So the idea was to get to Dallas today on day one of the trip, but even though I like driving I found out I don’t like driving long distances!
Evryone was so mentally and emotionally as well as physically exhausted we only managed to get as far as Fairhope Alabama where we are spending the night with our friends from Tally, the Hickox family.
Check out the photos soon on flickr -the address is…………..
phillips family photos
Its been a tough week-we leave for SLC Wednesday morning, so we have packed the house, said our goodbyes to the POD and done the rounds so to speak of visiting friends to say goodbye.
We have enjoyed breakfasts’, community group, band practice parties, and the like. Saying farewell has not, and will not be easy, especially for the kids and tomorrow is our last day at church. Lynne was commenting in the car ride home from Jerad and Lisas baby shower about how our new friends in SLC are unknowingly waiting for us to arrive. It is very cool knowing that Jesus is the glue that sticks us together in community with others. I hope our new friends will be as cool as our friends in Tally.
I read back thru all my blog entries today. I know what happened in all of them (as I was there at the time) but it is still a great way of realizing how much God does for us every day.
I talked to a chap at church last night at church, who is also moving out of town, and who is understandably a little nervous about the change. I heard these words coming out of my mouth, and figured Jesus was not only talking to him, but also talking to me.
‘He was there before you, preparing for you, He is here with you, walking with you, and He is already there where you are going, waiting for you.’
I suggest you write a blog – you may think a primary reason for one is to tell others of your opinions and experiences in terms of an online diary and that maybe your blog will encourage others. This is true, but mine probably helps me more than others because I can look back and see that Jesus is an active and practical loving God and that I can rest assured in Him. Sometimes, as a Christ follower we can be blase and glib with our spiritual language, act all ‘churchy’ and hold a holier than thou attitude. If you are not a believer I hope that I have not come across with that type of attitude or language. I pray that you merely read the entries, and see how Jesus works in my life everyday, that He is alive, He is love, and that He wants to have a relationship with you. Jesus is real. What other explanation is there for what has happened to me in the last few months? Our lives are so intricate!!! I hope you can see in mine that I have an architect at work.
If you have read any of my previous blogs you have probably realized a thread that is common thru many of them is God’s timing and provision.
It would be fine if God had died for me so I could spend eternity with Him in heaven, and nothing else. Jesus could be totally justified in allowing mankind to be forgiven of their sins thru His death on the cross, but then have nothing to do with us and let us fumble thru life on our own – as He had already paid enough of a price. That alone would be enough for us to be consumed with thanks.
But rather than be just a Savior and nothing else, He wants to be involved with us of every minute of every day. Rather than just watch us from His throne, He wants, like a loving father would, to hang with His kids.
So get this. He created us, He died for us, and now He wants to hang with us. It has become personal. The God of the universe is my Father, my Friend, and my Provider. It’s not a story of a far off God allowing us entry to heaven, it’s a story of a God who desires relationship with me. With you. With us.
So now, life changes meaning and direction. I love my Lord, and one thing I have realized especially of late is that He provides. Now I am not preaching name it, claim it. Neither am I preaching some sort of prosperity message. But will say this. He provides. Not with a million dollars in my back pocket, but with opportunities for our faith to grow due to His provision.
With this in mind I will, tell you tonights story.
Lynne and I were talking while we were playing with Eddie the labrador, about whether we had enough money in the bank to cover us for the month of July, with breaking the lease, paying the rent, bills etc and finding a deposit to rent a house in SLC. We came to the conclusion that we would not have enough, and that I needed to find a job for three weeks in July. I had always anticipated that I would need to work in July but I hadn’t been able to find any temporary work up to now, and had no possible leads..
I said to Lynne that we would just leave it with God – He is our Provider, and He doesn’t have a habit of starting things and not finishing them. We agreed not to worry about the situation, but be expectant of what God was going to do, and use whatever answer He had for us as a testimony to Him.
I spoke on the phone to a friend thirty minutes later who during a middle of a conversation about our move to SLC asked me if I could work for him during July as he had offered some temporary work to someone who for some reason he hadn’t heard back from.
Do the math peoples.
So my question to you, and to me, is this. Do we just trust God in the moments of difficulty where we have to rely on heavenly intervention because there are no other options? or do we give Him the lead in every decision, every situation. Even which coffee shop to get a latte from on the way home. Should it be Starbucks? or the Coffee Pub? I’m not being glib here, because God might want us to visit a particular one because He has a purpose for our visit and wants us to go there to speak to someone, or just to smile at the server as they have had a bad day and need cheering up, or to bump into an old friend who needs help or encouragement. Once we start thinking in terms of heavenly intervention in everything we do, not just big but small, God can have His purpose in us. Even in the sometimes humdrum monotony of everyday life.
God is real, He lives, He loves, He provides opportunity for our faith to grow everyday thru by not just being a God of the spiritual realm, but also a God of the practical.
He doesn’t make mistakes.
