The Beginning

Monday, December 27, 2010:  As most of you know we moved from Conway, Arkansas to Missouri.  After a long drive, we finally arrived at the house that we told the realtor, Andre we would take.  We arrive at about 10:00pm and it is NOT what we expected.  The floors in the house we torn up, the walls had holes with poor repairs,  the vents were not covered, there were tack strips for carpet that were still installed, the bathroom had not been clean in who knows how long, and the person living previously in the house had a pet and there were clumps of animal hair everywhere.  This was NOT safe at all for the kids.  We began to feel discouraged and we prayed, “God, if this is what You have for us.  Then so be it! Just deal with our hearts because we don’t like it.” After a long discussion, and fearing, that we would not be able to get a hotel because of the conference that was going on.  We decided to spend one night.   So Ii went to get the mattresses out of the truck, while out I heard gunshots down the street.  And that was the final straw for us.  We called John to pray with us.  He suggested that we get a hotel.  He was in agreement with us.  I called and found a rooml at the Holiday Inn Express.  They gave us an executive suite for $100.  By the time we got to the hotel it was about 1:00AM.

Tuesday:  We decided to go to the Prayer to spend time with the Lord.  We needed direction!  We had to return the moving truck early Friday morning.  On our way to the prayer room, Andre called me, I told him that the house was not safe for the kids and it just wasn’t going to work.  He apologized and told me, he would keep searching.  He had no idea the house was that bad.  We arrived at the prayer room, asking God for direction.  We spent 3 hours there.  God just gave us peace and pointed out our kids to us.  Saying, Look at them and how much fun they are having.  They’re acting as if they’re on vacation.  They’re not scared because they know they’re with you.  So you do the same and know that I am with you and have fun.  After that we had peace that everything was going to be fine.  The trip turned around and became fun.  While in the prayer room, Ii get a phone call from another realtor, Donna.  She tells me she has a house for rent.  I just told her that I would talk it over with my wife before giving any answers.  We went back to the hotel and got the same room for the same rate.

Wednesday: I woke up feeling anxious.  I was anxious because it was Wednesday and I was still driving around this 26 foot diesel truck with our stuff in it (btw, there was no padlock on the truck, anyone could have taken our things while we were away).  We checked out of the hotel again and then went to check out the house and the neighborhood.  As we were checking out the house, Donna called and asked if we were interested.  I told her that yes we would like to see it.  She gave us the combination to the lock box because she would not be able to make it out to show it to us.  So we went in and the kids begin to run around the house as if they lived there.  Isaiah begins to claim his own room.  He said, “Daddy, Isaiah’s room!”  Then he went on and said, “Daddy, this house!”  He went on to pick out everyone else’s room. Btw, he picked out the room that was bigger than Lisi’s. LOL!  We called Donna and told her we would take the house.  She says, “Excellent, I just need to ask a few questions.”  She asked the typical questions like, Have you ever rented or owned a home?  Then she asked, “What kind of income do you have?” To which I said, “uhh,  yeah about that.” I explain some of the situation to her.  About how we are living by faith and so on…  She then said, “You do realize that you have to pay rent?”  I respond, “Yes, I’m aware of that.”  So she says, “ I have to get a hold of the landlord (Donna is the property manager and the landlord is a missionary in another country).  I will have to e-mail him and he won’t respond until 4 or 5 this evening because of the time difference.” Donna had run a credit check and because of the lack of income it had come back declined.   So we went back to the hotel and booked the room for another night.  We headed off to the prayer room.  I was feeling anxious because of the income issue.  While praying,I get a phone call from Donna.  She says, that the landlord is willing to take the risk and he wanted us to understand that we were responsible for all the bills. I said, I’m aware of that.  Then we went out to dinner with a friend from Jersey whom we had not seen in over 10 years.

Thursday:  We check out of the hotel, in which they only charged us $83.00 for the night.  The price for an executive suite is usually about $150 - $200.  Especially because we were there during the holiday season.  Praise God! We then go and meet with Donna at about 11:30AM.  She sits down and begins to say again, you realize you need to pay the bills right? I told her again that yes I’m aware of that.  She goes on to say, that they’ve had many people come and say that God had told them to live by faith and within short period of time, everything falls apart and the family is torn apart.  I explained to her, that I have  had an entire year to think, fast and pray about this.  This isn’t a decision I made yesterday. I told her that the month of January was taken care of.  She asks, well, how do you plan on paying for the next month? I said, you’re asking the wrong person because this is not my idea.  All I know is that this is where God has us for right now.  And if I ever have to choose between tuition or my kids, I’m choosing my kids.  She wanted to know if our church was supportive of us and I told her yes.  So she says, “It’s the landlords risk not ours.” So we signed the papers for the lease, got all the utilities transferred over to our name and we moved in.  John and Jean pulled up at the Glad Heart realty.  They told Maira, how none of the seminars being taught at the OneThing Conference appealed to them.  They were asking God then why are we here.  John says, to Maira, God told him they were here for us.  John, Jean, Nikki, and Sarah helped us move in.  Andre showed up later on that evening to help unload the heavy items.  So, we spent our first night in the new house!

Friday:  We returned the truck in the morning and spent the day unpacking.  We went to the New Year’s Eve Worship Service at the OneThing Conference.  During the service, Mike Bickle begins to speak about how they needed to raise money for the expenses of the conference.  They needed about $300,000 more.  I  just kind of tuned him out.  But when he said, we’re going to pass the buckets around. I heard God say, “take the remaining cash in your pocket and place it in the bucket.” I  had about $40 or $50  in my pocket.   I began arguing with God and told him that was for food.  God brought to memory the note I had written “what is your focus?”  And asked me, “Do you provide or do I?”  I answered, “at this point God you do.”  God responds and says, “then put the money in the bucket.” So I leans over to Maira and tell her, “ I think God wants me to put all the cash in the bucket and I don’t like it.”  Maira responds, “If that is what God is telling you to do, then do it.”  So I take the money out and didn’t wait.  I got up and put it in the bucket.  I didn’t want to sit there and think about what I was about to do.  When I sat back down, I began to cry, asking myself, “what did I just do?”  Lisi came up and asked, “Daddy k?”  She began wiping my tears with her hands.  Then she went to the diaper bag and got wipes out and climbed into my lap and wiped my tears with the wipe.  After the service was done, we went home and I just kept saying, “I did it, but I don’t like it!”

Saturday:  Waking up again saying the same thing “I did it, but I don’t like it!”  We continue unpacking.  I tell some friends about what happened the night before.  They laughed and said, "that's  funny because God told me to give you this good thing you were obedient.  They gave us a total of $200.

Sunday: …..SABBATH!!!