Of all the things in the world I need to be doing right now... I feel so compelled to sit down and write about my God and what He's done for us.
I feel like my heart is about to burst.
I am OVERWHELMED with thankfulness and amazed by His faithfulness throughout the past year.
Ok - rewind about, 8 months.
We were approaching our Drop Night... (you can read about that experience here) ..... the FAIP (First Assignment Instructor Pilot, meaning Bill & I stay in the dirty Del for four more years) jokes were coming at us headstrong.... and in my heart, I as SCARED. TO. DEATH. about the possibility of staying in Del Rio.
Clarification - Del Rio, Texas is more special than you or anyone else thinks it is.
I met some amazing people and honestly came to love and appreciate small towns in a way I never thought I would. I learned that I could survive without a Starbucks... or target or Chickfila or shopping in general. I
LOVE living in a town where I could speak spanish any/all the time.
I LOVED living on a teeny-tiny base, where you are guaranteed to see someone you know every time you leave your house.
I MISS not having to sit in traffic, ever.
It's a simple place that taught me to appreciate the simple life - a lesson few have the pleasure of learning.
This post is in no way meant to hate on Del Rio, because Del Rio has a forever special place in my heart, so much so that I wouldn't even mind going back and living there one day. No lie.
BUT.
That being said... in general, Del Rio was an extremely dry year for us spiritually. The Christian community that both Bill & I had grown up in (one that we later learned, we had taken for granted...) you know, the kind with an incredible church that was involved with the community and youth group retreats and small groups and bible studies and people living this messy, broken life with people - that kind of thing.
Slim to none.
To the point where, we didn't even really find a church there.
Now before all you perfect Christians start waving your judging little finger at us - we DID church-hunt quite a bit when we first moved there (to the point of tears - if we're being completely honest here)... & we just eventually came to the decision to do church every Sunday at our house... & we LOVED that.
We live-streamed Northpoint Community Church from Atlanta, GA online every Sunday. Our best friends would come over and we would learn from the incredible Andy Stanley and we loved sharing that special time with them, I appreciated that so much & even still on some Sundays, wish I could teleport them over here and do it all over again with them (and their new precious baby boy addition!!)
Also, overall we met some really awesome Christian people, and towards the end of our stay there we started a Bible study with an amazing Christian family that we grew to love and appreciate & that I truly miss. This couple was a "veteran Air Force" couple who we respected and admired from the deepest parts of our hearts, we truly hope to be just like them and mentor younger Air Force couples when we're older as well.
That being said: all of that was fantastic... and all of that I miss... but for some reason, despite all of that, we never got the deep, multiple people, small-group feel COMMUNITY that I think deep down we were longing for.
Hardly any of the super strong, "raised in the church" Christian couples we met and would've liked to have grown close to, seemed to want to befriend us in that deep, life-giving/sharing way. And that's totally fine, not trying to knock any of them... but still, it was something I missed. And something I, we, were longing for.
So here we were, weeks away from Drop, I was a nervous wreck to the point of giving myself a stomach ulcer (an embarrassing truth and lesson I've learned from) and I probably interrogated Bill with questions EVERY EVENING about the FAIP situation... "Have you heard anything?" "Did they make any more FAIP jokes to you??" "Have you gotten 'the FAIP talk?'" ---- needless to say, I WAS A PAIN TO LIVE WITH. Thinking about it too much made me sick to my stomach, and that's not an exagerration (I didn't even realize that was possible!!)
I remember crying to the Lord, on MULTIPLE occasions, including the drive to and from work, praying and even PLEADING with Him to please, PLEASE NOT have it be His will for us to stay there.
I honestly couldn't do it another 3-4 YEARS.
I couldn't experience this "desert year" for another 3-4 YEARS.
I couldn't do a live-stream church w/no actual CHURCH BODY for another 3-4 YEARS.
Ugh, it hurt my heart so bad. I prayed and worried and made myself sick for a solid two-three months before drop came and as you can imagine, the week of drop I was like, insane. I hid it well (I hope) but my mind, my heart, my THOUGHTS just PLEADED with the Lord consistently and I thought about NOTHING else.
I knew He was good and sovereign and I knew if His will was for us to stay in Del Rio He would've provided that community for us that we were longing for in a second - He's good like that and He loves His children like that. He loves relationship and community. But still - I was heartsick to leave and move on and close that chapter in our lives.
YAY DROP! It comes and goes and it is honestly one of the best nights of my life and I'm shaking from pure joy and adrenaline and
IT'S OFFICIAL: GOODBYE DEL RIO & HELLO NEW JERSEY!
