Drawing near...

Draw Near to Me...

There is a song that I cant stop playing; and I haven't stopped playing it for months now. Its a song by Jeremy Riddle called "Draw Near." Track 9 on the Bethel Loft Sessions album. This song gets to me every time I listen to it, and I have to hold back the tears. 

God often speaks to me through music and He has an incredible way of moving my heart through lyrics or instrumentals. There is a certain part of this song that moved my heart months before we made a decision to go to California, and every time I heard this certain part of the song it felt like God was moving my heart and speaking the words to me....

"Ive made a place for you here. So come on, come on...

All things are possible here. So come on, come on..."

It was as if God was inviting me somewhere and, at the time, I didn't know where...

When I hear these words now my heart leaps :) 

Plans and Progression...

Our student visas have been granted and are ready for us to collect. We have just over 2 weeks left in South Africa and things are starting to speed up... 

We move out of our little home next week and after that we are driving to Johannesburg to spend a few days with my family. We then come back to Durban for the last few days before we fly out from King Shaka airport to Dubai. We have a 3 hour layover in Dubai before the monster flight of 16 hours to San Francisco. When we land in San Fran we will collapse for the night in a little hotel, and the next day we drive to Redding in a rental car. Whew! I feel exhausted just thinking about it!!

In all honesty this all feels totally surreal. Pete and I are running off our feet organising and packing and yet we feel completely at peace, happy and content. Yes, we have been stressed and overwhelmed, but on the other hand we have watched how everything has effortlessly fallen into place and we stand totally humbled. Our God is big and He looks after His children! 

I have had many moments of tears at what we will be missing - birthday parties, pregnancies and babies being born; family holidays. Just life's progression in general. But there is always good ol' Facebook, Skype and a whole list of other ways of communicating. It will feel like we are just down the road in so many ways :)

We have managed to secure a little apartment - with MUCH help from incredible, unmet friends in Redding :) So we will be able to drive from San Francisco into the drive way of our little home in Redding (thank you Jesus!) We have also been blessed with some furniture already. Amy will start school at the end of August and Pete starts school sometime in September.

Time is Drawing near...

...and we are ready!!! Ready for ALL that God has for us, the good and the challenging. Ready for the change, the adventure and the possibilities. NOTHING is impossible for God, and when He calls you to take a step, even if it is the scariest step of your life, you see how He carries you all the way. 

Puzzle Pieces

I have always admired people who can sit for hours with a 3000 piece puzzle and slowly, day by day, unscramble all these tiny but important pieces to eventually reveal this magnificent picture. I wish I could do that, but I am WAY too impatient and would get incredibly frustrated knowing that amongst all those scrambled pieces there is a picture and I cant see it.

Its kinda how I am feeling at the moment :)

ITS ALL IN THE DETAILS...

I realised in my last blog I didn't quite mention the specifics of what we will be doing in Redding California and how this process is working. So here are the finer details...

Redding is a small town north of San Francisco (about a 4 hour drive). It is incredibly beautiful with forests, mountains and lakes. In Redding is a church called Bethel Church and it is lead by Bill Johnson. He is an incredible minister; his preaching has had me captured for years. I remember listening to a preach of his on Inheritance and it had me on my knees weeping in my lounge. Anyway, the church offer a number of schools, seminars and courses; some of them being the Worship school, Sozo Seminars and the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry or BSSM (which is where Pete will be studying).

Studying at BSSM is full time - 4 days a week with homework - and the students get the opportunities to be involved in the life of Bethel church as well as attending some outreaches and going on a few retreats. It is an incredible school which focuses on the kingdom of God working in and through you. It is quite different to the traditional Bible Colleges and theological studies in the sense that it offers the opportunity to not only study Gods word but to allow Gods word to bring life in and through you in a very real way. Essentially, being Gods word and not just knowing it.

So while Pete studies I will be at home with the girls. Its not that I don't want to study at all, but my focus right now is my children; to be their rock and their security while they are small. I am secure in that calling and I believe that raising children is as important as reaching nations. I know that their little worlds are about to change too and I want to be the constant in their lives during this time.
Bethel offer evening courses on various subjects which I can attend and my intention is to do homework with Pete so that I can also get a taste of what God is doing in him.

As far as day to day living is concerned, we will be looking for a small apartment to rent and furnish it through garage sales. We will also need to buy a small car. I cannot wait to go grocery shopping there as I can totally see myself becoming an "extreme coupon-er" :)
We are responsible for funding our lives while we are in Redding. Our American visas are M1 student visas which means that we are not allowed to work or earn money while we are there. We have some money saved that will get us through our first year in America. Our intention is to stay for two years. This is where I get very excited as God will show us how living by faith actually works. YEEHAAA!

PIECE BY PIECE...

So back to the scrambled pieces of puzzles, at this stage we realise that there are 6 weeks left until we leave and a whole lot of unknowns. Kind of like a bunch of pieces and no real picture yet. I can visualise this table with a frame of puzzle pieces and nothing in the middle. I know every piece is important but not sure where or how it fits in. The only certainties are that we have our tickets and our appointment with the US Embassy has been made in order to issue our visas and thats kind of it. We are busy wrapping up our lives here: banks, medical aid, insurance, cell phone contracts etc etc. But when we arrive in Redding.....well that side is the unknown part of the picture. And I chuckle as I write this because this is where I feel HUGELY challenged; especially being a stay at home mum and homemaker. I cringe at the thought of arriving in a foreign country with a few suitcases and no where to stay or sleep. (popping a rescue tablet). I have tried to find out if we can secure a little apartment before we arrive but most agents say that they don't rent properties to people they haven't met, or "unmet" people; which I can understand. So we will have to find something when we get there. Then we can go garage sale crawling - yahoo!! (laughing and popping another rescue tablet)

THANK YOU LORD!