Its starting to finally hit me that we are moving. The POD is delivered 7/29, we move out of the house 7/30 and get in the car and drive to SLC. Lynne and the kids were going to fly, but the POD fees and the flights have gone up by a combined $600 in the last month due to the gas prices, and so its clamber into the van(if we buy one by then!!), tranquilize the dog, and go!!! We still have yet to find a house, and sell the minivan, and get another vehicle, but to be honest with you, I haven’t reached that threshold of worry yet!! I will just let God deal with it. I really believe and am encouraged by scripture where basically Jesus says look, when I say don’t worry, I mean don’t worry – I won’t give you more in life that you can’t handle, and you can leave things with me – as I am all you need.
Now if that isn’t refreshing what is?
Lynne can paint. She really can. She has a degree in graphic design, and can do all the faux paint techniques. That’s cool don’t you think? Well every year we seem to go to Amelia Island, north of Jaksonville to paint a condo – I am proudly, the ‘tape guy’, Lynne is more of the painter!! The owners don’t pay us, but give us the condo for a week every summer for free, and more importantly, take us out for pizza during the stay - it’s a great deal, and the condo is basically on the beach.
This year, we were joined by Lynnes mum who flew in on her broomstick to work on her tan.
Got the green cards in the mail yesteday – altough they are not really green – more a cream color.
The house we want to move into will not be available until the start of August, so we are moving to SLC at the end of July.
Well – there’s no turning back now. I resigned today. I wasn’t looking forward to doing it, and when I turned up at the Principals office I had some tears in my eyes. I wrote two letters – one a short official one, the other a long winded roasting of my colleagues at school. I told the principal to keep both on file.
One day, the cards are approved, another day I resign. Whats in store for tomorrow?
Only God knows, thank goodness.
From a nole to a ute.
Finally we are approved.
The process only took a good four years or so, but as I type, our green cards are on their way !!! (the card above is not me by the way). Lynne Bailey and I will receive our cards, but because Georgia turned 15 during the application prcess she will have to have FBI fingerprints before she gets hers!! After that Georgia can work, so we are looking forward to getting some money for rent!!!!!!Lynne can work wherever she wants, and we are now permanent residents.
It’s a bizarre feeling finally realizing our stay is a permanent one. We have gone temporary to permanent in one day. From an outsider to a belonger in an instant, after years of people praying for our situation, and watching and aiting for God to move in our lives, the day is finally here, because His timing is perfect. If we had gotten our cards previously, we could be somewhere completely different now to where we are heading!!!
I went to my schools graduation last night where man of the speakers talked about starting afresh and anew – that life was only just beginning for the seniors. We do feel a little like that.
I can take up the job in Salt Lake City, and we will be moving at the end of June. Forget the fact that we are hoping our landlord isn’t going to sting us for too much as we are breaking our lease (even though he has every right to), and that we have just over three weeks to find somewhere to live, that I will be resigning from FSU, that we are waiting for the stimulus check to come thru to help with a rental deposit, that we will now try to sell the minivan, that we have to pack up and move again, get settled into a new neighborhood, make new friends, say goodbye to all our old ones, find a new church, get the kids into new schools, have a short vacation in Fernadino Beach, find Lynne a job, move all our stuff, get flights for Lynne and the kids while Eddie an I drive 2200 miles to SLC hoping the van won’t break down, while I also help re-write a curriculum for an after school program that is being published nationwide, as well as start planning for all my classes at the undergrad level which is completely new for me.
I will be trying to sort all this out, while Lynne and her mum hang out – as Daphne flies into today on her broomstick to stay for three weeks.
The funny thing is, she always seems to visit when we are getting ready to move!!!!!
Good job Jesus is pro-Dave.
It’s all Him Martin (there is no other explanation, and only one solution)
I start July 1.
Well, I promised I would update on the possible move to Salt Lake City, but at the moment there is nothing much to write about apart from that God is in control!
The University would like me to start teaching summer classes on July 1 – which is great news. They will also start paying my salary from July 1, even though I don’t officially start until August 16 as on my contract!
However, the green cards still haven’t arrived. I know the government are right now processing applications from June 21 2007, and our applications were received May 22 2007. This means our files should be cleared by now- so it’s a matter of timing.
As we are only five weeks away from July 1 I would like to give our landlord a months notice of our move, and get the kids into schools, and find a house, and organize packing, and book flights, and get a pod for moving, and resign from FSU, and start preparing for classes but cannot do any of this until our residency is official (I cannot change jobs until the green cards arrive).
I have also been offered some summer work – helping to write a curriculum for healthy-america.org. This curriculum for after school programs will take place in many of the states across the US.
Again Jesus has responded to my prayers!!!
So it’s a question of sitting it out and waiting. I realise that God would not work miracle after miracle into my situation only for it all to fall flat right at the end, and I know it is His plan for us to move. So even though it’s getting uncomfortably close, I shall sit, wait know that God is in control.
