Swinging for Fresno - Part 8/8

This is our last instalment of a story that's been developing in our lives.  If you missed part 1, click here.  For part 2, click here.  For part 3, click here.  For part 4, click here.  For part 5, click here.  For part 6, click here.  Part 7, click here.

It's our story.
It's the story that has slowly emerged in our lives over the last 11 months.
We hope you are encouraged by it.

If you want to hear our whole story listen to this podcast (33 minutes) of us telling our story to our church congregation.

Swinging for Fresno

Forgive the baseball analogy but as a family we are stepping up to the plate.  God threw us a curve ball and we are swinging.  It’s the swinging that’s the hardest – it represents major changes in our lives: financially now as donor supported missionaries, relationally now as replants into Fresno, geographically now as replants to the U.S., and vocationally as church planters with a dream for neighborhood focused churches across Fresno.

This wasn’t the pitch we were expecting.  But we are excited to swing.  We WANT to swing.  We want to see God put himself on display through our lives.  It doesn’t guarantee success but it guarantees obedience.  We want to obey.   

The other day Elizabeth and I were walking home from the park holding hands.  I looked down at her and said, “Elizabeth, why do you think we are moving to Fresno?”   Without hesitation she looked up and said, “Daddy, Jesus wants us to love a neighborhood”.  She gets it. 

A few days ago I asked Josiah (2.5 years old) why he thought we were moving into the Jackson Neighborhood.  He thought about it for some time while he wiggled his feet and shifted his eyes back and forth across the horizon.  Suddenly his eyes and feet were still.  He said, “Because people need Jesus or they will be lost, Daddy.”   He gets it, too. 

Psalm 8 says, “from the lips of children and infants He’s ordained praise.”  I have to believe that God has been preparing our kids to swing.

We want to thank you for following our story the last 8 days. So many of you  have sent personal messages and had words of encouragement.  Thank you! 

We are leaving Vancouver on January 10^th and planning on taking the month of February to get settled into the neighborhood and rediscover Fresno.  We’d love to reconnect with any of you Fresnans who have read our blog!

We are praying every day that the Jackson Neighborhood become a spiritually vibrant neighborhood, transformed by the love of Jesus, and extending His kingdom in our neighborhood, city, and around the world.

We are swinging for Fresno. 

What is God inviting you to swing for?

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