[us in our “new home” when we moved to Midland in 2008!]

 

well, I said it!  news is OUT! there is a really amazing God sized story that I need to tell you, so hang with me.  before you listen to the voice memo, I”ll give you a hint….we are moving our family to Bryan/College Station, Texas to be a part of a new church plant in Bryan called Declaration Church.

9.23.14

I can’t believe I’ve been holding this in so long, y’all a month is long for me, and honestly I wish I knew more.  I wish I could tell you when we’re moving, or about the home we bought, or about how we sold our house in 2.5 seconds here – but none of that has been made clear to us yet.  We are simply taking the next step.  saying YES. moving in faith and obedience even when we don’t really know where we’re going yet.  

God has been preparing my heart for this for over a year.  I’ve had this feeling in my spirit, that change was coming for about 1.5 years.  I’ve known that our “job” in Midland was close to over, and at times I really wanted it to be.  I love this place, I love my people here.  our church home.  our community.  we’ve been here 6.5 years – most of our married life.  it’s the only home we’ve owned.  we are plugged in here, but at the same time I’ve had a fear of really planting roots, feeling in my gut we weren’t going to be here forever.  but regardless, we’ve made friends that we’ll have forever here.  we became mama + daddy here.  we walked through our entire adoption process + our infertility journey thus far with our people here.  it’s a special special place, this desert town.

now god is moving us, taking us to a new place.  doing a new thing! [ isaiah 42:9] before it springs forth, he tells us.  and I’ve known in my heart.  In April of 2013, Stephen and I took the kids out for lunch in Waco at one of our favorite spots, Food for Thought, down by Baylor.  As we stood in line, we met a nice man named Blake.  He asked us about the kids, showed us pictures of his family [he’d also adopted] and we learned he was a pastor at the Village church in Dallas.  [thanks to my google stalking skills, we found him on the inter webs]  fast forward to September 15th, 2013.  I was in Dallas for my sister Rachel’s birthday and that Sunday we got up and went to her church, the Village.  before the service started, and before I even put my bottom on the chair, I picked up a card with a picture of that nice man Blake + his family!  Little did I know it was “church planting” sunday….

Blake began to share his story of who, what, when and why of his family picking up from their life in Dallas to move back to his hometown of Bryan to start a church.  to declare what God had done for him.

 

Church-Planter-Sermon from Blake Chilton on Vimeo.

I was so  moved, I literally texted stephen when we left church and said something like “babe, I think we are supposed to move to Bryan/College Station to be a part of this guys church plant”.  he knows me, and he knows that I get excited easily and he probably just thought it was another one of my crazy ideas.  [oh like, adoption?, going to africa together..ya know, crazy ideas]  I wrote a note in my phone on the way home from Dallas that day…

The timing of being at the village on sending Sunday was not lost on me. Lord do you have church planting in our future? I would love to be a part of a church planting team. In a city. A multicultural, multigenerational & multiethnic community. I want to see people set free. I want to proclaim what you’ve done in me! I want to TELL your story.
Whitney wrote in her email & said “thanks for being a fighter”. Thank you for that. I want to keep fighting. Fighting against my against my against my  

that sometimes wants to live the life I always thought I would. I need constant reminders of this new life I have in you. Lord, bind my wandering heart to thee.

and my prayer was….

Let us dream big & pray big circles around what you want for us. My heart has been stirred for the city but I’m not sure about Stephens. If the city is where you can use us best, show us a city to circle. If Africa is where you want us, point us in the right direction. If midland is where we are to build our roots, help me accept that.

and y’all, there’s SO MUCH more to the story.

the part where God confirms + calls and we say YES!

[YES GOD, more than any comfort, YOU are better. ]

like one full years worth of confirmations and god stories, and I want to tell them all to you.  I don’t want to skimp on one.  so this will be turned into a 2 [or maybe 3 part] series.  also, because each time I type it, it mysteriously erases.  so, there’s that.

please come back to hear more in the next few weeks.  it’s full of God’s goodness, his faithfulness and the faith and trust He’s building in us.

I can’t believe this series is over…it’s been quite the month!  Thank you for journeying with me, for your sweet words and comments and encouragement.  I’ll share a little more later what I learned, but just wanted to say a big fat THANKS for now!