Tuesday, November 8, 2016

A New Chapter...Maybe Even a New Book

WE ARE MOVING TO NEW YORK!!!!!


Wait...What?!

Yes, we are moving from our beautiful farm in North Carolina to a gorgeous camp in upstate New York THIS winter! We have already started packing, and we are putting our lovely farm on the market. (Do you know anyone interested in it)? Our Farm For Sale CLICK HERE

Okay, I am getting ahead of myself. How did we get here?

So, my husband and I felt that God was calling us to missions. Some people told us, we have a mission right here in our own family, but we really felt God calling us to "go." We weren't sure exactly what that meant, but we know that where the Lord leads, we will follow. We prayed about this for a great deal of time, and finally reached out to the Children's Shelter of Cebu, which is where we adopted our Filipino children from. It is an absolutely fabulous organization, and we were excited about the possibility of being a part of it. We will go wherever the Lord leads us! We began preparing our hearts and our minds for this possible life-changing mission, and we waited.

We didn't have to wait long though because shortly after we contacted Children's Shelter of Cebu, we received a phone call about a different opportunity in upstate New York, which is where I grew up. The opportunity was a Christian camp on over 300 acres of beautiful wooded forests with trails, cabins, streams, and waterfalls. It is absolutely gorgeous property that we have even visited while traveling to see family up there.
Originally, the camp was run as a Christian summer camp, IdRaHaJe (I'd Rather Have Jesus); in fact, my sister was a camp counselor there when she was in high school, which is how we knew that the people running it were getting out of the business. Since then, the summer camp portion has closed down, and they mostly have focused on hiking trails, stream hikes, team building exercises, camping, retreats...etc.

The opportunity seemed just too good to be true, but we also wondered if it was a distraction from the mission we were pursuing in the Philippines. So, we prayed fervently. We asked close family and friends to pray with us and fast as well. We prayed for clarity and discernment. We prayed for wisdom. We prayed that God would open the door wide open if it was what we were supposed to do, and that He would close it shut if it wasn't. We prayed that God would make the path abundantly clear, and He has.


Children's Shelter of Cebu staff and board, while initially excited about the possibility of us joining their team, had some hesitations regarding our possible position there. They were concerned about our Filipino children being caught between two cultures and concerned with how difficult that may be for them. They were also concerned about the logistics of such a large family: traveling, finances, and even housing to accommodate our large family. Additionally, they informed us that there are also racial tensions there that we would have to deal with there. It seemed that God was closing that door.
However, He has opened wide the door to the opportunity in New York. We cannot even believe how fortunate we are to have this incredible opportunity. The B&B Lumber Company, who actually owns the property, is a family owned company run by a Christian family who wants to see the property used to glorify God. We spoke to them about our vision for ministry and outreach with the property, and they agreed to sell it to us!

So we are taking a leap of faith!

There are a great deal of details we are still working out. We do not even know what the name will be yet of this new camp. (It was formerly known as Adam's Eden. However, we will rename it since it will be under new ownership).

Will you join us in praying? We are praying for God's hand to be on this entire process. We pray that God will bless this transition and draw us closer to Him through it. We pray that our farm here in NC will sell or rent quickly, that paperwork will go smoothly, and for efficiency in packing and moving a family of 15 over 700 miles. We are also praying for emotions. This is an exciting time for us, but it is also bittersweet as we will be saying good-bye to many wonderful close friends and even family members here in eastern NC where we have called home for the past 15 years. We pray for peace and comfort for everyone that will be affected by us leaving. And, we pray for this ministry opportunity in New York to blossom; that God would use us as an instrument of His love and grace, and that we would glorify God with all we do.