It's been almost two months now since Darren and I uprooted from St. John's, NL, and journeyed here to Sydney, NS. Why 'uprooted'? Well, we were settled there. We had lived in Newfoundland for 7 years and had come to love the province and people. Our daughter was born there, we have strong friendships, and our lives were deeply 'rooted' in that place.
And then everything changed.
In April of this year, both Darren and I felt (independently) that we were released from our ministry at Avalon Wesleyan Church - a church that God had called us to plant in Newfoundland seven years ago. I know, some people don't like the word 'released' - but that's what it was. God told us that He had other plans for us, that someone else was going to take over the ministry in St. John's in order for it to grow, and He would lead us to another place. God had told Darren first, and he was waiting for me to get confirmation from God (that's usually how it works with us - God will tell each of us something - confirm it in our spirits - and then a 'divine' conversation will happen between us as we realize we each have the same confirmation).
It was a very shocking discovery. Our church was finally getting it's own legs to stand on as a church plant, and was growing. We had a great support team of core people, whom I relied on for parenting advice and had great relationships with. But God was asking us to leave, and so we told Him we would go wherever He sent us. We were thinking that maybe our time as bi-vocational church planters was done - we've never had paying jobs in the ministry since we had graduated University, and have always worked a full time 'secular' job to support ourselves. Maybe God was calling us to full-time paid ministry work now that we had a daughter. Until He gave us specific directions, we decided to plan and move closer to family (either Halifax or Saint John), and give support to the local church there. We couldn't afford to stay in St. John's without the housing allowance from the church plant.
But then God called us to do the unexpected...again. Through prayer and discussion we realized that God wanted us to help out another church plant on our district in Sydney, NS. I fought this idea with God for a while - wasn't this exactly the same type of ministry we were leaving? Wouldn't we be doing the same thing? Why take us away from St. John's to go somewhere else? But there was no denying it - God was calling us to go, so we said "yes"...and then He began to change my heart towards moving.
We resigned from our church and began the process of putting our house up for sale and packing, all the while trusting that God would fill in the details for our move to Sydney. You see, we both needed work, we needed childcare, we needed a house to live in...and on top of that, we wanted to make sure that the transition of leadership for Avalon Wesleyan was as easy and smooth as possible so that ministry could continue. We had no prospects for ANY of that, just God's word that this was His leading.
And so we trusted...and the miracles began to happen. Don't get me wrong, it was a stressful time and we cried out to God, but the miracles are undeniable.
Sometimes, when I want to be sure I am following God's leading, I lay out a fleece (like Gideon in the OT), and ask God "if this is really where you want me/us to go, can you give us some confirmation". I prayed this, and the next day I received word that we would have childcare for Jaelyn when I went back to work. Miracle #1.
We needed to get some renovations done on the house to sell it, but had no money to do it (not to mention that we had to fix our car that was broken down and stuck in our driveway, but didn't have money to tow it...hard to sell a house with a broken down car in the driveway!). We applied to increase our credit line, but they needed proof of income from both of us. Darren's was fine to get because he was still working, but mine was another story. I needed proof of a job I had just 'quit', as I had been on Maternity Leave and had informed them that I was moving out of province. Darren told the bank that we would get back to them, and our hearts sank. I laid out the 'fleece' again and ask God for confirmation we were making the right decision. The next day I received an email from my company offering to transfer me to Sydney - for the exact position that I held in St. John's. Miracle #2. (I asked for them to send a proof of employment letter, and we were able to get the credit line...Miracle #3)
We finally fixed up our house as best we could, given that we were still doing ministry at the church, Darren was still working full-time and we had a baby. We had gutted, renovated, and cleaned, and finally put our house on the market. It sold in 5 days (Miracle #4)
We had gone to our bank to see if we could buy a house in Sydney, but with Darren now putting in his notice for his work, and us just living on Mat Leave income it seemed impossible. Our friends in Sydney put us in contact with a fantastic mortgage broker and a great Real Estate lady, and within a short time we had found a house (sight unseen), put an offer in which was accepted, and were approved for a mortgage based solely on my Mat income. Miracles # 5. The hurdle of the dreaded CMHC approval was also achieved without any issues - Miracle #6.
