We are progressing closer towards starting a new church here in Kane.  It's been exciting to see God work these past couple of months since we moved up here.  God has been using my wife to reach out to numerous ladies in the community.  One young lady recently stopped Carol while she was on a walk, and started pouring out some pretty personal problems to her.  My wife is going out for the evening with another young lady from work.  This lady seems interested in spiritual things, and has been asking Carol some questions.  So please pray for my wife as she reaches out to these ladies!  As for me, I am finding it a bit harder to connect with community people here.  However, I am learning to know people at least on a casual basis, which is a good start.  Alot of my energy right now is being poured into making my handyman business take off.  The Lord reminded me today, though, that the main reason I am here is not to make my business go, but to build Christ's kingdom.  So I have to keep that in mind, and find a good balance.

We are having a men's meeting this evening to discuss and make some further decisions about starting a church.  I feel that it is a very important meeting, so pray for us, and continue to as we make decisions in the future.  It is my deep desire that we be a church that reaches out to the community, and that we don't just become our little own group.  That has been heavy on my heart lately.  Pray for wisdom for us!

Someone shared some verses with our men's group the other morning that really stood out to me, and I think they apply to our situation alot, as all of us prospective church planters are under 30 years old.  The verses are in Jeremiah 1, verses 4 through 10:

  The word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

"Ah, Sovereign Lord," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.'  You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you." declares the Lord.

Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth.  See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

I thought, wow, that surely applies to us!

A year ago this time.....what was I doing?  umm....maybe kissing my new wife right after we walked out of the sanctuary???    That was Saturday, August 2, a whole year ago already!

So glad I made that choice.....so glad I'm not lonely anymore.

We don't have internet connection at our house right now, so I am having to run up to the library to do it, and am getting very behind.  Facebook occasionally finds out tidbits of my life.  We have now moved up to Kane, PA, and we do like it.  Not too sure how my job is going to go yet, there are definitely some things about it I don't really like, but I'm going to try to give it some time.  It's not the worse job in the world though either; at least I have a job.

Kane is so different than Lancaster....way more laid back....I lived up in Bradford for a year and a half, and it's similar to Kane, but after being in Lancaster for awhile, I about forgot how much Lancaster and this area contrast each other.  Even though they are both in the same state, it feels totally different.  It's so good to have friends to do stuff with, and we feel right at home with the church in Bradford.  All in all, it was definitely a good move for us.

Mom and Dad and my brother are driving in later this evening!  I can hardly wait!  It has been since last November since I saw my parents.  They will be here until Wednesday morning.  Hopefully after that we can do something special for our anniversary.  It's been a crazy month with lots to do.

Packing up to move!

Our new house!  Unfortunately, the quality of this photo is not very good.

This is what the dining room looked like before we tore out the carpet, tore off the wallpaper and repainted.

Almost finished with the dining room!

Old Living Room

New Living Room....wish I had a better pic of it.

Below is some pictures of the process...

What a mess it was!!!

Tearing up old carpet....the lady that lived there before had a big dog and it made the carpet really nasty.

So much more I could say, but my clock is saying I better get home and do some work projects before my parents come.  If any of you want our address so you can come see us, let us know.

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.

Currently Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ By Brother Andrew, Al Janssen see related

Why is it that I get my inpirations late at night?  I should be asleep!

The above book really makes me think.  Why is it so hard for me to get into God's Word, when many people in other countries are dying (often literally) to have a Bible? 

I am coming to the conclusion that many American Christians are not really daily experiencing God's power in their lives.  We go to church, say and do all the right things, but inwardly we feel like God is distant, He isn't really working, He isn't actively involved in our lives.  At times I feel this way.

So, what do you all think?  Why is this?

Here is what I think.  I think it's because we are not allowing God to show His power and work in our lives.  Either we are not living in obedience, or we are not living our daily lives in faith, or both.  You ask what do I mean "living our daily lives in faith"?  I mean, we fail to include God in our lives.  We don't talk to Him throughout the day.  We don't ask Him to meet our needs in the small things.  We are not looking for opportunities to witness.  We are not asking God to meet our needs and to work in our lives.  If we are not doing these things, God is not going to feel real to us!  We need to start talking to him, as in, "Lord, help me to have a good attitude towards ....." or "Lord, would You please reveal to me what you want me to do with my future", or "Lord, help me to be a good example at work today."  So often we get caught up in the cares of this life, and we forget to include God as our day unfolds.  If we want to feel God, we must include Him, talk to Him, and act as if He is right there with us physically.  But so often I forget.

I think I can sum it up by saying the reason so many people are just going through the motions spiritually is because we depending on ourselves, our things, and our money.  We do not really depend on God.  We tend to not allow God into our everyday lives.

I don't know who all reads this thing anymore, but if you have some time, I would like to hear some comments from you all.  When you look around, do Christians around you seem alive and vibrant in their relationship with God, or are they generally just doing all the right things?  Where are you in relation to all this?  When do you feel closest to God, and when do you feel most distant?

Maybe this is getting too deep.... I must go to bed now.