It was in His plan all along.... the end of my "desert" as I could see it was in sight... we were moving on.
OF course I googled the crap out of every church in New Jersey... google maps became my best friend & I made list upon list of every non-denominational church listed in the surrounding (aka 35-50 minutes) area of base. There were less ones that I had anticipated (of course, at this point I was only judging based on which church had the coolest looking website) but still - WE HAD MORE OPTIONS THAN BEFORE and I was excited.
So we started praying for community.
I prayed that the Lord would prepare a COMMUNITY of believers that we could really, be real with. I prayed that God would send us more incredible friends that we loved hanging out with, (because at Laughlin, there were only a few that we like, LOVED hanging out with) who love Him and pushed us closer to Him.
Apparently... God hears prayers.
We finally moved to New Jersey and are settling into our precious home. I'm excited beyond belief and we ended up meeting our sweet next-door neighbors one of the first few nights we're there... upon meeting, we find out that a) the husband was in the same squadron as Bill (apparently on a huge base, this can be rare to live right next to a person in your same squadron so HELLO Connection #1)
b) They had lived at Laughlin previously as well for a few years (HELLO Connection #2) and C) They had lived on the EXACT SAME STREET as we did in Laughlin, just a few houses down!! (CONNECTION #3) Ah!!! Potential community & so many connections! We were in heaven as far as we knew it, felt so warmly welcomed by them & I immediately sent out some excited texts to our family to let them know about the awesome new next door neighbors God has placed there for us! So far, so good! :)
Life continues, the house gets set up, I am unfortunately in the middle of the hardest math class of my entire life and statistics makes me a HERMIT for a solid month. I knew I was doing it to myself, since I hadn't really made any more of an effort to meet neighbors other than our sweet ones next door, so I just kinda rolled with it and didn't blame God too much for the LACK of community that I was feeling at that point.
Then, it starts happening.
Bill takes me to the squadron and I meet his squadron commander. He. Is. FANTASTIC. I got the believer vibe right away, he warmly welcomed me and told me to feel right at home, I loved him on the spot. THEN I met his wife - also incredibly amazing. They had been stationed in Colorado Springs and I found out had put their kids in the same amazing school I went to and graduated from - CONNECTIONS! I got the Christian-vibe from her as well and asked her if she was a believer and sure enough... then she proceeded to tell me that SEVERAL women in the squadron were firm believers as well... I was in heaven.
Sure enough - met a beautiful one from Texas with three precious boys... they invited us to their church and then to their house for lunch after. We loved their precious little boys, and the lunch ended with them laying their hands on us and praying for us as we were starting this new phase of life in New Jersey. It blessed my heart so much.
From there... the Christian community in the squadron exploded. I remember coming home with Bill one night and we were both in tears about how faithful God had been to place us in a squadron with so many believers.
THEN.... the block-party happened.
We had been in our neighborhood about a month when we heard about a block party at the park across the street. I was excited because this finally gave us a less-than-awkward way to meet our neighbors without having to randomly show up on their front step for no reason other than to say "Hi, I want friends."
Saturday came and it started to rain... and I was feeling lazy and we debated not going. Because of the sudden storm, every time we looked outside at the park we only saw a few people, and we didn't want to go to a block-party that was a flop where we would have to awkwardly co-mingle with only like, 4 other people... so we almost didn't go.
But God is smarter than us and made the sun come out and we ended up going about 45 minutes late... still no one was really there, and I'm pretty sure I mumbled under my breath to Bill how awkward this was about to be with only like, 3 other people, but we meandered our way over there and I put on my game-face and focused on meeting our new neighbors and remembering names. People started coming and it turned out to be a huge hit.
Of course religion isn't always the FIRST thing talked about in a new conversation with someone, but we ended up meeting a family with three beautiful daughters who invited us to sit with them, they were awesome. Believers, I could tell. We started talking and we were able to talk about how hard church hunting had been for us at that point, and we felt so encouraged by them.
The rest of the afternoon was fun, and we ended up meeting a few other couples on our street who didn't have kids (which is RARE in this neighborhood.) They were all young couples too and we found out they were all believers too!!! AH! We met like, 8 neighbors who lived ON OUR STREET who were believers and who wanted to start a Bible study! No, I wasn't excited about it at all...
Next thing you know we hang out with these people and they are amazing. But there is one in particular I want to talk about.
Now, I've found that, regardless of how sociable I think I am, I'm not always good at pursuing other wives. In the military community, you know that MOSTLIKELY if you, as a wife, are sitting home bored out of your mind and there are other wives on your street doing the exact. same. thing.