Then we made the hard decision that we needed to find a new home for our cats. Darren had just found out from the doctor that his numerous sinus infections and wheezing over the past 12 years were caused by an allergy. But who would want to take 2 10-12 year old cats, with one of them having some health issues. We prayed and I put the ad up on Kijiji. Within two weeks they had a new, loving home. It was incredibly sad to see them go, but they are getting the attention they deserve and are happy, and we will be updated with pictures and emails! Miracle #7.
We saw miracles happening within our small church congregation as well. God began calling people to 'step up' and take leadership in areas where they hadn't before. The pastor at our sister church in Newfoundland had also been given a passion to begin satellite ministries from their congregation, and with the help of our District Superintendent, we began meeting and planning if this was a possibility for our congregation. They were too young/small to support themselves, but needed to keep their own church identity and location to continue reaching different people in the community. The congregation led their own services for the month of July, and are working with the other church to iron out details of a satellite location, get additional funding and find a pastor. What could have been a divisive circumstance made this Body of Believers stronger...almost all of them have made a commitment to see this through. Miracle #8. We miss them terribly, but know that we will see them again, and keep in contact often (thank goodness for Facebook!)
We were set to pack up our belongings into a moving truck on Monday, July 2nd. On Sunday (which was already an incredibly emotionally-filled last Sunday at Avalon) U-haul had informed us that even though we had booked their largest truck, there were none available in the entire province. They did, however, provide us with a shorter truck and a trailer.
We found out on Monday that the long boat ferry was broken, so we would need to drive the 10 + hours across the province (Darren in the U-haul w/trailer, me in the car w/baby) to catch the short boat ferry. Fine. Not ideal in the least, but fine. Oh, and we had to fly my dad in to St. John's because for some reason his name was still on the house deed (he was a co-signer for the original mortgage on the house, and they didn't inform us of that until it was too late to courier signed documents). That confused me at first...if everything was going so well with the houses, why did we have to fly my dad in now? When we found out about the U-haul we realized why. Without my dad's help (and the help of our friends), we would have never fit everything into the moving truck. Miracle #9.
It was a LONG drive, and we had to deal with many closing issues with our house in St. John's via cell phone the entire way across. We had already missed our closing date, but the house needed to close before we could close on the house we were buying, and that didn't look like it was going to happen, and that put the Sydney house in jeopardy of falling through. We would be homeless if we couldn't get into our house on Thursday, and our boat arrived earlier that day. Thankfully, we were able to borrow money for the down payment and fees (yay family!), and when we got off the boat we had signed papers and keys in our hand within 2 hours. There was a crew of people waiting to help us move in (in the pouring rain), and we stayed at our friend's house for the night. Miracle #10.
As for Darren's job - he was able to pass out a couple resumes before we needed to head up to our annual minister's conference. We were able to spend some time with family for a week and then headed back, but we probably pushed ourselves too hard with the move and then trying to make it to Beulah Camp and Darren came down with Pneumonia on the way home (He is better now). A week later he had an interview, and began work at the Future Shop at the beginning of August. Miracle #11.
I'm sure there are many other miracles in between, but it's sufficient to say that my faith has been strengthened. God is good, and if He is leading you somewhere, trust Him - He will take care of you.
We are excited about this new stage in our life - to focus a bit more on our family and our marriage, to help out with an awesome team in a new church plant, and to be a bit closer to our parents. We known that our St. John's church is in God's hand, and He is continuing to do a great work there. We've begun some renovations to our house here (pictures to come), are making friends in the community, and are finding our place in our ministry here.
We are settling in :)
