles…

This blog post is Part 2 of the Moving to Orlando Mini-Series.  Each post is designed to tell you a little bit about what our life has looked like for us the past six months, what we have been doing, what we are going to be doing, and the process that took place.  The theme of this mini-series is about our family making the decision to move to Orlando, FL.  The story is about what God has been doing in our lives that led up to this move.  I hope you enjoy this series and I look forward to all of your comments and questions.  God Bless.

Struggles with Living with Family…

During this season of our life it has been very clear to both Autumn and I that we were suppose to be right HERE, living with family and being in Indiana, and not being in South Bend.  This has been evident to us from before we moved from Branson, everyday, and today.  It was very important for us to have this time together with our families.  Last year was a very good time for our family, but very hard to be so far away from everyone.  There were adjustments we had to make being so far, and our families didn’t get to see their cousins our grandkids nearly as often as they wanted to.  We knew that coming back and living with family was an opportunity for everyone to grow in new ways, bond together, and prepare for whatever was next, because we knew there was a good possibility that we would be moving again.

It has been a process, like everything is always a process.  I think the hardest part of living our parents was this, we had just moved several states away and developed family systems for doing everything, living so far away our family began to transform us into a new unit, we grew together in new ways and depended on each other in new ways.  When we moved back into our parents house it put all these new systems to the test.  How would we respond, how would we adjust, how would we compromise, and where would we stand firm.  It’s hard to take firm positions about how your family will do things and operate while living in someone else’s house…while they live there too.

I think that in some ways it was hardest on the kids.  I don’t know if they really understood why we weren’t living at our own home.  They liked hanging out with Grandparents and all, but they were use to our home and our stuff.  They didn’t know why they couldn’t jump and climb on the couches and tables, why they couldn’t just get into anything they wanted, and why they couldn’t play with things that were out, like they did at our house.  However, grandparents house isn’t child-proof, and most of their furniture is more valuable than our furniture, and you can’t just climb on it and make forts out of their furniture all the time.  You also can’t just leave stuff out and about where it will get stepped on by people not use to having to watch where they step.  I think that at times everyone felt cramped, and I know Autumn got tired of packing things up and moving them back and forth.  I know I got tired of loading and unloading it out of the van.

Struggles from our Families Perspective…

I am not naive in thinking that our family is the only one that had to make adjustments to living in close quarters with others.  Our families also have had to adjust their life styles by adding us to their households.  Their bills have gone up, their dishes have been dirtier, there has been more laundry, more mess, more noise, less down time, less sleep, but hopefully more fun.  But everyone has their limit, and I think our parents are ready for a break.  We have tried to give and do when and what we can, but the reality is, we probably aren’t quite reaching the levels of what they are contributing or providing for us.  That’s part of the dilemma, we haven’t had regular jobs or income stream to pay to be on our own, we have saved what we could so that we can move out…and there is the catch 22.

I think that the biggest thing that is hard is this, when we go over for a night, weekend, whatever, there is an end, the end of the night when we leave, the end of the weekend, or whatever.  However, staying with them day after day there hasn’t been a break from the noise, the clutter, the whatever.  Sometimes I think our families feel like they need to be there or do that for us and it prevents them from accomplishing their own goals or agendas for their day.  I think that is one of the hard parts.  Let’s face it, our parents have already raised their kids and had them move out, they want to enjoy being grand-parents, and having four grandkids running around that they are trying to keep up with is wearing them out.  It’s been a big transition for Autumn and I, so when I am at work they feel like they have to help – and Autumn appreciates it, but that’s a lot of work to take on, on top of everything else.

The Financial Struggles…

Finances are a topic that is a sore spot for everyone right now I guess.  There has been a recession, lots of job losses, and pay cuts I am sure, so I don’t think I need to explain too much.  Autumn and I have been doing ok when you consider we haven’t had the housing bills to worry about, mortgage/rent, utilities, groceries, etc.  And I have made some money though the Census, selling cell phones, etc.  But it hasn’t been quite enough to jump back in the saddle.  We have done our best, saved our tax refund, pinched pennies, and given all out tithe’s and offering we think we should have, and been as obedient as possible.

