Day Thirteen (28 days left of this crazy 2020!)

Right now we are carrying a bold prayer around the home we sense is in our hearts for the next decade at least. Its in the same town we live in now. It would require the crazy favour of God. It feels way bigger than just a home, it feels like an anchor.

Regardless though, we are completely trusting in Gods leading of open doors and shut doors because He truly knows best.

Some people, but not many, would know that relocating here to Quebec, Canada has been our richest and most difficult season of our life. All at once. And the most upending and unsettling years for our kids. As is quite normal. And they are our heroes.

Here is a little background to our story if you may not know ..

This part of my story begins with a whisper, a word, a wish and why (as we talked about yesterday for your ’because’)

The whisper in 2013 was ‘raise the sails of your boat I am about to blow a fresh wind into them to set sail into places you have never experienced before’

So I began trying to interpret that whisper in all the natural ways you can. You then try and search out what change means and you even nearly try and force it yourself.

The word was ‘leave your country, your fathers house for a land I will show you’ in Genesis 12.

This passage went on to teach me that this was not just about me, it was about the

generations, it was about travelling light, forgetting my past, trusting the Lord

and moving into the greatest adventure of our life.

The wish was ‘one day Lord would you give us a nation to love and serve. And we love Canada and France but how could we live in both?’

10 years ago, having grown up in our local church for 18 years we approached our senior pastor about planting a church. So in him releasing us we visited both Canada and France. Fell in love with both those places but did not feel any release to come. In fact the Lord called us to another part of Australia and we laid the dream for a nation down and loved our city, saw family members saved and was entrusted with a few thousand amazing people to love and serve in the local church we planted.

So in 2014 when God began whispering and gave us a word, then He also said to

us " It's time" .. and He reawakened the dormant dream in our heart to plant a church in another nation. When he spoke the word Quebec into Andrew’s heart – we had to google it. We were ignorant Australians who had no idea where it was.

So you can imagine our abundance of joy when we saw it as French Canada.

The first person I called was Helen Burns who had been my safe place for about 15 years and she and I both wept about what God was doing across this nation. I knew that our story was to be inextricably linked to the story of Canada's time an place in the kingdom story.

And so our story was quite sudden. We transitioned our church into new leadership (which, even with a word from God, was the most difficult decision I have ever made) left everyone and everything we knew, sold our possessions and moved from 35 degrees to minus 35 degrees in February 2015.

9 people came with us and we launched Resurgent Church in September 2016. It has been a huge journey. The most difficult, exhausting, joyful and rewarding journey of our life so far!

My ‘why’ is part of my story. And your why is part of your story. I have one major ‘why’ scripture. Isaiah 61 that the spirit of the Lord is upon me because .... as I shared yesterday.

So back to this word I received last year as I was second guessing ‘where’ I was and ‘what’ was going on. And probably therefore asking ‘why’ to God about certain situations instead of remembering my overall ‘why’ for my life!

She told me that the Lord says that I can either be here in Quebec on this journey wearing flip flops (an Aussie would say ‘thongs’) or I could also choose army boots! Or both!

And this spoke so deeply to me about how to keep walking out the journey here in Quebec. I chose both. I choose both. I love that He gives me a choice. He does to you too. I want the brightness of the sun, the smell of ocean, the feeling of sand under my feet.... i want all the fresh air of that life & I am committed to warring for new territory and the unrelenting leadership responsibilities, . I choose both. I believe He will give me 'pauses and punctuations' of places I can wear flip flops, to reinvigorate me for the road ahead in my army boots.

I see this naturally and figuratively.

So when my husband today says 'I am so committed to Quebec and doing whatever it takes to see her reawakening, are you with me?' ... I chose to say again, yes....Trusting that i can do it wearing both my flip flops and my army boots.

Our journey is just one big choice to wide, open, spacious YES. So is yours. What is God giving you choices in right now? What style of shoes symbolise the way you want to enter a new year?

Bold can mean both ...xo