Simplicity

There is something about simplifying your life that is so wonderful.

It sets you free.

Free to have more time in your schedule.  Free to have a house that is so cluttered.  Free to not have so many material items.  Free to be released from the consumerism and materialism that holds so many of us captive.

We have been striving to live more simply, eat more simply, and overall be more simple over the last few years.  I feel that over the years we have grown to live more simply pretty well.  But you know what?  It is stink-in hard!

Though we have been good about not adding material possessions, we are now trying to tackle the possessions that we have had and this is where it starts to get difficult.  We are selling off almost all of our furniture on craigslist right now.  We are going through closets, drawers, sheds, garages, etc and getting rid of almost everything.  It is so liberating, yet sometimes it is so hart to part with some things.  Now, I am talking about stupid stuff.  Like, I can't get rid of my snowboard.  I love that snowboard, I have many fond memories on it and I love snowboarding.  Yet, I have not ridden it in over three years and it is not likely that I am going to get away by myself sometime this winter, so that Heather can stay home with all six kids while I go spend $100 on a lift ticket.  It is just not going to happen, and I am okay with that.  But, I just can't sell the snowboard for $20 to someone at a garage sale, because I might use it again (in 5 years).  By the way, I have two.

Somethings are just hard to part with.

Overall, our kids have been awesome at this, but just like any kids they don't quite understand why they can't take their bikes and dresser to Kenya.  This is especially hard for our newer kids as they grew up holding tight to the few things that they could own.  Growing up, they just didn't throw things away.  So, it is a difficult task to send them into their room, with a garbage bag and a box for things to keep, with the task of emptying out their dresser.  After hours of work, the box is inevitably not big enough and the garbage bag is left practically empty.

Material things are just so hard to part with.  This is why Jesus told the rich young man (who had followed all the other laws) that if he wanted to enter the kingdom of heaven he would need to go and sell his possessions and give them to the poor, then follow Jesus.  (Matthew 19)  The problem was not that this man had many material possessions it was that many material possessions had this young man.  We live in a material world (thanks Madonna) and our material possessions control so many of us.  It was easy for us to tell Jesus, yes, we are willing to sell our possessions and move to Kenya.  However, the actual activity of doing it far exceeds the difficulty of merely stating it.

Yesterday we got rid of one of our sets of bunk-beds.  Yes, if you are keeping track this means that we now have 4 kids sleeping on the floor or on camping mats for the next few weeks.  (There are two that are still lucky as we have to keep their bed for a while).  It is so cool to see how God has been working and how He has been orchestrating things in our lives as we work through this simplifying process.

Through craigslist, we sold our bunk-bed.  The family came over to buy it right after we got home from church.  In my attempt to explain the messiness of the bedroom that the bed was in (like, sorry, this is the room of our teen and pre-teen) I told him that we just barely got home from church and didn't have time to take the bed apart.  Thus started the conversation of church, where we go, where they go, why we are moving, where we are moving, what we are doing, why we are doing what we are doing, etc.  By the time, I had helped him to his truck with our bed the conversation ended with, how can we support you?  Really God?  You even use craigslist to put people in our path?

And, as they drove away, I stood amazed at my God.  The God who is God over the entire universe, and yet cares so deeply about a materialistic man like me that he continues to provide over and above what I can even fathom.

...Gospel Patrons...

It was a blind email.
A. Shot. In. The. Dark.

Yet, there was a strong belief that things would work out.  We just knew that God had great plans and that He would continue to provide.  So, we sent the email.

Here is a brief synopsis of it.  "Hello, you don't know us, but we have heard about you.  We also heard that you have a house that you rent to missionaries for free or real cheap.  So... we are confirmed with Africa Inland Mission and we are trying to head out to Kenya in just over a year.  Is it possible for us to stay at your place in 2014?"

Well, like I said, it was a blind shot in the dark.  But, we figured that if we can find something cheaper than we can rent our house then we would have a much better chance at paying off our housing debt on our line of credit before we leave.  This is something that we have to pay off, and we are working diligently to do so.  I am working as much overtime as possible, and Heather is working hard on her Homemade goodies to sell.  We also are selling off as much furniture and items in our house that we possibly can right now.

A week after we emailed, we got our answer.

"Yes, we would love to host you in our house.  The trust that the house is in doesn't allow any rent to be paid and it is available from January - August of next year."  

With a lump in my throat and tears welling up in my eyes I called Heather over to read the email (she was baking).  I can't believe this!  I can't believe how God is providing!  We are just awestruck at how God has put these Gospel Patrons (check out my friends book and link)  in our lives with the ability to host us, allowing us live rent free, in Willow Glen, way closer to church and our family than we are right now.

We are AMAZED!

It turns out that the owner actually came to our house a year and a half ago for Easter with my Mom's cousin.  It is crazy how small the world is and how connected we are with people.

Please pray with us that God will provide the right renters to rent out our house starting Feb 1st.