However, the hard part is that we haven’t had the housing bills to worry about.  That is the single biggest obstacle we have to overcome moving to Florida.  Now we will be responsible for ALL OF OUR HOUSING expenses, and so our income need just went through the roof.  I sincerely believe that God will provide, last year we made no money, none, ok, well some, but it was minuscule.  However, God took care of our housing, and that’s exactly what we are praying for again here.  I have no illusions, I think it’s going to be tough moving to Orlando, but I think it’s where we are supposed to go.  Which begs the question, how will we survive?

It’s a little late in the game to be dropping all the bombs I will be exposing in this mini-series.  We will probably begin raising support here fairly soon.  And ironic as it is, we probably won’t have the opportunity to send out all the letters until we get to Orlando, but that’s the way things go sometimes.  There are many reasons why we haven’t gotten to this point until now, many of them you will read in Part 4: Overcoming Fears of this series.  I don’t know if this is something that a lot of people will want to support or not, and our parents have already supported us plenty, and it’s always a hard thing to do…but that doesn’t mean that it’s not what God is wanting us to do right now.  What we will be doing is missional living.  We will be in full-time ministry for the next four months, and God willing, and if we it’s financially viable, we will be raising 100% of our support to go on staff at OHOP.

I get it, a lot of people are going to think what we are doing is foolish, that it doesn’t make sense, etc, but as Christians we are a people who are called to live by faith.  Just today I read a tweet from a well-known Christian that said, “Belief is based on what is logical, tangible & can be seen. Faith is based on that which defies logic, cannot be grasped & cannot be seen.” This is exactly what God has been teaching us lately.  In Part 5: The Decision and Moving one of the section titles is “Faith, not living life by default, and God’s will”, and I said in Part 1: What’s Been Going on… that “We will be moving forward, and forward for us is wherever God takes us, and as of now He is taking us to Orlando, FL.  So, this is what I believe and it’s up to God to provide.  One more side note, a while ago I was thinking about finances and God said to me ‘Look at your kids, they don’t worry about where they are going to sleep at night, whether or not they will eat tomorrow, or if they will have clothes to wear.  They trust that you will provide for them, you are human and can’t control anything.  I AM YOUR FATHER, I am in Heaven, how much more can I provide for you, than you for them?’  So, this is the trust that I want to walk in, I am God’s son, He wants to provide, but living by faith is based on that which defies logic, cannot be grasped & cannot be seen.  And so we step out in Faith…

That was Part 2 of the Moving to Orlando Mini-Series, next will be Part 3: The Prophetic Process

Part 1: What’s Been Going On…

This blog post is Part 1 of the Moving to Orlando Mini-Series.  Each post is designed to tell you a little bit about what our life has looked like for us the past six months, what we have been doing, what we are going to be doing, and the process that took place.  The theme of this mini-series is about our family making the decision to move to Orlando, FL.  The story is about what God has been doing in our lives that led up to this move.  I hope you enjoy this series and I look forward to all of your comments and questions.  God Bless.

From December 23rd to March 11th…

Recently I logged on to parrottpeople for the first time in quite a while.  The goal was to update a few things and then post a couple of blogs on what we are going to be doing (Moving to Florida!).  One of the first things that jumped out at me was how few posts I have actually done since we moved back.  First there was the moving post, then there was the having the baby post, and then there was the… actually that was it.  So, I realized that one of the first things I needed to do, before I tell everyone what we are going to do, is to tell you what we have been doing.  Since there are a lot of blank spots in between that time, I thought I should start at the beginning.

Once we moved back from Branson to Indiana, we tried as hard as we could just to get through Christmas, there was un-packing, Christmas’s to go to everywhere, New Years to do, and then time to just rest and calm down.  I didn’t have any jobs lined up or anything, so I started a new blog called DiscipleshipGuy,  applied for jobs online on CareerBuilder (I have always preferred them over Monster).  I also started a push ups and sit ups challenge to see if I could get up to 100 push ups and 200 sit ups without stopping.  During this time I also started buying and selling cell phones in my spare time.  The family and I took turns staying at my parents house and the in-laws.  This was our life for several months rotating back and forth.

