Our Next Adventure

The past few months have been full of prayer, questions, decisions to be made, and lots of uncertainty. Weeks of prayer and discernment recently culminated in our final decision for our next steps  - we have decided to move back up to the bay area in August. Kenzie will be beginning her MA in Marriage & Family Counseling with Western Seminary in San Jose and Calvin will be finding a pastoral position.

Now let me rewind and explain our process of how we got here. Over the past year Calvin finished his final year of his Masters of Divinity at APU (with honors!), and Kenzie has applied and been accepted to APU, Vanguard, and Western Seminary for their MFT programs. Regardless of our location, we knew this next adventure would involve transition for us - in schedule, swapping roles, etc. As we thought about and prayed through where the Lord may be leading us, we have had a a few major requests for the Lord:

1. Unity of our hearts
2. An open door
3. Lord, increase our faith (*Admittedly, we did not think prayer requests 1 & 2 were connected with 3, but God has this funny sense of humor...see my blog post titled Doubting Thomas)

Once Kenzie was accepted into schools, the deadlines and weight of our decisions began to set in - do we stay in Orange County with our best friends, jobs, ministries, and church family....or....do we pack up and move back home to the bay area and be closer to family, with or without a job, trusting that God will provide?

After weeks of prayer and discussions, we agreed to set apart one week to "try on" both decisions. Monday and Tuesday we lived as though we had decided to stay in SoCal, noting our reactions, excitements, disappointments, fears, etc. Wednesday we took a day to pray, fast, and transition our hearts. Thursday and Friday were spent wearing the decision to move up north, again noting our reactions, fears, excitements, disappointments. Throughout this week we sought wise counsel of many people in our lives, those who were invested in us staying, those invested in us moving, and those invested in us being faithful to God's whispers.
As a bookend to our week of discernment, we took a one night campout, settling in the slow pace of camping to reflect on our week.

One of the discernment projects we practiced was writing what makes us feel alive and defeated about both decisions. We each wrote our lists separately before comparing - only to find that our lists were almost identical, even sometimes written in the same order! The week was filled with great insights, emotional highs & lows, and great dependence on God.

Though our open door is at Canyon Hills, our hearts are united, at peace, and excited about our new faith journey in moving to be closer to family. We have no idea what the next step will look like, but we know that God is good, and He will provide. Needless to say, this decision is a bitter-sweet one for us. We are excited to feel "home" again, knowing our hearts can settle and lay roots, but we are leaving a loving church family, many friends, and our cozy home in the ridiculously cute Orange circle.

The Sunday after we made our final decision, we sang  Hillsong United's Oceans at church. God's timing is good, and this song may be his first provision for us - an anthem as we continue to rely on Him.



We will be in Orange County through early August, then moving up to our next adventure, whether that be our new home, or my old bedroom at my mom's house :) Please pray with us as we look for job opportunities, housing,  financial provision for school, and increased faith. Thank you all for your support - through this blog and through every day life.
  
We covet your prayers!

To our Canyon Hills Family- We will be here through August 1st and we would love to process this transition together. We understand that losing youth leaders can feel confusing, hurtful, and sad. Know that we are grieving this as well. In our own high school years we each experienced multiple transitions of small group leaders, high school directors, and youth pastors. It's not easy to start over in relationships and it takes time to build trust. In light of that, we are humbled by the opportunities we've had over the past years to be entrusted with each of your lives, and we deeply thank you for walking alongside us. Canyon Hills will remain a special place in our hearts and we promise we won't be strangers, we'll come visit whenever we're in the area and we will gladly offer up our couch to anyone visiting San Francisco! Let's commit to finishing this last leg of our journey together well. We love you all.