Hello fam and friends…This past month has been filled with so many changes that I’m not quite sure where to start. Ang and I have felt like our direction has changed numerous times in the past few weeks and everything seems to be a blur. If you want more details, contact me and we can chat but the short story looks something like this…
A couple months ago AIM realized that projected vs realistic budget was off and had to make some hard decisions. A number of positions were eliminated within the organization and while mine wasn’t initially, it affected us pretty dramatically. In the end we moved out of the long term missions department but had some opportunities to stay on with the organization in other capacities. However, we didn’t really have the financial support needed to move to 100% support raised position.
We finished out our last week in the office and then tried to get away for a few days to TN to just rest, reset and figure out our next move. On the way out of the state a semi-truck blew its tires and crashed beside us spraying our car with a wave of concrete, cracking our windshield in 11 places. We were thankful that he didn’t jack-knife towards us and that we were all ok. I hope and pray that the driver of the truck is ok as he was unconscious still when the ambulance took him away.
In TN, we rented a condo for 4 days. Well, after a day of snow, we had a night of our condo burning down. I literally woke up with a sense that something was just not right. I woke up Ang and told her something was off and promptly got out of bed to go check on things. As soon as I opened our hallway door I immediately knew what was up…the building as on fire and filled with dense black smoke. The visibility outside our door was around 2 ft. There weren’t fire alarms or sprinkler systems and so we were thankful we woke up in time. We rushed out to our balcony for fresh air and stood there 3 stories up while the fire blazed towards our corner. I called 911 and alerted them where we were and that we needed help while Ang yelled to get people’s attention. As it turns out, no one on the property knew we were there and so they weren’t even looking for us. In fact, they were trying to evacuate people from the buildings next to ours because the flames were spreading fast enough that they thought all three buildings might catch.
A broken window later and a ladder to safety provided us with a surreal story and a feeling of “can we ever get a bit of rest to figure out what’s going on with our lives?” We sat inside a pool room with our boy for most of the day as the firefighters fought the flames and the red cross hooked us up with clothes and diapers. We were sure we were going to lose all of our stuff but in the end we miraculously were able to save a bunch of it.
Anyway, after a few more ridiculous life events (but no more as extreme as this) we were back in Gainesville with the expectation that we had the summer and possibly beyond to transition to a new place and job. We’ve started to look at job openings and pray about options. However, we were told yesterday that we essentially have 2 weeks to get packed up and moved out of the place we are living in which has pushed up our time table considerably for having to make some decisions.
So here we are not knowing what state we will be in 2 weeks from now but completely open to all possibilities. We’ve looked at some positions stateside and overseas but really aren’t sure yet what decisions we will make. We feel a bit overwhelmed and numb at the same time but know that God is good and likes to redeem things in our lives.
We would love your prayers and encouragement this month if you’ve got some time 🙂
Also, if you need a worker or know of someone who does, let me know. I have some preferences but at this point I’m pretty open to consider anything.
You’ve got our prayers.
Wow, Benny! That’s crazy. We live in Indy now if you feel like coming to the midwest 🙂 I work at Angie’s List and we have like 100 positions open. It’s a really good company to work for and Indy is super cheap. We’re buying a house if you need a place to crash for a while.
We believe in you guys and are praying for you.
praying.
omigosh, so glad you are okay, how scary. And also, what a month. Praying for the next season!
Hey all, we just wanted to thank you for all of the encouragement and the blessing you have been to us. We feel loved. Likewise, it’s a burden lifted knowing that we have multiple offers to stay until this transition is complete. That’s a huge burden off of my heart personally. Thank you again and we’ll keep you updated 🙂
Wow! Sometimes hard times come in waves, and it’s hard to stay focused after each hit. I’m praying for grace and peace to cover your lives, for a respite.
Sarah and I are praying for you! If you need a place to stay in Cambodia we can hook you up lol. If you want a business card made I can make you one.
I miss chatting with you, and obviously you have a lot on your plate, even though you are no longer with AIM, I would love to skype. Take care man, you know God’s got you.