Hi guys! The last post left you with me trying to figure out how I was going to make the move work out. Once I got back to Phenix City from the preview event, I had the task of talking to A.T. face to face. He thought I had gone off the deep end. I was so fired up but soon had to realize that all my family and friends had not been to New Orleans with me so they didn't understand. I felt so alone but I continued to pray to God for His will to be done in my life. The normal routine began to set in. I was mom and wife again. My days consisted of doing laundry, cooking, and taking care of my family which I loved. At the same time, I had the urge to get back to New Orleans by August for the start of school. I knew that if I was truly called God would call A.T. as well so I waited and waited and waited. I probably asked A.T. every day had God spoken to him yet! I finally had to let go of the situation and trust that God would take care of it.
Within two weeks A.T. came to me and said we were moving to New Orleans. I was so shocked! That was God and God alone. We both were comfortable in Phenix City and were close to our families. We loved our church family at Cascade Hills and thought we weren't going to leave any time soon. However, we knew New Orleans was where we needed to be.
These were the critical stages of the journey. Once we figured out we were supposed to be in New Orleans then came the how do we go about getting there. We prayed and prayed about every detail of the move. My "soul sista" Alicia was my rock during this time. She helped me see God's hand on every part of the journey. Alicia is the women's leader at Cascade Hills and also the leader for the marriage ministry. The bible study we did during this time was Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted by Priscilla Shirer. If you are a woman reading this blog and haven't done this study I highly recommend it! The study was so convicting. It detailed the events in Jonah's life and how God had told him to go to Ninevah. Ninevah was a place of sin and Jonah knew it. He didn't think the people there were worthy of God's love so he didn't obey God's command. Instead he went the opposite way to Tarshish. This is what humans do all the time. We know that God told us to go one way but we decide it's in our best interest to go another. The story of Jonah ended with him finally going to Ninevah and it being the biggest revival ever. It's funny how we always end up where God wants us to be. It may take 1 month, 1 year or even 10 years. I realized throughout the study that my call was to go to the present day Ninevah (New Orleans). There were so many parallels from Jonah's story to the journey I was actually on. I knew that was God's way of speaking to me. The women in my bible study were so great. They prayed for me and gave me words of encouragement. They even took up an offering for my move. I could never thank them enough.
During this entire time of getting ready to move to New Orleans, A.T. and I were terrified but excited at the same time. It didn't make "worldly" sense for us to pack up our 3 boys and move to a place like New Orleans. I had to realize though that it didn't have to make "worldly" sense as long as it made "Godly" sense. We had a lot of bumps in the road and things didn't go as planned. We weren't able to sell our house. We couldn't get Kolbi into the school we wanted. A.T. didn't even get a job offer. The devil was working hard to deter us. We stayed on the course and I'm proud to say God has provided throughout the entire process. We found a renter ONE WEEK before we left and Kolbi got accepted into a Christian school. We could see God's hand in every step of the way. Even though A.T. wasn't able to secure a position, we knew God was behind the wheel so we decided to move forward with our plan.
In Christ,
Alissa
No comments:
Post a Comment