Recap on Wisconsin Trip

This past weekend, I asked for prayers for Jake and I as we traveled to America's Dairyland to see if God might be leading us there for further ministry.

All I can say is, holy cow.  (Ha!  Dairyland...cow...no pun intended, but that's funny!)

The weekend was incredible.

As in, meeting a group of strangers should never feel as comfortable as it felt.  It was like hanging out with friends all weekend.

Isn't the best how just the common thread of knowing Christ can bring people together so quickly?

We met with many, many people and felt at home with almost every one of them.

On Sunday, Jake spoke to a mix of middle school and high school students along with parents and some youth leaders.  I love watching him teach.  It's so obvious that this is what God called him to.  I love just basking in that fact as he interacts with students.

God used Jake's teaching to touch these kids, even just in this first time.  We were told that a young girl struggling with anorexia said she was inspired.  Another middle school girl came up to Jake afterward and said that she could actually understand what he was saying and that she was interested the whole time...and that she listened to Led Zeppelin on the way to church (which bonded she and Jake since he had just said that was one of the bands on his Ipod.  So cute.  :))

He also had parents and leaders say it was a message that hit home for them.  I just smiled when they were surprised at this, knowing that leaders who have worked with Jake tend to look forward to his messages.

It's not the praise of Jake that is being received, but the gift of the Spirit working in him and empowering him in this area of teaching the Word.  It never gets old or boring to see.

Jake is making one more trip the second week in February to teach the middle and high school students again and also to appear before the elders for a more formal interview.

Right now, we're the ones they want.  And we want them too.  So badly.

In my last post on this, I said that I was praying for our "forever home".  Honestly, I really believe God is leading us there and that is just freaking exciting!

If you wouldn't mind continuing with us in this journey through prayer, that would be so awesome.  It's scary to think of moving again, pulling Cole out of school, starting him in a new school, making new friends, etc.  But it's all worth it when I think of this one word:

Home.