After a while of doing the push up and sit up challenges I moved on to doing the P90x workout, and we starting attending a class at Voice Ministries in Elkhart called Discovering the Seer in You.  Our workbooks were written by Jim Goll.  We attended Voice about 1/3 of the time, another 1/3 we attended Fairview Missionary with Autumn’s parents, and a third we slept in  I also attended whats called the School of the Prophets once a month at Voice Ministries.  Autumn and the kids attended MOPS  (Mothers of Pre schoolers), and Autumn started going to her Bunco group again.  Finally, we had 2-3 Dr. visits for the baby…

Aaron is Born…

At our final Dr. Visit we were faced with an ultimatum, have Aaron that day, or find a different hospital.  I won’t go in to all the details, still some frustration with the process, but also because you can read most of the story in one of the two blog posts I have published since late December  I will tell you that it was a hectic time in our life, we had to make some serious and fast decisions and we had to have a lot of help from family.  Aaron was born completely healthy, and our hospital stay was fine.  We were actually had a baby the same day as some people we knew from college, and our kids got to spend lots of time with their cousins.

After leaving the hospital our family had to make major adjustments.  Who knew that going from 3 kids to 4 was probably harder for us than any other adjustment.  This may not be the case for everyone, but we went from 2 older kids that can care for themselves, to having 2 kids who couldn’t walk or talk, 3 kids in diapers, and one who was consuming literally all of Autumn’s time.  This was a big adjustment, one of the side effects was that I grew very close to Rachel through all of it.  Up to that point I would be the one to take care of the older kids while Autumn attended to the youngest one.  When we had Aaron this pattern continued, except now I had 3 kids to tend with and one that needed constant attention, while before this wasn’t the case.

Sometime during this period I took a test for the Census and was offered a position that was to start nearly a month later.  Soon afterwards I was offered the only interview I had gotten up until this point (for a cell phone company), and the day of I called them and told them that I had already accepted a position (w/ the Census).  I had to make a choice, was our family going to go back to what I left before Branson (living in SB, selling cellphones) or were we going to move forward to something else.  When I thought about what I was going to go interview for, very un-family friendly hours, lots of stress, something I wouldn’t be happy doing, I knew I wouldn’t take it even if they offered me the job, so it wasn’t fair to waste their time.  At that point I remembered a little over a year ago while I was on CareerBuilder that God has said ‘You won’t find your next job on there…”, so I stopped applying for jobs online, and started focusing on the only direction I had up until that time, an internship in Orlando, FL.

From April to Now…

I continued buying and selling cell phones nearly daily through this time, In April I bought/sold/traded over 50 phones!!!  Towards the end of April I started working for the Census and going door to door to count people who either hadn’t filled out or turned in  their forms, or people who needed to have them re-filled out.  We thought we would be moving in to our old house as of May 1st, we were all ready to go, all of the families were ready for a break, and it was a good time.  Autumn talked to someone who said during a transition their family had to stay with their parents for five months to one time, and somehow Autumn felt this sounded right for us to – which meant we had an entire month to go… How was that going to be possible?

A couple of things happened, one thing led to another, and we weren’t able to move into our house May 1st, and it won’t be available until June 1st…so we are still staying with parents and in-laws.  This has actually caused a little change-up, we have been staying much more with my parents than Autumn’s (up until this time it was reversed) and we are approaching the time were my parents have said we need a break – again.  But this time Autumn and I want the move to be permanent, no more moving back and forth, and we feel our time is over in South Bend, so we won’t be going back there.  We will be moving forward, and forward for us is wherever God takes us, and as of now He is taking us to Orlando, FL.  We are tentatively slated for moving on June 7th, taking a full two days to drive, and arriving in Orlando with a truck full of stuff, and a whole new experience in front of us.

That was Part 1 of the Moving to Orlando Mini-Series, next will be Part 2: The Daily Struggles.