For my first "real" blog post I thought I would explain the title of our blog and share part of our journey.
Ben and I were living in La Crosse in the spring of 2011 and had been married for a little over a year. I was teaching full time at a Christian school and Ben was working as a manager at Hollister. We liked our jobs, we liked our church, and we loved La Crosse. However we had this discontentment. I vividly remember laying bed and discussing how even though we enjoyed enjoyed being in La Crosse we knew God had something different for us. We were discontent not because of our circumstances, but I believe because God was preparing us to leave and follow him. We began praying that God would show us what he had for us.
It wasn't too much later that Ben got a facebook message from Steve Deedrick who was planting a church (Harvest Bible Chapel Rochester) in Rochester and asked us to come check it out. We didn't think too much of it at the time but decided to have lunch with Steve and Kimberly the next time we were in Rochester. Conveniently, Ben's family lives in Rochester so we visited often and were able to meet up with them soon after that message. God was super clear during that lunch and we both felt a strong connection to the vision and mission of the church and knew we wanted to be a part of it. We went back to La Crosse and continued to seek the Lord and see if this was something he was leading us to. God opened up many doors, we took a step of faith, and we moved at the beginning of the summer.
Since coming to Rochester in 2011, God has worked in our lives in many ways and we have grown so much. God has shown us his faithfulness, we have fallen more in love with reading the Word and Jesus, and have joy and contentment we haven't experienced before.We feel so blessed to be a part of what God is doing through Harvest Bible Chapel Rochester and Harvest Bible Fellowship. It is been awesome watching God move and grow in so many peoples lives here.
Moving to Rochester is just the first half of the story. As a result of moving to Rochester and getting involved with Harvest we were also able to attend a conference in February of 2012 for people interested in planting churches. We weren't there to plant churches, but for a weekend of discipleship. Just the fact that we ended up there that weekend was a God story in itself. That weekend we met Kirk, the Pastor of International Church Planting for Harvest Bible Fellowship. We chatted with him about possible opportunities to go overseas and serve with Harvest. We also met Pastor Peter from Nairobi, Kenya who invited us to come to Kenya.
I need to back up a little first. Before that conference God was working. A few weeks prior I had listeded to a sermon on and been meditating on Jeremiah 33:2-3 "Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it-the LORD is his name; Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known." I had decided that I was going to start calling out to the Lord and asking him to show me these great and hidden things. Well he did!
We came back from the conference praying this prayer and specifically asking God to send us to Africa for up to 1 year if that was his will, but ultimately to show us what he had for our lives. We prayed and sought the counsel of others and it looked like we would be going to Kenya for a year. We went on a short trip to Kenya with Kirk in the summer of 2012 to discern if this would be a good fit for us. We came back from that trip and continued to pray and ask God if Kenya was it.
We soon realized Kenya was not where God was sending us, but he was sending us somewhere and we needed to wait on him for those answers. After much prayer and fasting God led us to Harvest Bible Chapel Glasgow in Scotland. If you know me at all you would know that I have always wanted to live in Africa. So when God shut that door, I do have to admit it was hard, BUT GOD was SO clear. He answered so many prayers and changed my heart in so many ways to be broken for those who are spiritually poor and not just physically poor. I desire that the gospel be proclaimed in all the nations!
God continues to be clear as we are in the process of raising funds to serve in Glasgow, Scotland for one year. We are trusting him for the money and believe that he will provide and will continue to show us the great and hidden things he has in store for our lives.
Believe it or not this is the condensed version. If you want to hear more I would loved to share with you!
Check out our website for more information on what we will be doing in Glasgow and ways to support us!
https://hbf.missionsconnex.com/Arant
You are loved!
