Changed By Love

Coming to Texas

Aug.8,2012

We left Pennsylvania on Friday, June 29.

We had packed everything – absolutely everything – so we had to find things to occupy our time as we waited for somebody to come from the property management group to walk through the house. He never came. We waited as long as we could and then all piled into the van to go pick up Gary at the airport. Our friend, Tracy, stayed to start cleaning. I hired her to clean up the house after the movers were done on Sunday. We got to the airport about half an hour after Gary arrived, but we were excited to take off on our big trip to Texas.

We were having a wonderful time driving through the beautiful Appalachian mountains of Virginia. We realized that we were in the land of some of the greatest men America ever produced, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Patrick Henry.

We enjoyed our trip, and the kids were great in the van.

Friday night, we stayed at a hotel in Virginia. Gary took the youngest kids out to the pool. All of a sudden, the wind started blowing really hard and throwing chairs around in the pool area. Sand blew into their eyes. They came running back into the hotel rooms. We had 3 rooms. I got the little girls to take a shower with me and the lights went out. Gary went from room to room checking on everybody. The girls’ room still had electricity except for air conditioning. Gary got the manager to bring a fan for the girls. Our room had no electricity, but our air conditioner kept trying to come on all night and the fan blew some air so that it was not sweltering. The boys’ room didn’t have any power at all. All they had was a dim light in their bathroom.

The next day we found out that the whole area had lost power. We drove on to the next town. We stopped to eat at a Wendy’s, but they had no power, so we had to go to the Arby’s across the street. We kept on driving toward Texas. We found out that the land we left behind was dealing with the devastation left by the storm. Thousands of people had no electricity and no water.

The men who loaded and moved our stuff stayed in Virginia two nights after we were there. They didn’t have any water in the hotel rooms. Jeff, our mover, took a bar of soap and jumped into the swimming pool. He needed to clean up after loading furniture and boxes for hours then driving for several hours.

As late as Sunday, July 1, we still didn’t know if we would have a house to stay in or put our stuff in when we arrived in Houston. We didn’t have an address to give our movers until Monday, July 2. We arrived in Houston Monday, July 2 and had to get two checks cashed. We were able to cash the paycheck at Walmart. But they wouldn’t cash the cashier’s check. We needed that money to pay the security deposit. Gary was finally able to take the check to the actual bank it had been drawn from and get it cashed. So we quickly went to the house and paid the owners the security deposit and first month’s rent. We spent the night in an empty house.

The movers arrived with our stuff on Tuesday, July 3 and carried it into the house. Gary and I went to sign the lease while they were moving our stuff into the house.

Our move didn’t go the way we had hoped, but we saw God move again to provide for us in the nick of time.
One thing that seemed like a real bummer is that we don’t like where we are. The house is really nice and big. The boys even have a master bedroom and bathroom! The girls’ rooms are really big, too. Our room is very big, and we even have a little part where Emma and Abby could have their own bunk beds. But we don’t like living in the city and we’re tired of living in a subdivision, so we already gave notice and we’re looking for a house in the country.

I say it seemed like a bummer when we found out we can’t stand living where we are, because it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We all got really serious about praying that God would take us to our Promised Land. Each one of the children has been praying every night that God will give us a farm. Our prayer time has been rejuvenated. We have a battle plan and other people have joined our army.

We are looking forward with great anticipation to the land and home that God is going to provide for us supernaturally or by whatever means He chooses.

Taking Pressure Off of Young Moms

Aug.8,2012

How will my child turn out? What if I do this all wrong and create a monster? Can I parent this child perfectly without making any mistakes so that I produce the perfect, most godly, most intelligent, most amazing person that ever lived? All for God’s glory, of course. These are the questions that many young moms ask themselves. It’s a big responsibility raising a child.

But I have good news for you. It’s not all on your shoulders.

Isaiah 40:11 says, “He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young.”

There are three parts to this and each part shows us that HE is the one on whose shoulders the responsibility rests.

Let’s look at these three things that God tells us He will do.

1. He will feed His flock like a shepherd.
2. He will gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom.
3. He will gently lead those who are with young.

He will feed His flock like a shepherd.

His flock is composed of men, women and children. He will feed all of us and take care of us in every way as a shepherd takes care of his sheep. Young mothers are part of the flock. He will take care of you.

He will gather the lambs with His arms and carry them in His bosom.

The lambs are the young ones, the children, in His flock. He will gather them. What does this mean? He will draw them to Himself and hold them. So far, there’s not much pressure put on young mothers.

He will gently lead those who are with young.

