Unconventional. God often works in unconventional ways. He told Noah to build a boat when no rain had ever fallen. It took Noah 120 years. He told Abram to move with his family and all his belongings but didn’t give him a location. Abram packed up and started going. Can you imagine him telling his wife: “We’re moving.”
Sari: “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know. God just told us to move.”
There is a choice there: Do what God has told you to do or follow the world’s advice of doing what makes sense in our human understanding.
As I reflect on not only this last year but the last 20 years, I too see God’s unconventional workings in our lives, as we make plans to move away from the community that we have lived in since 2004. I started working in the equestrian program at Camp Redcloud the fall of 2004, met Jordan there in 2009, we got married in 2010, had our first 3 babies from 2011 - 2014. Jordan started working for the sheriff’s office in 2012.
Redcloud sold and closed in 2014, which happens to be the same year that we got the call to go work in Russia. We raised support and managed to get there within the next year. It’s still a miracle that happened so quickly. The next three years were filled with language learning, cultural changes and the joy of seeing that family and friends are just as important in other cultures, maybe even more so, as they are in America. Heartache hit, we had to leave Russia.
We loved it there, had our 4th kid there and we were committed to staying there forever. We left not knowing where we were going, where we were living or what job Jordan was going to. God told Jordan to resign from our mission organization. But, God, that’s our source of income, how are we to live? We don’t even have a home! We obeyed. The next day Jordan received a message: we have an opening for a deputy position here in Hinsdale county. We’d like you to come back! So, we moved back and God provided housing again miraculously in that little valley. We came back to the same community that we had thought we’d left for good.
We purchased our first home, had our last baby and then tragedy hit again. Jordan’s dad passed away. That opened up more heartache and struggle as we navigated what this meant for our family and his mom. She needed a place to stay that was her’s, separate from our home, but close so she had company and family at her fingertips. Once again, God miraculously provided the perfect home with an above garage apartment that we affectionately called Pop’s and Nana’s Cabin. It was a perfect setup. We acquired sheep, moved our chickens, and was given an old camp horse that we will keep until she passes. Turkeys were our next adventure, a little mustang off the Mesa Verde National Park and then a donkey for Nana.
Life was looking up. We still had ups and downs, but God continued to show His faithfulness to us. This summer we were once again faced with heartache. Turmoil, descension and unfortunately bitterness that drove people to not communicate and hold fear in their hearts and minds, within the sheriff’s office and community. Jordan felt it was wiser for him to completely step away and remove himself when the sheriff decided to step down. We had a couple of months where we were praying about whether Jordan should run for sheriff or not. God had given him a vision for the office and a passion to care for the community as a peace officer. We ran a clean campaign and thought for sure he would win. Unfortunately, or fortunately, he lost. In the moment it was devastating as this signaled for us that God was moving us away from this community, to minister and work in another. The upside is that we wouldn’t be packing our lives up in 12 suitcases and traveling halfway around the world with no home to call our own. God continues to be faithful and we are excited to say that he has found a job! It is taking us completely away from this community, but God doesn’t need us here anymore. He is calling us to serve elsewhere. We will miss our friends and will continue to pray for the people of Hinsdale county.
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