SUMMARY: God did a lot of amazing things and moved in a mighty way in our hearts in 2020. We sold our house and all of our furniture and are living in an rental in Virginia Beach. We’re planning to move to New Delhi, India in June 2021! Keep reading for the full story.
I’ve always been involved in lots of different things. Sometimes that works out well; sometimes I wear myself so thin I’m not any good to anybody – least of all my family. The fall of 2019 was one of those times my eyes were bigger than my capacity to accomplish all the things I’d gotten myself in to: full-time teacher, children’s director at my church, varsity volleyball coach, chapel coordinator at school, mom, wife. There were no days off; there was no sabbath; there was no rest.
We continued through the holidays at breakneck speed. In the new year, I asked the Lord what my “word for the year” should be [caveat: I typically think those “words of the year” are hokey, but I’m not too old to try something new]. I went about my day until I hear the quiet whisper of SIMPLIFY come into my spirit. Simplifying was the direct antithesis to what I had been doing in the fall, so I knew I hadn’t come up with it on my own. We began the process of simplifying our lives – which was just the right thing for our family. More family time and more time at home.
At the end of January 2020 Bret asked me what I wanted to do for my fortieth birthday (which wasn’t until September). Naturally, I said I wanted to go to India. [I mean, isn’t that what everyone wants for the big 4 – 0?] I’d been to Nepal four years earlier and fell in love with the culture and people of the subcontinent. I figured if we went for a visit I’d get that itch scratched and could continue my life here in the US knowing that I had had a grand adventure. So we made arrangements to go In March, during the Indian Spring, and bought our tickets.
We got in contact with a ministry partner from our church who lives in New Delhi to ask for recommendations and good locations to stay. And to our surprise, his wife invited us to stay with them. On March 4th we boarded a nonstop flight from Newark, NJ to New Delhi, India where we spent seven days seeing New Delhi and enjoying the Indian culture.
Before we returned to the US, our aquaintence-turned-host-turned-friend took us an hour outside of Delhi to show us the schools that are part of the ministry the ministry work in a neighboring state. Our new friend asked us to come work alongside the ministry – to sell our house and our things and move our family to India. In that moment we knew the Holy Spirit was calling us to leverage our skills and knowledge for the kingdom.
We said we would go IF we could sell our house (not at all thinking it would sell since it had been on the market for six months in 2019 with no contract and then we’d be off the hook). The idea of moving our family to India was exciting and, at the same time, terrifying. But we kept moving forward, asking God for His will to be clear in our plans.
We listed the house with the understanding that its selling was a “fleece” (like Gideon in Judges Chapter 6:36-40). Two weeks after listing we had a full price offer. We realized that the Holy Spirit was for real with the calling, so applied for the girls’ passports and received them over the summer. We closed on the house, sold all of our furniture, and are living in a fully furnished rental in Virginia Beach working out the next steps. We’re working with a missions coach and preparing to raise funds (beginning in January) to go move our family to New Delhi.
And now you’re up-to-date with our 2020 story. There’s a lot to do between now and June 2021, but the Lord has been faithful each step of the way thus far, and we have no doubt that He will continue to be faithful as we walk toward this new adventure. If He is in it we know we can’t fail!
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