It’s the very early morning (I started writing around 12am) and I’m in bed resting , preparing myself to share the news of what will be the dissolution of a nonprofit I founded and glimpse of vision into a new journey I will embark on in a number of months.
I’m incredibly proud of myself and my team for what’s been accomplished over the years but I am also combing through the last decade and then some for my family and as I look back I know that it’s only been the strength of God carrying us all the way through.
We’ve moved more times than I can count and have had so many different experiences that would probably make a persons head spin.
Everything has been in step with Gods leading but his boot camp ain’t no joke haha!
In a quick summary, while my husband and I were courting God had opened up a job for me in Hershey working at a boarding school which is where Jason and I lived our first years of marriage. After that we moved to Lancaster and I began helping families navigate crisis pregnancies while also creating and teaching life skills to women coming out of Jail and other hardships and then I went to Haiti to teach about best practices when working with kids in a boarding school setting ( Haiti still has a part of my heart) . Then after that season we began working in the anti trafficking movement which then took us to rural parts of PA and then we had our children and also continued the work of anti trafficking initiatives while also participating in a number of other boards, community intitiatives, ministries etc. Then I formed my own nonprofit which included months of vision casting , board creation, paperwork, fundraising, speaking . Wheew!
If you’re exhausted by just reading that just know there was even more going on while doing all of those things as well such as Jason and I working with kids and youth, tending to people that would show up to our door in crisis, feeding our community when we had extra food, me finishing school for my masters , getting certified to be a practitioner, J & I tending to the physical health of our family, etc.
My children and my husband are very important to me and In the same manner though, they have had to share me a lot with these other responsibilities and there comes a point when necessary shifts are needed for the health of everyone.
Much of this moving kept us from being with our families which in one way caused us to have a stronger foundation as a new family unit and in other ways caused us to miss out on a lot of moments we would’ve wanted to participate in.
This is the honest conundrum of the mantle God puts on our lives that is both impactful and sacrificial. It is both beautiful and brutal.
It is the reason why you see the memes that share about not being jealous of a person when you truly don’t know the cost it is to be them and basically have several seats if you aren’t willing to put in the work they did to get to where they are. K that second part is the urban dictionary version of leader/ pioneer but you get what I’m saying. It costs to sit in different levels of responsibility.
The great thing about relationship with Christ is that he also knows the desires of our hearts and when we’ve been faithful over what he has given us he offers reward and answers to our prayers but at times in UNEXPECTED ways.
Though I had discernment that a shift in my life was on the horizon, clearly no body writes the pages better than God.
I’m excited for this next chapter because sustainability and longevity are the themes.
There comes a time where you have to put in a lot of work to GAIN knowledge and then there comes a time when you SHARE what you have learned with those who are ready to grow and flourish from the places they’ve been in.
This next chapter is also called rest, reflection and connection. As we have poured out so much to others, it is time we also do that for ourselves. ( do you know people actually get upset by that fact?? I will leave that for another blog post )
So my encouragement to anyone that has felt God impressing a significant pivot in their lives, don’t ignore it. God is sending that prompting for a reason and all things are revealed later but you have to take a step of faith first and trust that he’s got you!
He knows your future and has all of that in mind which is why he’s showing you what next steps to take. Trust him and move accordingly.
-AMW