It was only our first day in the neighborhood. We were moving furniture from our Uhaul to our house and at the threshold of our front door when we heard, "Howdy neighbor. Your house looks great!"
We turned to see an elderly hispanic woman with a full smile welcoming us to the neighborhood from her car in the middle of the street. She must have been driving by and seen us moving in.
We yelled back, "Thank you! What's your name?" She replied enthusiastically, "Lana!". We walked over to her car, now idling in the middle of the street outside our house. I asked her, "Are you a Christian?" I'm not really sure why I asked that….it just kinda came out. She replied, "Yes! Praise the Lord. My husband is actually an evangelist. He's not with an organization or something….he just tells people about Jesus all the time. His name is Jose. And crazy as it sounds, a strange thing happened 2 weeks ago. We were being prayed for at Church and the person praying for us paused, and said, 'God is going to give you a Church'. We don't know what this means….but we are waiting on God to find out."
Our hearts leaped. We wanted to tell her our story….our whole story. It's a story about how God interrupted our lives and asked us to adopt a specific neighborhood and seek it's wellbeing by planting a neighborhood focused church. A Church that was going to preach Jesus and meet our neighbors practical needs.
We asked her to dinner, and soon, after we are unpacked, we will have Lana and Jose over for an evening of food, laughter, and story telling (they live just a few houses down the street).
As we parted ways, she raised her hands as if to wave and said, "I am so excited you are here. Welcome to the neighborhood. God wants you here". It felt like a benediction. God was welcoming us on our first day in 'the hood", and he was also commissioning us…."God wants you here", she said.
That was day 1. I wonder what day 2 or 3 or 1000 will look like?
Stay tuned.
---
p.s. For all of you who love to keep up with our family….here is a picture of Elizabeth playing the piano. She LOVES doing this all.day.long. She sings and plays her own little songs. Could this become a passion for our little 5 year old?
Follow @joeandheidi
No comments:
Post a Comment