Hey everyone!
First of all, we miss y’all so much! You all have been amazing at keeping up with us and making us feel loved and supported during this transition. We truly feel like you are all along for the ride with us!
Warning: This update is going to be a bit long, but after this one they will be shorter because we hope to blog more and keep you guys in the loop! Also, we are only sharing this blog with our close family and friends at this time as there are some personal things said in here.
Wow! So, here we go. God has been blowing us away. Financially, relationally, pretty much in all the ways. We have been living out of our suitcases since August 1st, but as of September 23rd, we are in our new HOUSE! PRAISE HANDS FOR DAYS! But. There was one little glitch that God was like “This is gonna suck for a bit, but Ima hook y’all up!”
House Situation
Bunny trail just for a sec — We had been staying with John and Jean Pettus They actually just moved out here from Conway as well! We didn’t know them at all until we got out here. They let us stay at their house with them (with our pets!). This couple has become our family out here in Redding. Jean told me that she feels like part of the reason God had them move out here was for Nathan and me (cue ugly cry face).
Ok, back to buying the house and stuff.
The day we got our keys to the house, Nathan called U-Haul with all his excitement and told them that we were ready for them to drop off our pods since they said had arrived in Redding on August 16th. Well. Long story short, they never shipped our pods. Our pods had been chilling in Arkansas the whole time. So, here we are with our brand new house and a crew ready to help us move in, but actually had no furniture to move. That was a bummer. But then God swooped in and redeemed all the frustration and time spent sitting on the floor, eating out of paper bowls, living out of our suitcases situation. One of U-Haul’s policies is that every day the pods are late, we get a $50 refund… Well, our pods were 52 days late. You know what that means! 52 days x $50/day = $2,600 (we actually ended up getting even more than that). WHAT! We pretty much just got our pods shipped out here for free… God is faithful. Period.
School
It is AWESOME! I have never met so many people in one room who will risk it all just to be closer to Jesus. That alone can preach — save that for a later date. I am already being stretched in so many ways… Vulnerability, Trust, Discipline, Diligently Seeking Him, Reading the Word, Opening Up, Letting God Love Me, Opening My Heart to His Will For My Life.
I know these things don’t sound too intense on paper, but when you are forced to practice them all at once, you really do find out where your trust has been and how much you truly need Jesus.
A couple of weekends ago, I went on a retreat with my revival group. (Revival Group is the group you are pastored under all year long. My pastor is Jesse Cupp — he’s amazing. And so are the other group leaders. There are like 60 of us in this group.) Retreat was phenomenal. Honestly, I was dreading it. I pictured it to be like a lame summer camp with teenie-boppers jumping around to the worship music in a mosh pit or something. That did happen, but I was jumping too, ha!
Retreat was filled with prophetic words, words of knowledge, personal time with Jesus, sharing testimonies, physical and emotional healing (one girl in our group was healed of deafness in her ear) and just getting to know our revival group family.
In one of our times as a revival group, one of the interns, Cameron, asked us to ask God what He wanted to tell us in a love letter. I love connecting with the heart of Daddy God, and I love writing, so this was exciting for me. As I started listening and writing, it kinda got uncomfortable for a little bit though. Not going to share my whole love letter with you, but one of the first sentences God said to me was this:
“I created you with such rare beauty and strength. This beauty and strength is a gift that all will encounter by you for my Kingdom.”
That was so hard for me to write down because I have never ever seen myself as beautiful or strong… on the inside I have always seen myself as this ugly, weak girl and thought everyone labeled me as the same thing: ugly and weak.
But. I took a deep breath. Wrote it down and finished my letter.
After we got home from retreat the next day, all the first year students went to the church during the day to get prayer, prophesy and hear from an awesome pastor — Chris Cruz.
As you enter the room, someone is directing you to whoever is available to pray for you and possibly give you a prophetic word from God. I was nervous — not gonna lie. As soon as I sat down in front of this guy and girl that I have never met, the girl looks at me and says, “You are beautiful. Your beauty is a gift from God, and He is going to use it for His Kingdom. When people encounter you, and you speak out the beauty in their life, they will believe you because you are a woman of your word. You carry so much strength.”
Whoa. I was like ok Lord — thanks for that! I receive that! After they finished prophesying, I walked outside to go back into the auditorium and a girl behind me touches my hair and says, “Your braids are beautiful. I love your style!”
I turn around to thank her, and when I did she looked so stunned and said, “Wow, you are so beautiful!”
I immediately felt awkward. But then quickly remembered the last two words about beauty the Lord spoke over me. I finally make it into the auditorium and sit back down in my seat. Two minutes later, the girl sitting next to me leans over and says, “Hey, I feel like God is saying that you are the expression of His beauty.”
By this point, I’m in tears because Daddy God has poured out so much affirmation on my insecurity, and I can feel myself starting to believe it for the first time in my life.
Service ends, and I walk outside. I see one of my new friends Lindsay (she is in my revival group) and I walk up to her. As we are talking, in the midst of our conversation, she says, “Drew, you are so beautiful and unique.”
And that sealed the deal.
I didn’t share this story with you all to brag that Daddy God created me to carry His beauty. I am sharing this story to encourage you to seek Him and to be open to what He says about you — even if it pokes at the very insecurity you have been battling all your life.
Leslie Crandall, one of the leaders of BSSM says that the very thing you carry as a weapon for the Kingdom of Heaven is the very thing the enemy will distort and try to tear down. So take inventory of your insecurities and reverse them. Chances are they are a gift from God.
All that to say, what I am learning is that my Daddy fiercely loves you and me. He is willing to go to great lengths to tell you who you are to Him and what He has created you to be and do in and for His Kingdom.
I can already feel the chains of performance, perfection, comparison, rejection, not good enough, shame and fear falling off of me!
I am praying the same for all of you, my friends! That you will encounter your Daddy in new, fresh, wild, out of this world kind of ways. And that He will tell you 5 times (if He has to) for you to believe Him.
I want to end this LONG post by saying Thank You!!
We are so thankful to be here. It has been an amazing journey with road-trips, staying with friends, and love & support coming from all direction. Some of you even financially supported us. We really, seriously, no lie, could not have made it here without you. We have been so blessed and can’t wait to share more of what God is doing in our life here! Stay tuned for a post from Nathan!
So much love!
Drew
