| The Next Chapter of Our Lives Begins I thought this might be a good time to reveal our near-future plans, for those of you who don't already know. We are moving, probably the end of this month, or the first part of July. No, we are not moving 3 blocks down, or even 3 miles; we are moving approximately 237 miles north! The town is called Kane, and it is about a 35 minute drive south of Bradford, where Carol and I spent some time in voluntary service. The whole process has been a long, long story, so I won't go into full detail. I will say, though, that it has been absolutely amazing how God has so clearly opened doors for us to go. God is real, and He does still indeed answer prayer! For some time already, we had been thinking and praying about moving up to the Bradford area or somewhere near. We weren't sure, however, if God wanted us there or somewhere else. During this time, we were asked to help full time in prison ministry, but after praying about it, we just didn't feel it was right for us at this time, although the thought of it was pretty alluring. Meanwhile there had been some talk about possible starting an outreach church south of Bradford. Three young Mennonite couples are in that general area now. No church is started there yet, and no definite plans have been made for one, but there is hope that one can be started there in the near future. So the prospect of helping with a church plant was one of the key factors in our decision to move up there. We also have very good friends in the area up there, and feel right at home there. Although Kane is south of Bradford, we will still have very close ties with the Bradford congregation, and plan to go there for church at least until the local church would get off and running. Once we felt confident God was leading us up north, the next question was "where exactly?" Most of our connections are in Bradford, but the new church would possibly be starting south of there. So where should we go? We decided to pray that we would know where to live depending on where I could find a job. So a month ago or so we went up looking for a job. I thought the best possibility of finding a job would be in Bradford itself, since it is a little bigger town with more businesses than the Kane area. However, Zippo / Case Knives had just laid off a bunch of people, so the chances of finding a job looked bleak. The economy up there generally tends to lag behind the rest of the nation, and we knew the national economy isn't good right now either. We spent a good portion of a day up in Bradford looking for work, dropping off resume's, going to the employment office, stopping at businesses. Nothing. We are not hiring, we are laying people off, they all said. A bit discouraged, we decided to go down to Kane to look at some houses, and if there were any businesses that caught our eye, we would stop in for an application. Well, we did not see any houses we were interested in, and on our way out of town, a construction trailer off to the side caught my eye. It had the business name, a description of the work, and a number on it. So we decided what could it hurt to call. I did, and it turned out, the guy was very interested in talking to me about a job. His one worker had just quit and moved, and he was very busy! So after some talk with him on and off over the weeks, he offered me a job! Meanwhile, before he had actually offered me the job, he wondered where we were looking to move to. I said probably somewhere in or between Bradford or Kane or Mt. Jewett, depending on where I could find work. He said, "I have a house that I am renting out that I would like to sell!" He went on to describe it, and said he would be willing to sell it for whatever was left on his mortgage. It was a very good price. So to make a long story short, we went up, looked at it, and decided it was the house for us. The amazing thing about this too was his asking price was exactly what Carol and I had thought that we would like to spend! And house was in even better condition than some higher priced ones in the area. There were some other answers to prayer too, but another one that stood out to me was concerning my job here in Lancaster. I was pretty nervous about quitting my job here. I like the job, and my boss has treated me very well. I know the Amish have a hard time getting reliable drivers, so Carol and I started praying that my boss could find someone to replace me. Up until recently, I had not had the courage to tell my boss I was thinking of quitting. Finally the other Friday, I decided I would do it. It was a rainy Friday morning, so we all went out for breakfast as we sometimes do. Over breakfast my boss, seemingly out of the blue, announced that he was going to be hiring a young Mennonite guy that could drive! He said the guy and his dad approached him about the job, and he told them he really wasn't hiring anybody, but for some reason he felt like he should hire him. I couldn't believe my ears!!! When we got back to the shop, I said, "Jonas, I think I know why you hired this guy." Immediately he started apologizing and saying it was not that I was a bad worker or anything. I said no, I didn't take it that way, but the reason he hired that guy was because I was moving and would be quitting. Needless to say, he was a bit shocked I would be quitting so soon (in a month), but at the same time, he knew that part of my heart was still up north. It was just awesome to see God so clearly working out all the little details so we can go! Right now we are in the process of buying the place, and providing all goes well, we should be up there by the end of the month or early July. We are having a bit of trouble getting the current tennant out of the house, so that is holding things up a bit. But we know God has directed us this far, so nothing is too big for God. So that is our plans. We would appreciate all of your prayers as plans continue to unfold. I hope our story can be an encouragement to each one of you if you are seeking God's will for your life. God does answer prayer! Okay, we are going away tonight, I got to run. |
