Stepping Out in Faith

Stepping out in faith can be frightening.
Especially if you are stepping away from the avenues that make sense.
Especially if people that you trust tell you that you :  a) are not in God's will,  and b) give you sound Biblical advice about submitting to leadership.

But there comes a point when you have to choose.
Do we obey the intense leading of the Lord,  even though it doesn't make a lot of sense,  and people don't understand?  When our pastor is telling us we are wrong?

Or do we step out in faith?

Proverbs 16:9
A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.


Sometimes you have be to radical...


Following the God of the Universe is an adventure.
And when He gives you a calling, you can expect that it is going to take twist and turns that you do not expect.  Sometimes you have to leave the familiar, and what seems right.  We are looking at our journey from only our own vantage point.  But our Creator God is seeing everything, and knows what needs to happen in order to accomplish His purposes.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
John 10:27

We know His voice.
My husband and I have been Christians for over a decade, and in those years, we have learned what His voice sounds like.  We have grown accustomed to the ways that He speaks to us.

And our God is relentless.
When our leadership had us convinced that we weren't hearing from God, that we were being clouded by selfish ambition, our God persisted.

When we tried to convince ourselves that we were wrong (out of submission to leadership), God began using other methods. And FINALLY we began to see that we could still hear His voice.


Twice in my life have I been told something by leadership that made me doubt my ability to hear when God was speaking to me. The first time I was much younger in my faith, and didn't have the confidence to question it.  I didn't begin to heal from that experience, and grow in my faith until after we left that church, and started attending a different one.

This time, since everything about this adventure is new to us, and we have no idea HOW He is going to do things, we are always questioning what we are hearing, and asking for confirmation before we make any steps forward.  Our desire is to stay right in the center of His will, not making any moves that are not directed by Him.

We are grateful for the confirmation that we have in fact been hearing from the Lord the whole time, and have been made more confident in our ability to stay right in His will.  While the situation is painful, we are now more fully equipped for this good work that He has laid before us.

To quote my favorite song, by Laura Story:

Sometimes your blessings come through raindrops,
Sometimes you healing comes through tears,
Sometimes a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near.
What if trials of this life
are your mercies in disguise.

Prayer support

Some big things are happening here....

We don't know what the Lord is trying to tell us.

Please, if you are reading this, we are desperately pleading for discernment from God.

We would covet your prayers.

a.  It has to do with the church plant

b. we are all fine, the kids are fine, we are fine

c. we need to know if the feelings we are having are spiritual attack, or if they are from God to accomplish a pretty big change 

Thanks.

----  Meredith

What we have been learning.....

It's been a long time since we have updated.
Here is the recap:

On Memorial Day weekend we moved into the perfect home.
The Lord orchestrated every single detail of the move.
We were in awe!

We have been having monthly prayer meetings, and the Lord has been knitting our hearts together with the people who are involved.

We are being taught many, many lessons. We are being stripped of pride, ambition and anything that will become a hindrance to God in bringing about His plan in His time.

We are still traveling up to Belfast to worship at the Calvary Chapel there, and have recently begun helping with the Children's Worship ministry.

We are listed as missionaries on the church home page of Moriah Chapel, in Cardiff, CA.  The pastor, Rick Greene, is a longtime friend of Randy's.  They have been been encouraging each other frequently, and their church is actively praying for what God is doing, and going to do!  In fact, we really believe that the two ministries are going to be connected somehow - like sister churches, or something like that.

In the meantime, we are learning very difficult lessons on waiting.
But God is faithful, and has not left us to our own devices -- Praise Him for that!

We say all the time that this is His church.
And if we really believe that, then we are going to wait for His timing.

That's all for now!
Thanks for praying!

Unexpected Road Trip

We are an Apple family.
We love the products.  We don't necessarily like the way that they update and upgrade ALL. THE. TIME. and how exclusive they are, but we love our MacBooks, and our iPods and.... yeah.

On Saturday night the charger for our MacBooks died.  No matter what outlet we tried, and even after visiting the support site and doing all the troubleshooting steps, Nada.  My(Meredith's) school laptop was dead, and our own laptop was charged, but that wouldn't last long.

