Changes In The New Year
Three years ago, we embarked on our adventure, developing this blog page for those who wanted to follow our journey and perhaps, through our experience, develop a desire to serve others too. Our first year we were dedicated to our readers, writing new blog posts almost every week. I loved my new gift of writing and creating my very first website. Jim enjoyed sharing his love of history. It was so rewarding to share our journey and hear how much you were enjoying our stories.
When I began working last year, I found it difficult to find time to write but with Jim’s help, we were able to at least write every two to four weeks. Going into Season 3, Jim and I both now work part-time. We are thankful for our jobs as it has allowed us to continue funding this adventure, but have found, for several reasons, including our jobs, that we are struggling to find time to write about our journey in the way we have in the past.
Perhaps the time has come to make a change – take the next step. It has always been hard to serve the communities we visited and make new friends, only to leave for the next destination. The volunteer need is so great that it has always been on our hearts – what more can we do? Knowing it would be difficult to visit all of these locations over and over again, we wondered how we could continue to help these organizations after we left. Over the summer an idea was shared with us that sparked a desire to do just that.
After much prayer, discussion, and research, we believe it is time to grow our mission in a way that may continue to help those people and places we have grown to love so much. We are taking a leap of faith, not sure how this will all play out or if it will be all we dream it will be. But here’s the thing, sometimes we have to be intentional, paying attention to what sparks a light in us, and then take the next step.
Similar to our decision to begin this journey three years ago, a spark lit in us, something we could not shake. We prayed and prayed, and prayed some more, confident this decision was of God. The thing was, we were not necessarily “hearing” from God to know what the next step was. So, we decided to start preparing for the idea that sparked in us, having the confidence that if this were His will, it would be clear to us to take the leap – and boy did it become clear! In this new year we are once again preparing, taking the next step, trusting that if God wants our mission to grow in this way, He will make it clear.
As we step into this new adventure, we will continue our travels and volunteering in the communities we visit. Our blog posts will be put on hold, but we promise to keep you updated as our missions progresses. We will make an extra effort to post smaller stories on Facebook/Instagram, as we have in the past so you can still follow along. And for those that are not connected to social media? We haven’t forgotten about you! A new Facebook feed has been added to our website on the right column (or below our latest posts if viewing on your cell phone). As we post these smaller stories on social media, they will automatically be added to the website for viewing. The stories may be out of chronological order as I am very behind in sharing some key moments in the last couple of months, but some stories are too cool not to share. In the meantime, this might be a good time to catch up on any posts you may have missed.
We are so incredibly grateful to those who are interested and take the time to read our blog. Your support has kept us going so many times when we doubted ourselves. We ask for your prayers as we take this next step and hope you will check in every now and then on the website or continue to follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
God is active and beautiful people are making a difference in our country, shining His light. So stayed tuned to see what happens with the spark that is shining a light in our journey!