We who have young ones should take comfort from this statement. He is leading us gently. He is not harsh in His leading. Nor is He harsh in His expectations of us or of our little ones. He has so much grace for us as we learn how to deal with our child with all of his unique needs and personality weaknesses and strengths, not to mention his little sin nature. We all see the selfishness and self-centeredness of our child. It embarrasses us and makes us wonder how he could be so immature and so far from Christ-likeness. It also frustrates us as we try to teach and train him and he insists on staying immature, selfish, and self-centered. Kind of like – us moms.

God is so patient and kind with us moms. You know, He could be a harsh taskmaster and spank us every time we repeat a sin or fail to obey. But he doesn’t.

I believe He wants us to learn from our mistakes and from natural consequences. He put His Holy Spirit inside of us to convict us – which is how our conscience works. As we learn to listen to His Spirit as He speaks through our spirit, we learn to do what is right and good, so that we won’t feel that prick in our conscience that happens when we do what is wrong and outside of God’s will.

We become internally motivated to do what’s right. We learn how to be led by the Spirit. We learn to put our spirit in control of our actions and thoughts and motivations instead of our soul. And then we ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us and direct us through our spirit.

I believe that God wants us to teach our children in the same manner. There are specific things that we have to train children to do, such as sharing, getting along with others, respecting authority, and being kind and helpful. We need to set a loving example for them so that they know what good behavior looks like. But the most important thing we can do in child training is to help them develop a relationship with their heavenly Father. We are supposed to lead them to Him.

He gently leads us. We should gently lead them. When we are being gentle, we are not applying lots of pressure – to our children or to ourselves.

We will make mistakes. We will have bad days. We will fall short of the glory of God. But the glory of God is the goal that we are aiming for. Keep your aim. Keep shooting at the target.

Ultimately, your child is God’s child. He put this child in your care because you are the best person for the job and because this child will help you to become the person God meant for you to be.

Rest in Him. Rest in His care for you. Rest in His care for your child. Recognize the things that are your responsibility and the things that are God’s responsibility. Keep listening to the Holy Spirit, and He will help you to be the kind of mother you were meant to be. He will lead you as you lead your children. Teach your child to listen to the Holy Spirit. And He will help your child to be the person he was meant to be.

Remember, it’s on His shoulders. And He has big shoulders!

I’ve linked this post to the Big Family Friday Link-up at Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling.

And to Women Living Well Wednesdays

And A Wise Woman Builds Her Home Link-up

Interesting Developments

Jul.26,2012

Here we are getting ready to leave our mostly empty, packed-up house in York.

Now we’ve arrived at our completely empty house in Katy, Texas waiting for the movers to come.

The movers came!

Now for the unpacking…

But not so fast –

Stay tuned for more news as it develops!

We Shall Go out With Joy and Be Led Forth with Peace

Jun.24,2012

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah 55:12

We felt more joy and peace today than we have in a long time. God is removing fear and anxiety from our hearts. We trust Him no matter what. As we do that, He helps us to experience the feelings of peace and joy. I was able to worship the Lord when I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and I felt no fear.

I had been so afraid of the court hearing tomorrow.

Now I’m just sure that He will give me the words to say, and everything will be all right.

I’m going to take all 10 kids with me. When I realized that I didn’t have to go handle this all by myself, it helped to take the scariness out of it.

We have people helping us to get rid of stuff that won’t fit in the truck. Jeff is going to come over Tuesday and Wednesday and haul stuff away. I couldn’t figure out how we were going to do that. I met Jeff through Chad. I met Chad through Craigslist.

A man from another moving company warned me about American Van Lines and saved me from making a terrible mistake.

The teller at the bank told me how to put money in my account at a lower interest rate.

The timing is going to work out just right for the money to get to Texas to secure a house there.

God is speaking to us, inspiring us, giving us wisdom, showing us how to do things we can’t figure out by ourselves.

We are so grateful for the Holy Spirit and His guidance during this whole move.

Thank You, Lord, for Your provision, protection and wisdom. We have been reminded again of how much we need You.

65 You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your promise.

66 Teach me good judgment, wise and right discernment, and knowledge, for I have believed (trusted, relied on, and clung to) Your commandments.

67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now Your word do I keep [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it].

68 You are good and kind and do good; teach me Your statutes.

69 The arrogant and godless have put together a lie against me, but I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.

70 Their hearts are as fat as grease [their minds are dull and brutal], but I delight in Your law.

71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.

72 The law from Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

Psalm 119:65-72

The Enemy Attacks, But God Wins Again!

Jun.22,2012

The mover I talked to who moved our new neighbor warned me not to look online for a moving company. Boy, was he right! Boy, do I wish I had listened to him!