Therefore, we planned a quick little trip into Boothbay so that I could pick up the charger for my school laptop.  Once we got there,  I tested out the charger, and surprisingly enough, it worked. *facepalm*
Rather than get annoyed, we have learned that there is a reason for all things.  There must have been a reason for our spontaneous trip into Boothbay.

While we did not see anyone, or find the perfect house, we did have a lovely time, and did feel the sense that God is TRULY calling us there.  It was a beautiful day.

At one point, I remembered a word of prophesy that Randy and I had received shortly after we met.  I was leading worship at a friends church for a monthly worship and prayer evening.  We had been together only a couple of weeks.  One of the pastors of the church came over to us during the prayer portion and proclaimed that he had a "word" for us from the Lord.  "You (looking at Randy) will bring the people to Christ, and your (looking at Meredith) music will be what draws them in."

Whoa.
At that time, I was leading worship for the Youth Group that Randy was leading.  That was the whole premise of our meeting each other! ( He needed a musician.  Ended up with a fiance.  Weird.  :)  )
 So naturally, we assumed that the word was applying to our work with the youth.  However, since the Lord brought it to my mind again, and because it is resonating with us again so strongly, we feel that it was REALLY about this new chapter of our lives.

The Lord keeps confirming, and confirming to us what He is preparing to do.  We are so excited, scared, and completely humbled!  But let me tell you -- unexpected road trips will will never be looked at the same way again!

The Call To Boothbay

In the first week of August the Lord called our family to plant a Calvary Chapel in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. This was much to my surprise as I had no desire to move back into the Boothbay area... Over crowded during the summer with tourists and pretty much only one way off of this particular peninsula.

In April of 2010 the Lord really began to work in my heart. I think I was at a stand still in my walk with the Lord for some time and the Lord used a series of sermons in Romans 10 by a Pastor/ friend of mine in L.A. The Holy Sprit really began to rock my world and confront the issues of idols in my life. It was like I was Born-Again, Again!!

Again, in August of 2010 we were spending the day in Boothbay Harbor and Meredith got a call on her phone and was asked by a friend if she could come play bugle at a funeral on a moments notice (because she is a VERY talented musician and plays just about everything). I think this was really a way for the Lord to have some alone time with me... As I circled the harbor a few times and with Stephen and Jonathan asleep in the back the Lord began to burden my heart, with the people of Boothbay, the Tourists that come from everywhere to this small harbor town during the summer. The Lord began to speak to my heart and tell me that He wanted us to plant a church in Boothbay. My first response was "why me? Also there are so many Churches in this area, what do we need another one for?" The Lord gave to me Romans 10: 14,15

"How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? (15) And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace. Who bring glad tidings of good things." - emphasizing verse 15.

So, I was floored and utterly speechless! I would have never chosen Boothbay myself as I had no previous desire to move back into that region... After Meredith got done with the funeral, of which she didn't even end up playing the Bugle at all, I told her of the calling. Her response was the same as mine. "Why us?

Over the next couple of months I continued to pray and ask for confirmation about this calling. I also asked what type of church He wanted us to plant and Calvary Chapel was what I believed He was putting on my heart. That made sense to me, after all, I got saved in a Calvary Chapel and went to Calvary Chapel Bible College. I was familiar with the way that they do things but I was questioning because we were going to a Baptist Church at the time.

I continued to struggle with the idea of planting the church in the Boothbay area and continued to ask the Lord "Why not this area or an area close by that is more central where there are more people?!" The Lord then gave me Jonah 4:11 "And should I not pity Ninevah, that great city, in whom are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern their right hand and their left-and much livestock?" My response: "ok Lord, Boothbay it is!!

Since then the Lord has clearly confirmed the calling to Meredith, we left the Baptist Church we were going to and began attending Calvary Chapel in Belfast, ME which is about an hour north of us.

We are starting a prayer meeting on Sunday February 20th for those who are already involved with this Church Plant (There are 8 maybe 10 of us so far).

As soon as as the spring breaks we will be adamantly be looking for a place to live in the Boothbay area

Please pray for us that we would always be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His direction. Please Pray for the the people of Boothbay and for their salvation and that there eyes would be opened to the many decieving doctrines that are being taught there.

Thanks and God Bless

Randy