Move In

The team at Ben's house... can you believe the view?!

Thanks for joining me back here at TexasLovesUtah! I hope you got a chance to check out my first post. It describes who we are and what we are doing here in Utah. Today, I want to share with you the how.

As many of you know, our last trip up here in June was intended to be a time of prayer as we sought out exactly which city in the valley God wanted to plant and subsequently jobs and homes near that city. And, of course, as life tends to happen, it wasn't until the evening before we flew out that God directed us here to Herriman. So, needless to say, our apartment hunting was all done online. As the team unloaded everything Cody and I own into our new little apartment here in Riverton (just outside of Herriman city limits), the first thing I noticed...I know...I'm such a girl... was a HUGE lack of closet space, and, I'll admit, I panicked.

After a couple days of showing Cody that although I really was willing to give away non-essentials AND store things creatively, and our things still wouldn't fit, he broke down and took me to IKEA. :) When we finally finished zigzagging our way through the maze like little mice and making our selections-f you've never been to IKEA, you ought to..it really is an experience- Cody ran home to trade the car for the truck (poor planning on our parts, I know). I was left to do the loading in the warehouse. So I did what any girl in my position would do...after changing Jaz's dirty diaper on the warehouse floor, I decided I needed some assistance and went over to the help desk to play the “I have a baby” card. While the sweet college kid helped me load up our new treasures, he asked the inevitable question, the one we've been asked a lot already and answering it has yet to become less uncomfortable, “What brings you to Utah?” I've gotten in the habit of taking a deep breath and praying the quickest of prayers before answering with a smile, “We've come here to start a Christian church!”. This IKEA guy's response has still been the most interesting to me. He replied with a grin, almost mischievously, “Oh!!! You're here to combat the LDS Church, huh?!” Without much thought, I told him, “in a nice way!”

The truth is, though, and we were reminded of this Sunday morning through Ben's “practice” sermon at our first official/unofficial service in his home, that God is doing the fighting for us! He has been fighting for His children since the beginning of time and won't stop until Jesus returns! The Heavenly realms are at war here and around the world! What is so cool about this truth as we move across the country in hopes to win lost souls for the Kingdom, is that the harvest is already ripe for picking! God has gone ahead of us to combat the Enemy on behalf of His children! So, our job, as His ambassadors, is simply to LOVE! Our plan before coming here was to build relationships..friendships even, to take our time to connect and intertwine our lives with new friends and neighbors..and to watch God love the people of Utah through us. Now, more than ever, we are seeing people DRAWN to us.. not because we are cool or nice or anything on our own...but because we have JESUS in us.. and because He is drawing people to Himself through us.

Pray that we continue to build relationships with neighbors and co-workers. Pray that God continues to remind us that He does that combating.. that He has sent us here to LOVE with His love! If we can do this, if we can be vessels ready and willing to have love poured out through us, then we will surely see souls saved and lives won for Jesus Christ!

Williams family's first hike together! Check out that wink face!

Another shout out to my baby girl Jaz who turns 5 months this week!