The not-so nutshell version

My last post was about a busy fundraising weekend that we had and were so blessed by.  Little did we know that things were about to change within a few short weeks of those. Since then I've been able to share with some people a nutshell version of the story but I wanted to write down the bigger story because when you experience God's leading in such an obvious way, it needs to be shared.  We grow one another faith by bragging on God.

April 1 we were able to meet with some of our Poetice family and discuss our plans for "Zambia 2015".  As I prepared for our meeting I was a bit giddy about the idea of possibly nailing down dates to FLY!  Our meeting, however turned out to be initially quite disappointing.  We found out that we were needing to delay our timeframe- potentially up to a whole YEAR! Somehow, though, even amid the disappointment I had a deep sense of peace as our meeting ended.  We had another meeting planned for two weeks  and in the meantime we needed to pray, think, listen, hear, seek and discern what God was up to. 

My initial questions were concerning my kids. What about homeschooling? Jaedon and I had been plowing through this "trial year" as a preparation for our year in Zambia. I had told my other boys that I was going to be homeschooling everyone next year (much to their excitement!) So now what do I do? They are thriving in their school.  Jaedon and I have had a challenging (although good) learning curve in what it looks like to homeschool.  Was I really up for 4 right here in good ole West Michigan? Add to this the fact that over this time frame had been some super challenging days between me and Jaedon where I really was questioning this whole schooling at home gig. 

So I prayed. 

"God, I'm not sure what you're up to but we are seeking your wisdom.  Direct my thoughts and give me clear guidance concerning what to do with schooling my kids."

Then I went grocery shopping. 

Naturally. 

As I was perusing Aldi's produce section a lady stopped me and said "you seem like a wonderful mom...do you homeschool?"  

Uh... Alenia is currently being occupied by my phone so that she stops pestering her older brother who is really trying to hold it together here....

"Why,Yes! I do." 

She started telling me what a blessing homeschooling was for her family and  the privilege that was hers to school their 6 children at home for twenty years.  She told me how they would read out loud on their trampoline, take walks for science and while they didn't always do the academics perfectly, she said, all of her kids loved one another and loved the Lord.

God was at Aldi's that day and told me "Listen up. I sent her here for you." 

Take note- want to hear from God? Go to Aldi!

So I listened. I was encouraged and after almost 10 minutes of conversing, a hug and then she disappeared, I left Alds that day knowing that I needed to homeschool next year.  I haven't had any questions about it since.  Remind me of this in November. 

While my mind went to our kids and schooling, Brad's mind went to his job.  If we were able to go to Zambia in January should he just find a job that would suffice but be easier to leave then signing on another year of teaching? A whole year?!  

He, obviously, needed to go grocery shopping. 

No. But he, too, prayed for direction, clarity.  

We had an email all written to send to our ministry partners (probably you too!) explaining our delay of plans although we didn't know exactly what that all meant.  Oddly enough, making the connections to actually SEND the email never worked out so it never got sent.

What is God up to?

During these weeks of hashing out the logistics of waiting another year to go to Zambia we expressed our disappointment with waiting (namely because we're just so exciting to go!) but we also saw something else; 2 years of preparing for a 1 year ministry commitment- it didn't quite add up. As we prayed together and talked we both felt like 1. God was changing things up a bit.  We didn't know how or why. Brad asked me if I would be open to being in a different city if need be. (My response was "honey, I'm moving to AFRICA! The city is really not the issue. ;-)  

2. We felt that we needed to open the door regarding timing. (i.e. kicking our "year" commitment to the curb). 

Two weeks later we meet with our fabulous Poetice family once again.  We download all this processing with them and are met with "ok...this is amazing" comments from across the table. 

God certainly had been busy aligning our stories and preparing our hearts.  You see, while I was busy listening to my "Aldi Angel", God was nudging the hearts of Poetice to launch something grander and bigger than we had originally planned on: A new music academy. 

No more just going to plug in and teach for a year at an existing one but being on the ground floor of launching a new one. 

In a new city.

and it'll probably be longer than a year. 

Hearts prepped. 

Amid the meeting I felt the Spirit whisper to my core "THIS".  I have no other words to describe it other than we left that meeting with such deep seeded conviction about "this" work and our role. We are excited.