At first, we took his advice and called ABF and hired them to bring a truck that we would load and unload and they would drive. But then we canceled our plans with ABF because they were only going to let us use half of a trailer. We figured we would need the whole thing. 16 feet didn’t sound like enough even with the extra volume. We have a lot of stuff, and I have lots of books! I called PODS and they told me that one POD was the same as a trailer and a half. So I decided to go with them. Shawn and I started figuring out how much space we would actually have. The person who was called my personal moving coordinator told me the actual dimensions of one POD are 8’by 8′ by 16′. When Shawn and I started figuring out how much furniture we have and how many boxes, we realized that we would need a second POD. Then when we kept on figuring, we knew that even that would not be enough.

I went on Craigslist and started trying to sell most of our furniture.

I advertised all of our dressers. A man called about one of them and told me he needed it for a group home for men just coming out of prison that he helps to get back on their feet. I had figured out the night before that we had 10 dressers that we needed to get rid of to make space for our move. He told me he was just starting a new house and he needed 10 dressers.

When I heard that, I told him that we had 10 dressers we wanted to sell. He asked how much I wanted for them. I went and talked to Shawn about it and told him what the man wanted them for, and Shawn said, “That sounds like a good cause, let’s just give them to him.” So I told Chad we would just give him the 10 dressers. It sounded like he almost dropped the phone!

He couldn’t believe that we were really going to just give him 10 dressers. But we really felt like God was telling us to do that. The more I thought about it, I realized that most of those dressers had been given to us in Kansas City. So it was only right that we would give them to another ministry when we were done with them.

Chad was amazed and said he would be right over with some of the guys from the home to get them. They came and loaded them onto a pickup truck, and we got to testify to them of all the great things God has done for us since we started our Journey of Fire in 2002, and especially since we lost our house in 2005 and went to Arizona by faith and God took care of us supernaturally. We told them that we had been homeless for a while and went to Arizona with $3000 and ran out of money, but God always took care of us. We were never hungry, never without a place to stay and never stranded. Chad pointed out to the men that we went from being homeless to living in a big, beautiful house like the one we’ve been living in.

And he asked what kind of house we would have in Texas. I told him it would be like this one or nicer. I know it will be. We will have one that has at least one more bedroom than what we have here.

But back to my moving story. Ugh, we canceled PODS because we knew that even without the dressers, we still wouldn’t have enough space for all of our stuff.

So, out of desperation, we looked online for a moving company.

Never do anything out of desperation. Especially the thing you were warned not to do.

We went with the first company that called us after we put in our information on a website. They charged us a huge deposit of over $2500, and I foolishly gave it to them.

Right after that another moving company called me and I told him we had already chosen somebody. He asked the name. When I told him it was American Van Lines, he yelled “NO!” I wondered what was wrong with him. He proceeded to educate me about how to find a good moving company. He told me to do a google search of American Van Lines and see all the bad reviews about the terrible things that American Van Lines did to them. We did and found out he was telling the truth.

Then I did as he told me and found out that lots of moving companies hold your stuff hostage until you pay more, stuff gets damaged, movers don’t show up on time, all that kind of thing. Then I didn’t know who to trust.

I felt so dumb for being so gullible and misled. I felt like I had really missed it and not heard what the Lord was saying, even though I had a great time with the Lord that morning and had spent two hours just praying and meditating.

I felt really out of sorts and upset, not to mention worried about getting the money back that I had been paying all of these moving companies. I called Chad to ask him to pray for us. He told us that he has a buddy who has a moving company here in York. He gave me his number. His company is called The Friendly Movers, and they try to help people. The owner’s name is Jeff.

So I called him and asked if he could move us to Texas.

I gave him some details about what we have, and he said he would do some research and call me back. His was not the lowest quote I got, but being able to trust him and getting the help we need will be worth the extra money. Plus, we know that our money is going to good people.

So we chose to go with The Friendly Movers.

Gary looked at a house yesterday, but the house he really wanted to see became available again, so he is going to look at it today. We were approved for two different houses, but Gary wants to make sure we get the right one. We were approved for two different houses! That’s a lot different than it was when we moved here to PA! And he is looking at houses with 5 bedrooms, not just 4, and the rent is lower than our rent here!

So there is a lot to rejoice over.

But the struggles have been really hard and humbling. And I have battled lots of fear. My day in court is coming up Monday about the bogus charges the property management group has brought against us. (They say we didn’t pay trash and sewer, but I never got a bill, and they say we have unpaid rent. The unpaid rent is for July – NEXT month.)

But I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And he leads us from victory to victory, glory to glory.

We have all been growing closer to each other, and I see spiritual progress in my children, especially Patrick.

That is worth it all.