Lori's Blog

"Now the Lord said to Abram,'Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you.'" Genesis 12:1

I am a planner. I like to plan things and do research and look at all the options when deciding to do something. Most of you that have read my blog know that I lived in Colorado where I was born and relatively close to my family. A couple of months ago, several events and circumstances occurred that made it extremely and painfully clear that our time Colorado is over. We have been back for two years. I won't go into all the details but suffice to say, we knew God was calling us back to New Hampshire.

So, Kevin looked for a job and received several offers. We accepted one with the company he had worked for previously. Then began my planning. We had less than three weeks from the time Kevin accepted an offer to when we needed to be driving out of Colorado. Yes, that is quick. But, I knew God was was telling us to step out on faith and "go", sort of like when he told Abram (who later became Abraham) to leave Ur. God didn't really give him a lot of direction or what to expect but Abram knew God would provide.

We have done the same. We left, including leaving our oldest son behind (he wants to make Colorado his home and he wanted to keep his residency for college in the state) without knowing what would happen on the journey. We even left without a house. We fortunately had in our relocation temporary housing for a month but that meant waiting to look for a house when we got here. Well what an adventure. We saw friends, Niagara Falls, drove four days, had a payday mixup, a wheel bearing on the van break, an SUV rental, a return trip to New York to pick up the van, and looking at more houses than I care to remember - all in the last 14 days!!!

Needless to say some things did not go according to the "plan". And yet God took care of us every step of the way. We even have a house! We have only been in New Hampshire 10 days and we can relax knowing where we will be living starting in September. Let me give you one example of how God took care of us. The wheel bearing has been making noise for several months. We have complained and had it looked at by two places where they said it was just the kind of tires we had. We left Albany, NY on Saturday morning when the ABS and BRAKE sensor lights came on. We immediately exited at the first place we could. After looking at the manual, both sensors required calling a dealer. I got on the phone and found out that a Toyota dealer was only a mile away. We drove it over and they were stunned by how bad the bearing was. We were told that somehow it damaged and broke the ABS and BRAKE sensors and that usually when a wheel bearing goes it just goes. We were blessed it didn't break at 65 miles an hour and have the wheel fall off. They said we were lucky we weren't seriously injured or killed.

Now I know that God could have miraculous fixed the wheel bearing, or kept it together until we got to New Hampshire, but He allowed this way so that we could see His glory - 1. We got off at the right exit, 2. The damaged sensors told us something was seriously wrong, 3. The dealership was incredible despite being in New York, 4. I had five hours to pray without ceasing while the kids played at the playground, 5. We weren't hurt or killed. Now I would rather have had the trip go without incident but God was so faithful and comforting and we once again had peace that we were headed in the right direction.

I could write on and on about how wonderful (and stressful) the last two weeks have been in the presence of the Lord. But here is the point - when we are asked to step out on faith, even without an airtight plan, and we obey, God is there. He is faithful and merciful and amazing and comforting....

So, we begin a new adventure in New Hampshire. I am excited to see why we are living in the town He placed us, what we will do for church and ministry (God's already moving in this area as well), what the kids are going to have in school and the joy Kevin already has in his new job.

So....you don't always need a plan. He's got one already worked out for us.