From the East to West!

california

This past year has been kind of up in the air whether JM would stay in the Coast Guard or not. It seemed as though every few months there were opportunities to get out or stay in. Though being in the military is not exactly our favorite choice, we cannot deny the support we've had because of it.
This May, JM will be graduating from Liberty University with a Religion degree [I can't believe it's just a few weeks away]. He has been doing online school for the past 4 years to get his bachelors while in the military. I'm so proud of him. He's been able to pay for school with Tuition Assistance offered to active duty military personnel. That means even when he gets out, he will still have the GI-Bill.
All this to say, JM signed for 6 years with the Coast Guard when he went in. He has been in for 5 years now and we are up to transfer this summer. With many cuts going on in the Coast Guard, there was a possibility we could get out early. Our thought/ plan was that we would get out this summer or finish his last year here and go into ministry when the time was up. We desire to be in full-time ministry! But as many of you may know, we believe it is important to go into full-time ministry debt-free. We understand that it is not always possible, but we believe as good stewards, we should be responsible for our finances and pay off all possible debt - aside from a mortgage if we were to buy. It is a risk in this economy to trust that we can make enough money to pay off our debt in the time we hope - but God is also a great provider. Also, we believe that training or interning under the leadership of others is valuable before taking on the endeavor of church planting or leadership for that matter.
We went to San Francisco for our 1-year anniversary in early January. We were excited to visit the West Coast and South Bay Church, a church our mentors launched in 2009. We had a great vacation and visit to the church, but knew that it would most-likely be a long time before we made it back to the West Coast. We got to share with the pastors everything we've been through in the last few years and bring them up to date with our lives.
Shortly after we got back from our vacation, we got a phone call from JM's Detailer asking us to list our top choices from a list of 5 locations for a transfer. We had it in our minds that we would be getting out, but made the list just to see. Our #1 was in Washington State, just for fun. A day later, the Detailer called JM to say he picked Alameda, CA - just minutes from San Francisco. He gave us two days to decide if we would take the job. After a lot of prayer and weighing pro's and con's, we decided to take it. We don't believe in coincidence. Not only were we in California weeks before, we had an opportunity to visit the church that has been in our hearts for years.
We trust that everything happens for a reason and that God can use even our mistakes for His good work. Though in military life, "you can't always get what you want" (thanks Mick Jagger), we trust that God has allowed us to benefit from the opportunity. Although it's not a lot of money, we have a steady income and housing benefits, JM has school paid for and we have great insurance.
Our prayer in whether or not we transferred and extended the enlistment or got out was this: that God would provide a steady income to pay off our debt (significantly my school loans) in 3 years and that we would have the opportunity to serve and be trained in ministry. We believe that answer came in this opportunity to take the job in Alameda, CA. So in just 2 months we will be making our cross-country move to the Bay area, CALIFORNIA! And we are so excited to join the South Bay Church family and train under their mentorship and leadership! We plan to move to the South Bay area and JM will commute to work so we can live and serve in community with our church family.
We know that in taking this job, we must be prepared for surprises - being in the military, you have to understand that you don't always get what you signed up for. So in understanding that, we know that we still have an amazing opportunity and that we have to trust that no matter what, we made this decision based on what we believed was best for us. We are so thankful for the support of our family as we take this journey along with a 3,000 mile move across the country. We believe we are being faithful to what God has in store for us and our families trust that!

As you can see, we are moving almost directly straight across the country!

Here's our route for our two week road trip when we move!

Stay tuned for the opportunities in California we are so excited about!