a peek into our journey, Part 4.

We ended up being over at "Haiti Relief and Missions"  booth for almost 3 hours. There we were given another confirmation from God: they were looking for a family to go to Haiti in about 18 months. ( the exact amount of time Jess thought he needed to train someone in to run our business)

We left there with the understanding that if they really felt they wanted to pursue us as their potential family,  they would contact us. We would not call them or try to make things happen.

Within two weeks the board called to arrange an interview. We traveled to Ohio and met with board members, asked lots of questions and learned a little more about what we would be expected to do.
We learned the mission has a sewing center where ladies learn to sew and earn some money, an agriculture program about 34 minutes from the base where they are assisting with irrigation and learning amazing things about the native plants, and a haitian run clinic.

Jess would be expected to do record keeping and book work ( ah. So needing to get our finances in order was preparation for taking care of someone else's money? !) Hospital runs and trips into the city with many other little things in between. We would host many guests esp during winter months.
I would first support Jess,  be mama to our Littles,   &  work in the sewing center as needed.

Some decisions take fasting and days or weeks of prayer, and although we didn't give our answer on the spot, we both left that day with no reason to say no.
Well actually, we did have reasons. But they were selfish. Our business was going well, we had a nice house, my family is all close by; we were almost  living the American dream.
But in our heart of hearts we knew we would say yes. We had prayed that we  would not live  "typical, nominal" lives. We had prayed for this opportunity. And now it was one step nearer  reality.


We started working toward finding a manager for our store. One of the biggest blessings in the process was working with Annabaptist Financial, an organization that not only works with struggling  businesses, but also helps with business transitions. Our advisor was  a godly man who we soon learned had a lot of wisdom. He asked us about our journey, our heart for Haiti and our plan for the store. With the heart of a shepherd led us to points of thinking that brought us to realities we needed to face.
Does God want us to completely sell out the store?

We all have had moments when you meet a crossroads, and you need to choose between flesh and spirit. Isn't God so gracious to give us grace to struggle through those moments?

.... the joy of saying yes to God is worth it every time.
So with the help of Annabaptist Financial ( AF from here out ) we began to pray differently.
 Instead of a manager, a buyer.

Jess prayed that 3 or 4 people would step forward and be interested.
Before 3 weeks were up we had our fourth contact.

We ran through the formalities and paperwork involved and it finally came down to one.
When we learned his story we were again reminded that God is in this, in fact,  he was preparing our buyer for this moment before our store was even for sale.
But I'll leave that part for next time. :)