Hello everyone! Its Stephen. I'm sorry for those of you who were looking forward to another blog entry by Krista, but have now had their anticipation shattered by Mr. Blunt, to the point, no touchy-feely. A few days ago Krista and I were talking about some recent experiences and she mentioned that it would make a good blog entry. She's also mentioned in the past that I need to be a more vocal part of this family headin' to Swaziland, which I agree with. But being vocal just isn't one of my natural gifts, so I need to make a more focused effort.
So here it goes...
This past weekend at RVC we had our Five-Spot. For those of you who do not attend RVC, that is when a missionary or organization gets in front of the congregation for the purposes of generating support. Our family was onstage at all four services, then we had a table in the lobby where we were meeting people, answering questions, and sharing more of our vision to those who were interested in hearing about it. It was an incredible weekend. While we were talking with people I found myself sharing a lot about our journey, answering a lot of questions along the lines of, "How did you know you were supposed to go to Swaziland?" My answer is "peace". I'll elaborate...
It was about two years ago, Target Field was in full swing. I was incredibly stressed out with the pressures of keeping our portion of the project on schedule while working long days and weekends. There were some nights that I would wake up in the middle of the night panicked about something I had forgotten to do at work and couldn't wait to get to work so I could make sure that what I had forgotten about hadn't caused a disaster. While I was home I would try to be an involved husband and father, but very rarely was I. Often times I was present at home, but my mind was at work and there were many occasions when Krista would say, "Are you at work? I need you home." It was frustrating for Krista but she was extremely patient with me.
It was during this time, I was driving to work one morning, and a thought jumped into my head, "For the first time in my entire life, I have total peace because I am exactly where God wants me to be". I was working on a project and for a company that was a dream come true, and could only be described as a gift from God. We were very involved in small groups and serving regularly at church. Our family life was great (when I was present). We were growing spiritually by leaps and bounds, and we had surrendered our finances and we were patiently and diligently working on getting out of debt. Through one of the craziest times of my life, I was shocked that I had complete peace.
Fast forward a year to May of 2009. Target Field was over the hump and appeared like it was going to be a great success and Krista and I had recently become debt free except for our mortgage. I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but I had a sense in my spirit that there were going to be big changes coming for us. Krista felt the same way, only we didn't know each other was feeling this way. We were talking one night when we discovered that we both felt this way, and we agreed that it must be God confirming our feelings. Awesome! Bring on the changes! We agreed that we would pray about it, but not talk to other people about it as we didn't want to confuse or mislead anyone. Throughout this time, I still had that peace that I described, I was still progressing and on track headed towards whatever God had for us.
Fast forward again to January of this year. We had just gotten back from Swaziland, and I had been having some pretty strong stirrings in my heart for a few months, but I didn't know what for. I wasn't sure what the stirrings were, but I was searching. I felt that my job no longer had the significance it once did and I was getting bored with it. Target Field turned out to be a tremendous success and we were getting ready for the grand opening, but even that had lost its luster. Krista felt that we were being led to Swaziland, but I didn't feel it, and I really wasn't comfortable with that anyway. I was reluctant, but agreed to pray about our future. As I began to pray, each day my heart would change a little bit towards Swaziland. More and more, each day, there was a greater fondness for Swaziland than the previous day. After a few weeks, I found myself captivated by it, I couldn't get it out of my head. Even while at work, I was thinking about it while going about my day. Then I had a breakthrough, "There's that peace again!" When I would think about Swaziland, the stirring was gone. When I would think about life here in the states the stirring would came back. I felt like I could literally turn it on and off by what I thought about.
It was because of this peace that I know God wants us in Swaziland. It is so awesome to be able to look back on a moment and realize that God was preparing you for where you are now. God gave me peace in the midst of a massive storm two years ago, so I would recognize and follow his leading today. That's how I know. Peace, Dude.
