June 1, 2013 was the happiest day of my life - the day that Brandon and I got married. On that day I remember thinking about what our life together was going to look like for the next few years. We would continue to live in Louisville, KY where I had a wonderful job and Brandon would finish school and look to work at a church nearby. We would continue to live our comfortable lifestyle and enjoy our new spacious apartment. Our plans seemed pretty good...little did I know that in the next few days things would begin to change.
During our wedding weekend the pastor who married us, Freddy T (Brandon's pastor from NYC), mentioned the idea of us moving to New York City so that Brandon could take the role as the associate pastor at the Gallery church. At first we laughed it off and didn't think it would actually happen. On our honeymoon God laid the thought on both of our hearts. We began talking about the possibility of moving and praying that God would give us direction. Honestly though, I thought we would continue with OUR plans and that NYC was just a fun idea.
As the weeks went by we continued to pray and God continued to give us a desire for the city - for the millions of people in this city that do not have a relationship with Jesus and some who have never even heard the name of Jesus! As we began to reflect on the Gospel - that Jesus Christ laid down his life so that we may be forgiven for all of our sins and have a relationship with God, our desire to spread this news to the millions in NYC continued to grow. We thought about what was holding us back from taking this step of faith and ultimately we realized that the comforts and ease of Louisville were our main reasons for wanting to stay. As we read Luke 9:57-62 we learned about the cost of following Jesus. In this passage people were verbally saying "Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go" but then they had several excuses for not living in total surrender and things they wanted to accomplish first before they laid down their lives to follow Christ. In vs. 62 Jesus says "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." We realized that as followers of Christ we are called to live in total surrender and be willing to go where God is leading us without looking back or hesitating.
There were so many unknowns about this move...where would we live? how would we afford rent? where would I work? Despite all of these unknowns we trusted that if we took a step of faith in the direction that God was leading us His plan would play out perfectly. One thing that Brandon shared with me during this time that helped me so much was the truth that if we are following Christ, the joy we will experience from living in obedience to Him will bring us so much more joy than our spacious apartment, a great job, and our easy and comfortable lifestyle. I have experienced this incredible joy as we have begun to transition into life in the city.
It is still surreal that we are actually living in a 1 room studio apartment in Brooklyn, Brandon has this position at the Gallery, and as of today I am going to be a nanny for a super cute and fun 2 year old. Although this was not the life I expected 4 1/2 months ago, I am so thankful that God's plans are so much greater than ours and that He has led us to this great city. We are so excited to see what God has in store for us and we pray that He uses us here for His glory!
Leaving Louisville at 4 am in a packed car!
NYC Skyline
Freedom Tower
There is an amazing view of the Statue of Liberty when you walk down one of the streets near our apt.
Our new home!
