Wow. Has it really been over a year?!

I obviously know that’s true and when I think of all that’s happened I’m even more convinced of it, but somehow when you put it into words it seems unreal.

I’m going to try to do justice to everything that’s happened since my last post, but feel free to reach out to us and ask about all that God has done. It is truly unbelievable sometimes to think of where we’ve been and how far He’s brought us in His ways.

Last December our little church grew when Simon’s brother Levi moved out here. He lived with us for the first few months and Simon got to perform his first baptism in the river right down the road from our house. That was the beginning of change for our household and then 2019 came and brought us a whole new way of life.

I’ll just give you the highlights, because, honestly, it would take days to share everything that’s happened, but it’s enough to say that God is good. He is faithful and awesome and we are so blessed to do what we do with the people we do it with.

This past year we really honed in on our church family. We embraced new members of different ages and walks of life and we committed to various outreaches that might not be what you would expect. People have come and gone, which is super common as we’ve mentioned before, but the level of devotion and friendship really changed how we live and relate to one another. People have been able to leave with grace and we’ve learned more and more the importance of keeping our hearts open to relationships regardless of how long people will be around. God can be (and should be) in every interaction if you let Him, and you can be caveats of His love everywhere you go.

We’ve also gotten to do some things we’ve never done before. We swam with dolphins, we hiked the Kalalau trail (two words: sca-ry), we discovered hidden waterfalls, we climbed secret towers, we scaled canyons, we found dart frogs in the wild, we played Olympic volleyball players, we discovered our favorite malasadas (cream filled Portuguese donuts – YUM), and lots of other really amazing things. In some ways our year seemed more predictable as the number of adventures slowed down, but the types of adventures were pretty epic.

Everything was great. Better than it has been, more challenging than it has been, but really great.

And then everything changed.

For the first time we experienced serious spiritual warfare. I mean, the kind of things “other” Christians tell you about but you don’t really know how to believe. That kind of stuff. We had one crazy night and since then nothing has been the same.

Because we learned some things that we’ve said we’ve believed we didn’t actually believe. Not really. But now we know. We KNOW that God is real and that living for Him is not just about what you do and what ministries you have but it’s about a living, breathing relationship with Him that is growing every single day. We KNOW that we are not fighting flesh and blood but there is very real battle going on and we have a role to play in it. We KNOW that apart from God we are nothing and that through him all things are possible.

You’re probably reading that and if you’re a Christian you’re like, duh. But if you’ve only seen what we’ve seen and experienced what we’ve experienced then you KNOW it’s so much more than what words can express here. It’s this deep abiding in God that makes your soul so inseparable from Him and His heart and it’s this beautiful renewing of your mind that you cannot be the same person even one day after another. I am a word person and I don’t have words to tell you what it’s like (I totally empathize with people like John and Paul now), but I can tell you that it changes everything.

So while our insides are being transformed, our outsides have been as well. How we spend our time, how we use our home, where we give our money (all things we thought we were doing mindfully and well) have undergone serious scrutiny and are constantly subject to change as we allow God’s Spirit to move. We now eat our meals at the table instead of in front of the TV, we move from dinner to Scripture or Bible videos, we celebrate the Sabbath each week, we’ve started a women’s group…the list goes on. I don’t want to tell you about “programs” or line items as if they matter, but I know there are some of you out there that genuinely want to know so that’s why I’m sharing. What you need to know most of all is that God is on the move and it is AMAZING.

Because of that, we’ve also been under attack. Literally. We are people in our low thirties and in the past few months, since that first night, we have experienced pneumonia, shingles, back pain, prostate infections, head lice, and insomnia. The enemy is real and he is NOT happy that there is a revival happening under our roof.

But we don’t care. Yeah, sometimes I miss sleep and yeah, no one wants bugs in their hair, but honestly we know the God we serve is far greater than any power that can rise against us and we are too busy pursuing Him and fighting the good fight to worry much about that.

To clarify, I’m not saying we’ve got it all figured out. In fact, I think we’re more aware than ever of how we don’t have it all together. But we have found the freedom that comes from knowing whose we are and where we’re headed and that He gives grace to us everyday to know Him more and more.

We were recently going through Romans together and someone pointed out in Romans 6 where it says “…but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life…” (v 13) We are the living dead. We were dead, SO dead, in our sins. There was nothing we could do and no way to save ourselves and then we were brought back to life.

Can you imagine?! You were DEAD and then someone raises you to life and you’ll never die again! You owe them your life. So wouldn’t you do what that verse says and offer it to them and do whatever they said for the rest of your days because there is no possible way to repay them but you have to show them somehow that their gift means something to you? Wouldn’t you?!

I know I, personally, feel like the walking dead. I know where I was before November and I know where I am now and I am 100% a new creation. I will never go back because I can’t imagine living any other way because God is too important to give Him any less than all I have. And the best part is I’m not alone. The four of us have started on a new journey, even though a lot of things might still look the same because we really were trying to live for Jesus before, everything has changed and I can’t wait to see what happens next.