Also, we have a TON to do!!! We are moving out of our house and into a fully furnished place in San Jose on the first of the year.  This leaves less than 2 months for us to sell off almost everything in our house, and pack up and move our family of 8.

God continues to confirm and provide for us as we step out in faith.

Thankful

I LOVE November!  I love the fall and this time of year when the air is crisp.  It is about this time of year that I finally get to start wearing sweatshirts and beanies again and I love it.  Though, I do keep my sandals out because this is California after all and you never know when we will have a warm streak in the mid 70's.

I love the harvest time and I love that this month we celebrate Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is by FAR my favorite holiday of the year.  Christmas and Easter are great and all, and I absolutely love what they represent.  But, they have become way over-commercialized in our society and I can't stand seeing Santa, Elves, and Bunny rabbits ruining the beauty of Christ's birth and resurrection.

Thanksgiving on the other hand is a day in which, we can still be with family, celebrate and give thanks, without a bunch of blow up figures and stores full of lawn decorations.  Tom the Turkey has not yet been commercialized to the extent of his other holiday cousins.  This may be because we kill Tom the Turkey every year and eat him.  Mmmm, I can already taste him now :)

Granted, our society is trying to ruin a little bit of Thanksgiving year by year, as more and more stores are open and black Friday (also known as the worst day for American greed) has been creeping into the  precious few Thanksgiving hours.

This year, I am blessed to not have to work on Thanksgiving and I get to spend it with lots of family.  Check the cell phones at the door and spend time together.  Okay, we have not yet checked our phones, but I am highly encouraging it!

There is so much for us to be thankful for.  All of our thanks is given to the One who deserves all the glory.

It is for this crazy journey that God has our family on, that I am thankful.  Every morning as I take care of our goats, I praise God for the crispness of the morning, the beautiful sunrise and that He has chosen us for this mission.  It is not something that we had thought of on our own and it is not something that we can do on our own.  We can only do it through Him.  For this I am thankful.  Without Him, it would be overwhelming and impossible.

I am thankful that He has seen it fit to choose our family to represent our body of believers in another country across the world, along the Indian Ocean.

I am thankful that He sees my flaws and my failures and yet still wants to use me.

I am thankful for the support that we have received and that we continue to receive.

I am thankful for the peace that He has given me through this crazy process.

I am thankful for the confidence that He has given me as we follow him down a path that will require us to leave all that is familiar and comfortable.

I am thankful to be called a child of His.

Sometimes, in the overwhelmingness of trying to get our family to Kenya I get tired.  Exhausted.  It seems that there is a never ending to-do list of items that must be done.  It is in these hard, tired moments where I will have a fleeting thought that comes into my head.  "This is too hard, what am I doing?"  It goes away just as fast as it comes. Turning to prayer, I ask God these same questions.  And, in the stillness the answer continues to be the same.  "Because, this is the plan I have for you."

Don't get me wrong.  I long for Kenya.  I long to be working among the Digo people.  99% of the time I know that we are moving in the right direction.  The other 1% of the time is when I need a gentle reminder.

These last few weeks we have been diligently working on getting rid of many of our worldly possessions.  It has been so freeing and wonderful to start to de-clutter things.  Yet, in the busyness of cleaning and selling the reality of moving overseas has started to become very real.

Overworked, stressed, busy, tired, exhausted, we were in need of that gentle reminder that we were going in the right direction.  Then it came.  This time in the form of a random person.  Somebody that was coming to buy some of our stuff that we are selling.  The question arose of why are we selling our things and Heather simply told her that we were moving overseas to be missionaries.  This was when the random person whom we had never met pulled out a check and handed it to Heather, saying that she had seen our facebook account and had read our story.

Only God.  

Only He, can touch somebodies heart in this way to cause them to be this generous.  We are so grateful and love to see the way that He is providing for us.  It is through gentle reminders like these that He reminds us that He is the provider, and that we just need to rest in him.

"Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."  Joshua 1:9

Days till Kenya

When we went to San Diego last week we were given count-down blocks.  My brother and sister in-law make them and sell them on Etsy (which can be found here) and were kind enough to make us our own special countdown of the "days until Kenya."  What an awesome idea.  We now have a visual reminder for all 8 of us and a visual goal.  Each day, our kids are watching the numbers go down.  I know that the numbers are still pretty high, but they have already dropped by ten since we got the blocks and I am sure that before we know it they will be less than 100.

Yesterday was a special day of praise.  We received our first financial donations.  This was so exciting for us as a family as we see God moving through his people.  I also was blessed to be able to meet a couple whom I had just been introduced to.  After a few minutes of discussion they asked how they can be apart of our work.  (What??? I thought.  I just met you and yet you would consider partnering with us?)  Only God.  Only He can provide through his unlimited resources exactly what we will need.  We have been told a few times that we will gain a new understanding of the global church body and how God provides.

