Our Next Steps

"For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."  

Colossians 1:16-17

Several weeks ago Kaleb and I got to go on an 12 mile hike with some friends.  None of us intended the hike to be quite that long, haha, but we just felt so good we kept going.  There were no mile markers on the trail so once reaching the summit we found a park ranger and realized we'd hiked 6 miles (that was what we intended our max to be that day, lol).  Good thing we all love hiking :).  About half way back down some of the rocky, steep trails....I think my body was like, "what are you doing!?!" LOL.  Kaleb and I have been so busy we haven't been on a hike in a while and our last hike wasn't near that long!  Needless to say, by the time we got home, we were pretty darn sore.  But, it was so worth it and SO much fun.  I get so excited hiking and I'll take any sort of pain and achy muscles from hiking any day.  I'm so happy to have a husband who shares a love for the outdoors :).

The whole gang that went on the hike.

This area of the trail turned out to be one of my favorite spots, loved the fields of grass.

The trail that goes way off into the distance to the right is still part of the trail we hiked.

Our hike has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of this blog, I just thought it'd be fun to share the pics (yes, random :) ).

SO, I guess I'll get down to it....what's next?  Well, Kaleb will be done working full time the beginning of July.  This is a huge leap of faith for us.  This was eventually one of our goals so that we could focus on raising support full time.  We weren't sure exactly when it would work out, but believe that now is the time.  We are both very excited about finally being able to work on support raising for Lifelines full time together!!  

We will be leaving in mid July to attend a conference in Colorado.  Every 2 years, Campus Crusade for Christ has there all staff conference in Colorado that we will be required to attend.  We are really excited!  I think it will be a really great time to recharge AND we will get to meet all the other Lifelines staff!  We will be there by July 15th and will get to spend the first 2 days with the other Lifelines staff across the country (about 30 or so people).  The rest of the time will be spent at the conference hearing from different speakers, worshiping together, and attending different workshops.  We will be there a total of 10 days.   

Also, after much prayer, we have decided that at the end of July we will be moving to Arizona. After the conference in Colorado, we will go straight to AZ.  We will live with family there while we continue to raise support/funds for our ministry.  We have prayed over the timing of this for a while - it wasn't ever IF we would go, but when.  We have a good base of contacts there as well and knew that eventually we would need to go raise some support there.  So, the end of July it is! :) 

Things with our support raising have been going good, slow and steady as I like to say ;).  We are SO thankful for how God continues to provide!!!  Right now we are at 18% of what we need for monthly gifts and 46% of our "one time" (we need a set amount of one time donations as well as monthly donors).  We've been told it takes an average of a year for a married couple to raise full support with CCC (that is working on it full time).  We initially prayed we would be in Maine by September, but we have realized that those were OUR plans...and we have given that back up to God :).  It's definitely still possible for him to get us there by then, but we know that God is teaching and has a lot to continue to teach us through this process.  We aren't sure what month we will get to Maine, but we know that it will be in GOD's timing - not ours :).  All that to say, we wouldn't be here and couldn't do this without those of you who have been supporting us!!  Whether it's been through your financial gift or more importantly through prayer!!  Having prayer support is crucial!  As our supporters, financial and or prayerfully, you are our partners on this journey and we are so grateful for how God has laid our ministry on your heart and how he continues to provide more people like you to join us.

The last couple months or so, we've been learning how to balance our time between Kaleb's job and meeting with people about our ministry.  Often times we find ourselves pretty exhausted -especially Kaleb...working 40 hours a week and part time hours on support raising can be pretty tiring.  BUT :) it's all worth it.  We are continually learning to stop making OUR plans and trust in His (if you can't tell ;) ).  So as of right now, all we know is God is leading us to Arizona....for how long?  We don't know, we are taking a leap of faith and trusting Him.  It could be for a month or several months....we will see what happens when we get there.  We will eventually be coming back up to Nor Cal though, as all our stuff will still be stored here.  Even though there are so many unknowns, we have a PEACE...and a comfort, because we know God will continue to direct us.  We may not always have the answers, but we know that God will provide and we know everything will work out in HIS perfect timing and not OURS :).  

"Trust in the LORD with all you heart, and do not lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." 

Proverbs 3:5-6