Yes Yes Yes....

“Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.” - FC

Love this quote so much from Francis Chan.  I’ve been watching and listen to a lot of his sermons on You Tube recently and they are just awesome.  But this quote struck me the most.  Our lives shouldn’t make sense to unbelievers.  I keep having to remind myself of this when I start to feel self conscious about our decisions as a family and about decision we stand on as a family.  Love love love....

Leslie

Radical

I just found this book again recently and I am re-reading it.  It is called Radical by David Platt.  Watch this video - it is pretty raw and well...life changing.

Radical

Haiti

My husband I will be taking our two 4 year old daughters to Haiti this summer with CPI out of Lakeland.  We will be gone July 22-28.  We will be staying on top of a mountain in the middle of no where in bunk houses.  To say this will be "uncomfortable" is the understatement of the year.  But my heart is searching, starving and needing to be somewhere where people are just happy to know that Jesus exists.  Not somewhere where we fight over ridiculous things inside the four walls of a church building.  I want to serve the God who proves to me OVER AND OVER AND OVER that HE is God and I am not.  I want to take my kids somewhere where they don't have ipads, iphones and even the food they love and let them see what is really out there.  Will I put my children at risk by taking them, maybe? But I would rather be in the will of God in Haiti then to NOT be in the will of God in the USA.  So this is the start to our life long journey.  Praying for God to show our family what our future will look like.  Praying for his favor as we serve as a family.  Praying for my 4 year olds to open up their hearts and love on people who are not like them - thankful for the opportunity to love people who are not like us.   Praying that we go and "serve" them but knowing they will change us forever by being who they are....

Leslie

Lord, please continue to break my heart for what breaks yours...

Today I saw a man on the side of the road.  He was crippled, clearly.  He was asking for food, not money. Then I saw the lights on the cop car - flashing bright it pulled over and a woman got out.  I don't know what she said but I imagine she told him to get out of here, you can't ask for things here, it's illegal.  My heart sank I'm sure he had no where to go, no roof over his head, no food on the table, no family - but maybe he did.  That wasn't for me to know right then.  All I knew was that my heart hurt.  My friend said it best today, "they are people, not objects to be tolerated."  There is so much pain on the sides of the road, so much pain in this world.  I pray that God will continue to move Brett and I and our family into the mission field in the years to come.  Lord come, bring us every day new mercies and grace for those in need.

Leslie

Dress Up Headquarters

Dress Up Headquarters

Just wanted to post this because I'm SO doing this for the girls! =))

Praying

We have our lead paint/pipe inspection, 4 point home inspection and our termite inspection tomorrow.  Praying for all to go well and there isn't any major issues to be addressed.  If it all passes then we will be ready to move ahead with closing.  We are scheduled to close on April 30th but we will be able to close much sooner if everything goes well tomorrow.  So please pray with us as we ask God to protect our new house.

As far as our current house goes, we had our apprasal today.  We should know what it's going to come in at in a few days.  Praying for the right number so we can list it on MLS and hopefully get a few bites.  We have 3 people we know are at least semi interested at this point which is a huge blessing.  We know that God has this under control and we are trusting in him to help us sell our house.  He always provides and we know he will walk with us through this time in our lives as we strive to serve him with all our hearts.

Leslie

Leap of Faith....

Ready set jump.  That's what we did this weekend.  No looking back - just forward jumping to God.  We talked about downsizing and we know if we didn't jump now, we never would.  So we did and God allowed it to happen - he is good - all the time.

On Thursday of last week I went to see a small 1925 Spanish Style house.  I fell in love with it.  On Friday I was told the owners got an offer on the house but because we are friends with them that if we wanted it they would do us the honor of allowing us first dibs on the house.  Well, EVERYONE from my family came and looked at it Friday, we talked, we talked more, we talked even more and of course we PRAYED.  And by the end of the night we went to bed with the plan to NOT proceed.  That night I had a dream that we were in the tiny cozy house and we were HAPPY, so so HAPPY.  I woke up with an overwhelming peace.  I woke my husband up from his sleep and told him we had to go back, we had to pray over the house, we had to go now.  So we got ready, called our realtor and went.  We spent a lot time there, looking around, talking and then we sat on the steps and prayed.  We prayed for peace, for clear direction and mostly we prayed for his will.  And when we left we knew he had given us the peace we needed.  So we put an offer in Sunday morning and by night time they had accepted our offer and also were VERY generous with the finances knowing we haven't sold our house yet (which is another post in itself, haha).  So on April 30th we will be the proud of owners of the cutest little 1925 house in Lakeland.

We are blessed FAR BEYOND a new house - we are blessed because we know giving up our big fancy house is God's will for us.  We are saying no to big bills, big taxes and big pride and saying YES to God.  We know by moving this will allow us to free up some finances and GO.  GO WHERE GOD CALLS US.

I have a lot more to write regarding our "next steps" as we seek God's will for our lives.  But we know he is calling us to big things.  We will be able to save (therefore give more) so much each month by moving into a smaller house - and that is exactly what God had planned all along.  To which much is given much is expected.

This bible verse has been resonating over and over in my mind as we move forward with our "new" but VERY old house....

Revelation 21:5 - Behold, I make all things new.....

This is the house we will be leaving....

Lord you have shown us what is good....

Leslie