Update on the Move to Michigan

It's been a while since I've wrote an update on our move to Michigan.

In three months time we went to Michigan 3 times. That is a lot of travel, especially with little people. The trips are especially taxing on us because we travel at night. Chuck usually drives all night and I'm getting better at sleeping in the van. The kids are pretty good about sleeping in the van, though they take nice long naps the next day. If Chuck needs to be in MI in the next 6-7 weeks, he will go by himself so that our kiddos can get back into a routine for a decent period of time.

Chuck has met with various people during our trips to MI to talk about and gather support for the church we will start. So far there are a lot of people excited about what we are doing, so that is encouraging.

What is not encouraging is financial support. Times are tough right now. A few years ago it would have been no problem to get financial backing from a few church planting organizations to get this church started. That's all changed now.

The model that we thought we would follow in starting this church is to raise financial support, move to the area, and then Chuck would draw a salary as he gets the church started (we need at least 6 months on the ground in MI before starting the church). Since financial support is not what we hoped it would be, we may have to do things differently. And that's okay if that's what God wants us to do.

So, Chuck has applied for a handful of government jobs in MI. As a disabled veteran, he does get some preference, so that's cool. Chuck has also applied for a few government positions in this area since we haven't sold our house yet. If Chuck gets a position in MI, he will work in that postition and work on getting the church started. He will be very busy, that's for sure. Starting a church is no small undertaking and I dread the idea of him doing that AND working a full time job. If Chuck gets a position here, we will wait on the sale of our home and then he will hopefully either have financial support for the church lined up or a job in MI lined up.

Our house. Well, it's been for sale for 4 weeks now. We have only had two people look at it in that time. Today I hosted an open house and only one person came. And that person was a neighbor. To say I'm discouraged would be an understatement. I am not generally a patient person. When God confirmed in my heart that we are to move to MI, I was ready to go then. I don't do limbo well. While I totally dread packing up and leaving all our friends behind, I just want to get it over with. Since we don't have financial support set up in MI and Chuck hasn't secured a job, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that our house hasn't sold yet. Waiting for God's perfect timing in all these details is not easy for me.

One of the tough things about selling our house is that we need to sell it For Sale By Owner. We moved into this house in November 2007, so we haven't been here 2 years yet. And we are in a bad market. Our hope is that we break even on selling this house. We talked to one of the top realtors in this area and she doesn't think we can sell it with an agent and break even. BUMMER. A lot of people are doing a "short sale," which basically means you ask the lender to take slightly less than what you owe on the house. A lot of people are currently doing this in this market in order to avoid foreclosure. When we spoke with the realtor, this idea was presented. A short sale does impact your credit, but it is not hard to overcome. For us, this is just not an option. As I mentioned earlier, Chuck is a disabled veteran. Our home was purchased with the VA (veteran's affairs) Loan, and because Chuck is a disabled veteran, we don't pay their funding fee, which is a lot like an origination fee. So basically, the VA Loan means very minimal closing costs on a mortgage for us. And we get to use that each time we buy a home (as long as we sell the last one). If we short sell this house, we completely lose the VA benefit. Forever. Aside from selling this house, our only other option is to rent it. Between renting it for slightly less than our mortgage payment and paying a property manager, we would be renting out our house at a $150-$200 loss monthly. Not cool. We need to sell it!

I recently had the opportunity to speak with someone who has family moving away to help start a church. While she was kind about it all, I could tell that her family didn't have her full support in their move. And that made me realize just how important that support is. As we prepare to relocate to do what God has called us to do, it is so comforting to know that we have people supporting us. And I don't mean financially. What I'm talking about is just having people who believe in us... even when we don't really believe in ourselves. Church planting is not easy stuff. I'm thankful for the many people who stand beside us as we get ready to do this.

Something that has been really hard with announcing that we are moving sometime soon is that some people treat us like we are already gone. I don't think they mean us any harm. We've had a number of situations where people make comments about us leaving so why include us, etc. We have a few friends who haven't pushed us away and that's been great. Having friends we can turn to during this crazy time is comforting.

A popular, yet untrue belief about following God is that "if it's from God, it will be easy." That is not my experience at all I don't believe that's true for one second. Adopting Noah and Samuel was God's plan for our family, yet it was incredibly hard. Some of the best thing's God asks us to do are HARD.