WHY NOT DO IT TOGETHER?
See that concept above... I'm not great at. I enjoy planning and am not great at the random visits, so I rarely pursue other wives even though I'd love to be friends with them.
But thankfully, God is amazing.
This girl I'm talking about, who lives up my street, just so happens to be IN-CRE-DI-BLE at that.
She has been there for 3 months longer than I had at the time and knows everyone on the street.
She is super spunky and sarcastic (which I like) and we hit it off immediately... and she starts pursuing me.
To hang out, to go on runs together, to come to her Bible studies.
Even if I turn things down, she still texts me the next day. (Rare, almost weird, right??)
Literally, I've known this girl for like, maybe 2 weeks, and she texts me and talks to me like we've been best friends since 2nd grade. I
t's INSANE.
She loves Jesus and doesn't waste any time on small talk... she gets DEEP and REAL with me immediately and all of the sudden I'm telling her stuff I don't tell a lot of people and it just takes off from there.
Needless to say, I'm incredibly thankful for this friend.
She pursued me, and pursued every other wife on our street, and because of her persistance, now WE'RE ALL friends and BAM - here's the Christian community I've been DYING for.
Each of these girls has a fantastic, strong personality and I honestly feel like I've been friends with them for so long. I SO LOOK FORWARD to hanging out with each one of them and I am honestly overwhelmed with joy that most of them live on my street... (and I'm grateful for the ones who live in Falcon Courts North... you know) ;)
We all apparently love hanging out together and before I know it... I'm in FOUR Bible studies and meeting TONS of fantastic women who love the Lord and I'm having to turn down Bible study offers because it's too much for me to handle...... and I've gone from ONE EXTREME (desert) to ANOTHER EXTREME (heaven) and I'm overwhelmed with Jesus.
So what prompted me to write this ridiculously long novel-of-a-story that no one will probably even get to the end of??
Today I'm babysitting the Chaplain's daughter (another AMAZING family who lives about 6 houses down from us... duh right?) and his wife comes to pick us up and we start talking and I invite her to the Bible study that I just started going to his morning at my next door neighbors house.
We're studying the book of Malachi and I'm once again immersed in a room full of women and masks are removed and real, deep prayer requests are shared and we all laugh and literally cry with each other like we've been friends forever. I'm getting tears in my eyes as I think about it - it's literally unreal.
So I invited this fantastic mom/Chaplain's wife to the study and she wants to come and asks me... "aren't you in like, a few other Bible studies?" and I agree with her about how I'm so (HAPPILY) overwhelmed because yes, I am in fact in THREE OTHER BIBLE STUDIES and she asks how I do it and I explain that I really don't know... but then I start to share with her about our time in Del Rio and how that was a dry, dry time for me with no community but how HERE.... this place is different in every way. How Bill & I have been praying for and LONGING for this and here it is and we're eating it up!!
Then she shares how last year, it was hard on her family and they didn't know many Christian neighbors on this street but how in this year alone, the neighborhood has EXPLODED with believers and she said she is so grateful because.... her and her husband had been praying for Christian neighbors.
...
In case you missed that.... they had been praying for us.
And for our brand new friends.
And we had been praying for them.
And for our friends.
And I'm sure people all over our amazing lives had been praying for them and here we are.... in a completely different place... a few months later... where we're having to TURN DOWN BIBLE STUDIES because we have too many to choose from and people have been praying for us to be here all along.
I'm insanely grateful.
I'm in awe of my King.
This type of community - the type where masks are stripped and struggles like addictions and marital problems are talked about and secrets like insecurities and eating disorders are shared and all of this done over a few beers or over lunch or in Bible Study with the girlfriends......... this type of community, where you get DEEP and REAL with people you've only known a few months... where Jesus is the shared interest and desire.
This type of community is rare.
This type of community is a treasure.
This type of community is literally life-changing.
This post is dedicated to my Jesus.
He prepared this place, these friends, this home and this squadron for us.
He KNOWS we are made for community.
He KNOWS we are all messed up and that we get fixed BEST when we share our messy-ness with each other.
He KNOWS we should never be alone, and that life shared over a beer or a glass of wine with someone who really loves Him is a life worth living.
I am overcome by His faithfulness... from the squadron, to our neighborhood, to the church we recently found and are getting plugged into.... the Lord's power has been SO EVIDENT in our lives and I can't get enough.
I'm so thankful.
And I just want to shout it from the rooftops.
Community is where it's AT and it's not meant to be lived without.
Here we go...
