What 2019 Was For Us

What a year - 2019!  Don't we all say that when we write our year end/Christmas letter to our friends and family?  Definitely this year was "what a year" for myself and our family.

The entire year of 2019 was wrapped around a big life change for our family.  We had been asked if we would consider taking a church in Ohio.  The first eleven days of the year, my husband and I fasted and prayed for God's leading. And for us to see, hear and feel God. I remember that time well.

Vision Sunday at Sierra View...launching our new plan of North...ministry was moving forward in Reno.

However, God was pushing our family into a new place.  One not familiar.  Different.

March, I turned 42 years old.

April - we left our girls and flew to Ohio to visit Heritage Church in Maumee, Ohio.  And about a week later, we said we would come.

And how do you really know what to do?  I didn't.  My husband didn't.  Should we leave the ministry we started nine years ago?  Hardest decision of our lives.  

Yet, it was one we made.  In faith.  And thankfully, God will do His work even with our tiny amount of faith.

That Sunday that Josh, Jenny and our family shared that we were leaving Sierra View.  I can't describe it.  It still brings tears to my eyes.  It still is so vivid and raw.  Leaving a ministry is so much more than one can ever know until you have to do it.  

May was also the month they announced our company was closing its doors.  Talk about utter shock.  The last day for Max Packaging in Reno would be June 28.  

June was a pretty hard month.  Last month for our company. Last month at our church plant.  Last full month in our home and city/state.

May and June were probably the loneliest months I ever felt in ministry.

July was finishing packing up our home of eleven years.  Where we raised our babies and little girls.  Eleven years of good and bad, sweet and difficult, unforgettable and wish they never happened - memories.

Then that day came.  Pulling away from our home 13560 Mt. Rainier Street.  That is the picture above.  
Our last day- minutes before we left Nevada.  

On to a new home.  New memories.  New ministry.  

Then we had twelve days of awesome memories!  We spent time making our way to the Midwest having adventures. Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands, Laura Ingalls Wilder spots...I loved it and will be forever glad we did. 

So from August 2 
(we pulled into our new home on Addie's 16th birthday) 
until now, we have been in our new home in Ohio.  
Our new ministry to us at Heritage Church in 
Maumee, OH with Eric as the lead pastor.  
Our first Sunday in our new church was on my husband's 39th birthday.  
What memorable birthdays Eric and Addie had in 2019!

Though making a transition is always difficult, the people at Heritage have made it a blessing and a joy.  

I have always known this in my personal life...a wonderful life is not necessarily where you live...it's the people you live life with.  I have always been blessed with two groups wherever I called home - my family: husband and daughters, and a church family that I considered my second family.  

I am grateful beyond words for a new church family here in Ohio and finishing out this decade in a place we never imagined yet not fully knowing our future...but trusting it to our Lord.

God bless in 2020...
"He has made everything beautiful in its time.  
Also He has put eternity in their hearts, 
except that no one can find out the work that God does 
from beginning to end."  
Ecclesiastes 3:11