We are starting to see it and are in complete amazement.

Blessed friendships

We just had the opportunity for a quick trip to San Diego county to transpire.  My brother and his wife brought Eyerusalem down to their house for a week and instead of just picking her up half way, we decided, and were invited to stay at their house for a few days as well.  We had a blast.  We spent some time paddle boarding, which is something that the kids and Heather have been wanting to do for a while and spent hours just hanging out at the beach playing in the waves.

In the course of 4 days we packed a lot in.  In fact we didn't even get home till midnight last night because we were so busy.  We took the opportunity as we were driving to make the most of the food stops that we were going to need to take.  So, rather than stopping at a fast food joint, (which we just don't do) we contacted lots of friends.

On the way down south we were able to get together with the Rinehart's and the Oakes.  Both of these families we were able to meet while we were in Ethiopia.  They live in SoCal so getting to see them doesn't happen very often.  However, we were able to get together with them and some of their friends, have a BBQ dinner and let the kids all go swimming for hours.  The kids had a blast and loved being able to see some friends from Ethiopia.

Then, we were able to just relax and hang out with my brother Justin and his wife Keary.  They treated us well, served us good food and we were able to just relax and hang out.  We have not had much time with them since they moved down south a few years ago, so it was super fun to be able to just talk, drink some coffee and hang out.

While on the way home we made plans for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Meeting my cousin, Meghan for breakfast our kids were treated to free drinks from the kind Starbucks employees.  They saw all of our kids, asked if they were all ours, (twice) and then decided that we have enough expenses and we should be spared the expense of most of our coffee.  One of God's small provisions throughout the trip.

We then hurried across town.  Well, actually, can anybody really hurry in LA traffic?  We met with our close friends Matt and Danielle who used to live by us and have since moved.  It was great to get reacquainted with them.  Plus, our two little kids were able to go swimming in their clothes, which helped clean the mud off of them from the mud pies they had made at Starbucks earlier.

Finally, we made a stop for dinner with the Unruh's whom some of our kids had spent time together in the transition house in Ethiopia.  We met them for dinner a couple of months ago in San Francisco at an Ethiopian restaurant, but have you ever tried to have a conversation with other adults at a restaurant when there are 19 kids running around?  Yeah, it is about as hard as it seems.  So, being able to send the kids outside to go and play and eat while the adults eat "quietly" inside was a much better option.

After an exhausting drive, Heather and I were talking on the way home.  We were amazed at how refreshed and blessed we were to be able to meet with so many people.  We were so encouraged and supported by all of our friends and family as we were able to pray with them, be real with them and see the ways that they are living radically for Christ.  We thank God for the times that He gives us to be refreshed.

How will we go?

This is maybe the biggest of all questions.  

The real, honest answer is, only through Christ and His Church.  

There is no other way.  We can't do this on our own accord.  We know this full well.  There is too much standing in our way.  We have tough housing issues to figure out.  We are in housing debt and don't know how we can eliminate it.  We also have a lot of outgoing expenses and monthly expenses as we transition our lives to Kenya.  

If you are thinking that it costs a TON to move a family of 8 overseas and then to be able to live, well then you are absolutely right.  It does.  Let us throw out some rough numbers.  AIM, our sending organization develops numbers based on years of experience and the area that you are traveling to.  They have determined that our "outgoing" expenses that we will need in whole prior to leaving are: $66,000.  This includes costs for items such as, air travel, baggage fees, training expenses, insurance, furniture and a car.  

We also have to raise all of our monthly support.  AIM requires us to be fully 100% supported before we can leave.  Our monthly target is $7,767.  This is not all going to our salary, but like all things gets divided quite a bit.  It covers insurance, 401K, rent, living expenses, savings for return trip, etc.  We are grateful to be going with a reputable organization, who looks at all of the expenses and makes sure that we are taken care of as a family.  

Looking at the numbers makes me smile.  The numbers are over and above anything that we alone can possibly do.  It is only with Jehovah Jirah, God the Provider, that this can be accomplished.  Only with Him, performing a miracle on our behalf can this be done.  The beautiful thing is that it CAN be done.  He has prepared us for this.  

In case you aren't aware of our whole adoption story... We started with $100 in our savings account as God asked us to pursue adoption.  In just over a year, God had provided all $60,000 that we ended up needing through His body, the church.  To every single dollar, God provided.  We did not go into any debt, and somehow He has continued to provide as we added three children to care for and feed.  He has shown us that He is faithful.  He has shown us that He is the provider.  He also has shown us how He uses his people to accomplish his will.  We were beyond blessed once we released our pride of trying to do it all alone, and letting others come alongside us as God led them.  

We ask that you pray and seek God about how you can be a part of our journey.  We can't do this alone.  We need lots of prayer support.  We will be needing financial support.  

For those of you that have asked, donations can be made directly to AIM here.  All money goes to our "outbound" account until we leave.