Travelers2…Again?

Have you ever daydreamed about something, mentioned something to someone, or even had a conversation about a particular dream you may have, and then had some immediate next step options put in front of you?  It is rather exciting to get a few confirmations here and there from those you may have talked with about it.  But, that isn’t where the confirmation needs to come from.  Anyway, that is kind of what happened to me this week.  Let me back track a little to catch you up.

One of my dreams I shared with you in my last post was to be able to live in the country.  But another dream I have always had is to find a church that is abandoned and see if we could buy it, or buying one that is for sale, and then live in it.  I wanted to continue to have the chapel part of the church, and use the other areas to make a home in.  I dreamed of small weddings and small receptions that could be held there for a reasonable amount of money rather than the prices some are having to pay for weddings now.  I wanted to offer it as a retreat for leaders or pastors to get-a-way and have a time of refreshing, to someplace they could afford.  Maybe even have a RV hook up or two, and a covered area for a picnic or small gathering.  And my one joy would be to see a church continue to be used as a church.  So there.  Now I have shared yet another of my dreams.

Now to catch you up…last week as I was looking for homes around my hometown of Stanwood, Washington for some reason all these other listings were coming into my list of homes for sale.  What did I come across?  I came across a log house church for sale in our price range!  First thought?  Wow!!  I’m IN!!  I just talked about dreams in the last week or so, and now this comes up unexpectedly where it shouldn’t even show up.  It would be country like.  Oh boy!  My mind starts going, prayers go up asking what God has in mind, and my decorating genes kick in!  Vrooooomm!!!!  There are SO many of the details that have come into play with this opportunity.  The kicker?  My family is here.  My friends are here.  BIG one…my grandson is here.  What do I do with that? I have done it before a couple of times, but it wasn’t fun being away from them and Ethan wasn’t in the picture.  I missed them all when I was away.  But as I thought about it, I am also not in the same place as I was at that time either.  I have changed.  However, my heart has also calculated the miles in terms of hours…about 5 hours or so.  That doesn’t seem like that much to me.  I traveled 4 hours to come up through traffic to see everyone when we lived in Aberdeen, Washington.  Have car will travel.

So what do I do with this opportunity?  We talk about it.  We put it in our circle of prayer and pray about it.  My sweetie thinks and contemplates about it.  He is no hurry.  We look at all the pros and cons, and then we pray some more.  Questions like, if something happened to either of us, would we want to continue to live that far from family?  (More my question that his.)  The HARD questions we have to ask.  And, we ask God to open doors that He wants opened, and close those doors He wants closed.  Maybe this opportunity is nothing more than God letting me know He is listening and He doesn’t forget our heart’s desires.  Or, maybe it is another opportunity for us to trust Him completely.  Or, we are to come away for a season of time to do something new that He has in mind.  I can see some great ministry from this sweet spot.  However, I don’t know.  BUT, I know the One Who does.

I am the type that has the thing decorated before we even see it.  That’s my personality.  So you can imagine how I have to temper the engines inside me to wait and see.  But God knows that about me too.  Isn’t it great that He understands all about us?  He knows the end from the beginning.  There may be a road trip in our very near future!  If you have a big decision coming in your future, do the work, pray it out, but above all, leave it in God’s hands and let Him work out ALL the details.  He is so good.  It will be just in time, with just the right details.

Walking the journey with you…

~JoAnn