That was it, three words. Not what I expected from someone as artistically blessed as my wife, especially considering she is such a gifted wordsmith. She had written just three words inside that card….”I’m all in,” – and therein lies the beauty of her writing… knowing her audience. She had handed me the card as we were driving out of Dallas into the great unknown of our future. It felt as if everyone we had talked to about our plans had nodded and agreed it would be fun, but always with that knowing look of “those poor kids have no direction…” Who could blame them? We were moving to the foreign country of Virginia…. We had two small children, one of which would be starting school that year and the other still in diapers. We knew nothing about where we were headed, and we had no strong relationships with anyone there (this is significant because I travel extensively as an evangelist and it is very difficult for my family when I am gone if there is no support network around them) and don’t even get me started on the cost of living in Northern Virgina!! It just looked like a crazy thing to do, but in our hearts we both knew that we had to give it a fair shot. We planned a sojourn of three months. We would live in a hotel room, all 4 of us, for those three months then head out on the road for the summer and hopefully make a decision by August where we would live. I had been working as a server at Logan’s Roadhouse and they had agreed to transfer me to the Manassas,VA restaurant. This was the only thing we knew for sure when we left.. that I would have a job. We honestly didn’t have an earthly soul to lean on as we pulled out of the Living Oaks Apartments in Red Oak, TX – but we had each other, we had the Holy Spirit, and we had the comfort of knowing that we were all in!
Don’t get me wrong. I love staying in Hotels. I spend almost half of my year living in hotel rooms, campground cabins, and other rooms not decorated by my wife. But LIVING in a hotel room for 3 months with the whole family was not starting out quite as we expected. It never crossed my mind that Jade and I would have to go into the bathroom at night and sit on the floor and talk until the kids went to sleep. Once again though God showed His grace to us. Within weeks of us arriving we knew we were home. There is no other way to say it, this was home. This is one of the most beautiful areas of the country! After a year in Texas we had almost forgotten what trees looked like…lets just say there are more than a few trees in Virginia and many of them have seen pilgrims, the Revolutionary War, The Civil War… There is something here that speaks loudly to each of us. I have the mountains an hour from here where believe it or not there is a bear hunting season, Jade can be at the Beach in three hours, Washington DC is 30 minutes by rail so we can take Zeke to look at dinosaurs at The Museum of Natural History – New York City is 4 hours by train – and as we all know the bigger the audience the happier Anya is… Our new church, The Sound, embraced us and welcomed us in. Our pastor – Pastor Barry Phipps – is exactly what I believe the Bible defines a pastor to be. Within weeks of our arrival we not only had new friends, but a true support network around us. This was exemplified when Jade had to rush back to Missouri for her dads emergency surgery. I was scheduled to work all weekend and we couldn’t afford for me to take off or for the kids to fly with her. Our church family stepped in and not only offered to help watch our children, but worked out the schedule and all the details of where they would be staying and kept me informed throughout. This completely removed what would have been another unneccesary weight during what was already a difficult time. We had a church, great friends… now all we needed was a home. We started looking for apartments in early April and quickly found the one we wanted. We were told it wouldn’t be available until the first week in June – another 8 weeks in a hotel…gulp. Again we trusted that God would give us grace and we put a deposit down to hold the apartment when it opened. We received a phone call a little over a week later from the apartment manager asking if we would be interested in moving in earlier… an entire month earlier!!
Let me jump to the end. After a total of 10 weeks in a one room hotel, we now have a beautiful new place to call home. Zeke and Anya now actually sleep in a different room than Jade and I. They love playing outside in their yard.
They love going to Church on Sundays. God has given me great favor at work (which I will discuss at length in an upcoming blog) and I am now a corporate trainer for Logan’s. God has blessed our ministry and it continues to grow. In my last blog I stated that I believe that if you are seeking God’s will then you are in God’s will. He has shown me over and over again how faithful He is. We now know that what was drawing us out here was the Holy Spirit. My children will grow up Virginians, I too am now a Virginian. (although I will alway root for my Chiefs, Cardinals and Tigers….and hate the Jayhawks) Although I don’t yet know the reason for God leading us here, I do know that we have never been more at peace, or more on the same page as a family than we are right now, and if I can quote my favorite writer…. I’m all in!
