BIG NEWS

As I sit down to blog about this huge change in our lives, it's hard to know where to begin.  I feel like God has probably been preparing us for quite sometime now, but now it's come full circle.  This will probably go down in history as one of the biggest steps of faith I have taken individually, and also, for Shawn and I as a couple.

For almost three months now, Shawn and I have felt such a huge stirring in our hearts.  We weren't exactly sure what it was all about, but we knew whatever it was, it was BIG and that we'd definitely need to pray about it.  Our prayers were short, yet simple, Lord, show us Your perfect will for our lives and begin to speak to us, show us signs, whatever you need to do for us to understand.

Time went on, and we continued to pray.  One Sunday, I was stopped by our executive pastor's wife in the hallway at church. She told me that they were going to announce to the church in a little while that they were moving to Arizona to plant a church in the West Valley of Phoenix.  She couldn't give me a lot of detail, as time was very short before the service was about to start.  I remember crying through worship, crying through the sermon (which wasn't even sad), and continuing to cry as the Stull family made their announcement. I'm pretty sure tears made their way into the offering plate, too.   It was then that I actually questioned my uncontrollable crying, and then it hit me.  We weren't saying goodbye to this family, but, I was thinking that we we're supposed to go with them.  The service ended, Shawn and I got our kids from their classrooms, and got in the car.  Shawn and I both looked at each other, and before either of us could say anything, we both knew that Arizona would be the very next topic of conversation.  From that moment, our prayers shifted to something more specific, some place specific...we were to seek out the Lord in regards to Arizona.

The first sign:  I continued asking, begging God for signs...I needed, I wanted clarity.  I remember being at school, the school day was a few minutes from being over and all my students were turning in their projects. I found myself praying again, please Lord, just give me a sign.  One of my students, Cheyenne, came up to me and said, "You really should grade mine now."  I looked at her at like she was crazy and said, "Cheyenne, just put yours with the rest, I promise I will grade it later."  I don't get super excited about grading anyway. With one final plea, Cheyenne said, "NO, you should really grade mine NOW!"  "Why," I asked.  "Because I am moving to Arizona tomorrow!"  Tears quickly filled my eyes...WOW, God, out of all the places she could be moving, it's Arizona.  That was the birth of the first sign.  I came home and told Shawn what happened.

The second sign:  During this entire process, we've had these birds come and peck at our windows.  They would come right as we were waking up and also as we were going to bed.  We've lived in our dream house for almost two years now, and never have these bird friends came for a visit.  One morning, as I was waking up to the sound of the birds I told God, "Father, you command your creations, and you have sent these birds to us as a sign, but what are you trying to tell us through these birds, afterall, you've never sent them before."  All of a sudden, it hit me, I popped out of bed and said, "Shawn, isn't the mascot of one of the Arizona teams the Cardinals?"  He said, "Yes."  I yelled, "The birds, the birds outside pecking at our windows have been nothing other than red cardinals."  It was like they were trying to tell us something, and they were, and we listened, and cried!

We sat down and talked about everything...things were getting more and more real with each day that passed...we felt like we were going to need to SURRENDER all, emptying ourselves completely. The dream home we've been looking at since we started dating at sixteen and finally built, our kids' amazing education through the dual-language program in McKinney ISD, our great jobs, our church family, our family, our friends....EVERYTHING THAT WAS COMFORTABLE to us.   From there, we took some huge, but peaceful steps...

1.  Shawn resigned from his coaching position, which was tied to his teaching position for the following   school year. 
2. I talked to my principal, and informed her that I wouldn't be signing a contract for the next school year.
3. We put our house on the market, it was on the market for six days and sold. 

Yeah, I know....BIG, SCARY changes!  Three months ago, we didn't see any of this coming, but He did.

Throughout this process, God has been so faithful in revealing Himself to us.  My dad said, "Lisa, God is going to order your steps, He will give you signs here and there, He's not going to show you the 40-yards in front of you immediately."  That's exactly what He's done so far, piece by piece we've seen the puzzle come closer to completion. Psalm 37:23-The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him.

As of right now, we've never seen or been to Arizona and we are pretty much jobless. We don't know in what capacity we'll be used, if we'll continue teaching, etc, this will all be determined in due time and with each step. It doesn't make sense to us, but it doesn't have to...because it does to God.  We serve an amazing God who goes before us and works behind the scene...we have complete faith that He will see us through.  The only thing we know that is absolute is this, we've been called to Arizona for a reason and He won't leave us nor forsake us. I'm not going to lie, this has been hard, tears have been shed, we're leaving our family behind, as well as some of our best friends and people near and dear to our hearts. We broke the news to the kids a week ago...Faith is completely heartbroken to leave her friends, but she understands that we must obey the Lord.  And Jaxon, if you're wondering, only cares about what kind of animals inhabit Arizona. 

We are very excited about the opportunity to help out the Stull family and others with the planting of the new church.  I love this quote from Bill Hybels, "You get to lead the coolest endeavor on planet Earth, the only agency God said he was going to predictably bless and favor."

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading...we covet your prayers as we head into uncharted waters.  I am thankful that we have the most powerful captain guiding and directing us. We'll be updating this blog as time goes on, as well as Facebook, so please keep in touch.  Much love to you all!