But you know what? I feel totally humbled that we have this opportunity, that we can pack up and go to the States for a year. WOW! How many people get this opportunity?
Amongst the jumbled, scrambled emotions and thoughts, God is shaping the most amazing picture for us and we are SO excited to see what it is.

Am I ready? No. Am I scared? Yes!

"Time to be brave Lis. Throw off everything that hinders...come to the edge" I keep hearing those words.

Saddle up your horses...

I have never really considered myself a "blogger". I actually prefer good old pen and paper when expressing my heart if I am to be honest; but a few people have asked if I would start a blog when we leave so that they can read about our journey and see how we are doing. I realised its actually a great tool to keep everyone on the "same page" so to speak. So here we go :) ...

I want to be vulnerable and real on this blog. I don't want to put on a brave face and be over spiritual either. This is a place where I will record the highs and the lows; the tears and the laughter as we go on our way to America. 
I would really like all of you to know where we are at and, if you would like to pray, then on these blogs you'll know what to pray for. 

GOD, IN HIS GRACE, PREPARED US WAY IN ADVANCE:

I remember listening to a song sung by Steven Curtis Chapman when I was a teenager. Many of you will remember it...

"Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze

Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace

Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown

This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life

Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind

And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored

This is what we were created for"

I remember something coming alive in my heart whenever I heard this song. It was like the Holy Spirit was whispering to me, saying; "Its true, you were meant to live for so much more..." And my heart would leap..."But what adventures lie ahead for me Lord?" 

If someone had come to me 2 years ago and said, "You are going to pack up your life here and in August 2013 you, Pete and the girls will board a plane to America where you will live for 2 years." I would have laughed.

God has been speaking to Pete and I for 2 years about a change that is coming. We didn't know how, or when or what (God likes to keep you guessing hey?) but we just knew that we had to give our hearts and our lives over to Him if we wanted The Great Adventure of following Him. 
God in His grace and wisdom didn't reveal things too early, (otherwise we may have run away) but slowly and surely He worked in our lives, made us soft and gently wooed us by His Spirit. We had been praying and asking God for adventure and change for so long.
His word really is a lamp unto our feet, He showed us each step and, as we had the faith to take that step, He showed us the next one, and so on.

"THEY CAME TO THE EDGE, AND HE PUSHED THEM, AND THEY FLEW."

In April we both had thought of going to Bethel to study for a year. It was just a thought, but that seed of thought began to grow and grow. We began to realise that it is actually possible and "why not?!" 
I began to picture us living in America, driving on the other side of the road, Amy and Katie speaking in little American accents...and I began to get really excited. I found myself clearing out old toys and clothes and not buying the new cushions for my couch that I had been eyeing out. 
"God is this what You want for us?" ... Silence. (Don't you love that?) 
Pete applied for the Bethel school and got accepted. We were told that we had 30 days to pay a deposit otherwise his space would be filled. Eeek!!

I don't like making decisions under pressure, neither does Pete. Especially really big decisions like this. Emotions got in the way, reasoning told me that its not "wise" to spend your life savings and come back to nothing. And as a mother, well that typical "motherly guilt" came to the party as well. Taking my girls away from their home, their grandparents and cousins was a huge issue for me.
But through all of this, there was a fire in my heart that started to burn, like a match that has been struck and I couldn't put it out. I knew that we had to do this. I knew it was time for us to be pushed off the cliff and it was time for us to fly. 

SADDLE UP YOUR HORSES ...

We made the firm decision to go last month (May). We paid our deposit and we booked our flights. We gave notice to our landlord on our beloved little home and I gave notice to Amy's school. We told our friends and family and Pete resigned from his job. 
WOW!! Talk about no turning back now!
This last month we have had days where we are so excited that we have actually danced together as a family in our lounge; and then there have been days where I have sobbed and sobbed at the thought of leaving our friends and family and leaving Africa (even if it is temporary). 
It feels like God; the Master Gardener; is uprooting this little plant from its pot and planting it in a more spacious place where it can grow and thrive. The uprooting, however, is not easy. 
My mom has been saying to me, "Lis, take a day at a time. Each day His grace is sufficient." and its so true. 
Matthew 19v29 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for My Names sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life." 
That is my promise and I will remember it. Thank you Father.

Pete and I have made a decision to enjoy every minute of this journey. Even the tough times and the homesickness. Man what a privilege to be able to live in America for a year or two!! 
Thank you Lord for this opportunity!

And so our journey begins here. We are busy packing up and selling a few odds and ends; sorting out admin like cell phone contracts and storage costs and registering Amy for Bethel Pre School. Our i20 visa forms haven't arrived in the blessed South African post yet, so this week we are sorting that out.

We have 9 weeks left and a LOT to do...

I will keep you posted.
Thanks for reading :)