Joe and Heidi White: 15 Days Left

Someone asked us a few years ago, "When are you going to move back to Fresno and plant some roots?" They didn't understand…we had planted them, in Canada. God had called us as pastors to a church called Granville Chapel in Vancouver and for the last 9.5 years Vancouver has been our home. Our entire marriage has been here, our 3 Canadian kids were born here and our best friends are here.

But nearly 13 months ago, God interrupted. (Click here to read part 1 of an 8 part story that's changing our lives). It took us 7 months to understand what He was saying….we are slow learners.

God told us that he wants us to make life-long followers of Jesus by planting neighbourhood specific churches across Fresno. It's a missionary call -- with a big vision.

He is asking us to undo our lives. He told us things like:

"It is a fact that a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die before it can grow and produce much more wheat. If it never dies, it will never be more than a single seed."

and,

"If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it."

Honestly, the last 13 months have felt that way…"dying,""losing." We haven't liked it.

And yet we are choosing to uproot our lives -- leaving the soil that leaves us confident and secure at the end of every day. God has asked us to love Fresno and to love our neighbourhood and seek it's Shalom.

We don't know how it's going to turn out….but we have to undo our lives to find out.