The Move

   As most of you know, Jordan and I are about to embark on the adventure that is an out-of-state relocation. We are packing up our lives and our two adorable Boston Terriers and moving down to sunny southern California. 

   We are very excited about the move and are ready to start this new season in our lives. Although the whole packing up and moving to California thing is not quite as romantic as it sounds. Moving is a lot of work and slightly overwhelming. Especially moving in the middle of our busiest wedding photography season ever.  Nevertheless, we are pushing through the stress and busyness and trusting that the future is bright!

   During this whole process, we have had countless people ask us one serious question. "Why?”  It’s really a great and natural question. But I have to be honest; answering it has not proven very easy. Usually we answer with "We just feel like we are supposed to", "We feel like it is the right time", "We have been thinking/praying about it for a while". These are slightly lame answers, but we know that the real answer would take up an entire conversation and that the asker usually doesn't have the time for the whole story. So that is what this note is. It is the full answer. Explained the best way I know how. 

   I guess I will start by saying that this answer may not make sense to a lot of people, and that some may even think we are slightly crazy. But we are very confident that this is right, so we ask that you bear with our craziness. The most direct and short answer is this; “God asked us to go, so we are going”. I will unpack that a bit for you in the following paragraphs.

For the last two and a half years, Jordan and I have felt like we are on the brink of some sort of major move or change in our lives. A slightly unsettled and uprooting feeling that we know now was preparing us for this move began to take residence in our hearts. Don’t get me wrong, we know that we were here for a reason during that time and were contented and planted. But we know now that this season has come to an end and that it is time to move on to our next assignment.

I can’t go on without saying that our faith in God is not just part of our lives. It is everything to us. We believe that Jesus loves us so much that he made a way for us to not only be saved, but to have purpose and fulfillment in our lives. We believe that in order to live in that purpose and truly be fulfilled in our lives, we must surrender our future to God and allow him to direct us into his purpose and plan for our life. I can honestly tell you that when we have truly submitted to that calling, we have never been more fulfilled or full of life and adventure. We don’t live to build our kingdom, we live for a greater purpose; building God’s kingdom. Call us crazy, but we want to change the world and we know first hand that Jesus’ amazing love is just the thing to make that a reality.

During that time of gentle uprooting I talked about before, we really felt God speak to us very specifically about trusting Him to guide us into some big unknowns and, quite frankly, scary changes. In John 3:8 Jesus talks about what a Christian’s life should look like. He says “the wind blows wherever it pleases. You can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” He is not saying that people led by the Spirit of God are unreliable and unpredictable. He is simply saying that sometimes God will lead us places that may not make sense to us and take us out of our comfort zones into the unknown, and that it is not for us to question, but to obey. The Greek word for Spirit is pneuma (πνεῦμα). It is actually the same as the word for wind or breath. The imagery that I have in my head and heart is one of a feather that is easily carried along in a breeze. Jordan and I strongly feel that we must be obedient to everything the Lord asks of us regardless of how unknown and crazy it may sound. In short, we desire to be feathers in His wind/breath/Spirit.

Now that I have finished that sermon I will get to the actual story! ;) As I said before, we both knew something big was on the horizon for a while. But we never imagined that it would be Sothern California. We were ready for really anything God had in store, and had thought maybe San Francisco, Australia or even long term missions in Africa, but never thought we would be called to LA! Last October, the creative arts/worship pastor at our church and close friend, Marc Wymore, told us that He and his lovely wife Bethany were looking at taking a position in a church in Thousand Oaks Ca. My close friend Carley was there when he mentioned it and we immediately felt that we should pray about following them and joining in on what God was doing there. So we prayed for a long time and really asked God to make it clear if it was His will for us to go. Carley also prayed about moving, and God gave the OK, so she moved down in March. After a lot of prayer, we are fully confident that we are supposed to move to the Thousand Oaks area and serve with Marc and Bethany and Carley for this next season of our lives.

Although we are completely confident with the Where, and the Who involved in this move, I have to admit that the Why is still a mystery. We know we are called to go serve. We just don’t know what that will look like yet. So the answer to the “Why” could be “I don’t actually know…” And so it is with being blown by the wind…

I struggled with this uncertainty for a little while until I realized that it is not our responsibility to know every detail of God’s will, it is only our responsibility to obey. So I am perfectly at peace with the unknowns ahead of us. All I know is that there is favor on obedience and though it is not always easy, God will always provide all we need to sustain us as we follow His will.

Even though there are so many unknowns involved, and though moving is hard work and leaving family and friends is something that I just can’t even let myself think about right now, we are so ready and so excited to see what God is going to do!

Jordan and I are beyond thankful for all of our family and friends who have supported us and continue to support us in this huge endeavor! As far as jobs go; we will continue to pursue our photography business, Jordan is transferring with FedEx into a position very similar to his current one, and I am exploring the possibility of going back to work in the health and fitness field (actually using my expensive college education!). We are renting out our house here and will be renting a place down there.

So in conclusion, this is a faith move. It is bigger than us and we don’t fully understand it, but we fully trust God in it. We would also like to cordially invite you to come visit us as we will be 20 min from Hollywood and Ventura, 30-40 min from Malibu, Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, and an hour from the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!  We expect friends and family to come get their vitamin D fix in the middle of the PNW’s grey, rainy, long winters!

We are more than happy to answer any questions I didn’t get to here, or even have further discussion of what I have written, so don’t be shy!

Love you all!!