The call- Part 1

***Ok, so those of you whom are my regulars know that I’m never away from my blog for more than a day or two so I really appreciate the concerned emails I’ve received! Love you guys! To those of you who are new to my life or my blog- welcome to the craziness!! Here is a run-down of what has been going on:

Friends, family, FCC staff/elders/leaders/members, students, football players, blogosphere friends, PW forum ladies-

We’re moving. To Florida. In 3 weeks.

I will try to make the story as brief as possible and just bullet point the major points.

*About 2 years ago Dan felt a call from God to “spread his wings”. We didn’t know what this meant so he took a lot of time to pray about it.

*About a year after that he and I both started feeling lead to the Central Florida area (particularly Tampa) for no particular reason. Again- unsure of what that meant we took a lot of time to pray about it.

*We looked into a couple of churches in that area who were hiring but none were a good fit for Dan’s strengths and gifts. One of those churches recommended another church that he knew of down the street that was looking to hire.

*We decided that if this was indeed something God was calling our family to, that He would provide the path and that we wanted to not look any farther for ourselves.

*The man got back to us about the other church that was hiring and said that they weren’t taking any more resumes anyway b/c they decided to go with a national search agency. We were very content in this because of our desire to not pursue any more churches.

*A couple weeks later a national search agency calls Dan wondering if he would ever consider opportunities at other churches. Unsure how we felt about this we decided to just talk to them because it wasn’t really us pursuing anything- it was them. We didn’t think anything would come of it.

*A couple more weeks- the agency calls and says that a church in Tampa would like to talk to him. It was the same church that was recommended to him by the other church in the area!

*A couple of days later Dan talked with an Executive Pastor at that church.

*A week later Dan talked with the Senior Pastor there.

*A few weeks later they brought us down there to meet in person.

*We came home with a job offer and accepted it.

Amidst all of this we were praying for what we call “billboard signs” from God. We asked Him with all of our hearts to show us His plan for us. Day after day, He did so. I have documented them and they equal 5 pages right now. It’s been incredible. And thus we have never been so sure about anything since God revealed His plans for us to be married. Truly God-breathed. How amazing it is to know with 100% certainty God’s path for our family. Very FREEing to say the least. You would think I would be stressed- but I’m not at all. I’m perhaps the most calm I’ve ever been!

This has been an amazing journey this past year and we look forward to much more of it as we begin a new chapter in our lives in Tampa. We will, of course, miss everyone here terribly. We have spent the past 2 weeks talking to family, friends, staff, students, and everyone else we could possibly squeeze in (the weather hasn’t helped us to do all of this in person unfortunately!) and now that the word is out at church we just wanted to let anyone else who hasn’t heard know what’s happening. We look forward to maintaining these relationships with the utmost intentionality. But it only works if it comes from both sides. So PLEASE keep in touch with us. We will always have this blog (alittlemorecrazythancool.com), the phone, emails, facebook, myspace, etc, and soon we will even be getting a web cam so we can communicate via Skype. And of course, we welcome visitors to our new home anytime!

We love all of you more than you know and thank you with all of our hearts for your prayers and support!

This is not “goodbye”. This is just a new chapter and we hope you all will continue to be a part of our lives!

Love to everyone and to God be the glory!