Houston, Houston everywhere// the road to church planting part 4

This is part 4 of our church planting story. If you haven’t already, you can read parts one, two and three first!
About three months after Landon’s surgery, things began to look up for us. He had to go back in the hospital a few times for infections, but other than that, things were becoming easier and we were able to get back into ministry at our church and life as usual. Or so we thought.When Landon was about a year old, we were getting ready for bed one night and Ben just casually asked me, “What do you think about starting a church in Houston?” Without much hesitation, (but definitely with tears in my eyes) I looked at him and said, “yes.”Now you might think that I didn’t like where lived and was looking for somewhere to go. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We lived across the street from my parents and little brother, and in the same town as my sister, grandparents, Ben’s grandmother, along with aunts, uncles, and cousins on both sides of our family. We had beautiful friendships at our church, and Ben really loved his youth ministry job. I was teaching school at a very small private school, and my uncle was my boss. Life was sweet. But God.
He had already begun to work in my heart, even if it was subconsciously, or else I wouldn’t have been so excited to began exploring this path called church planting. By this time, I was pregnant with our second child, and thank goodness, Ben didn’t want to move while I was pregnant or while our new baby was very young.But slowly, we began to talk to our friends and family. I don’t think Ben has ever been as scared as when we went to talk to my parents to tell them that we might be moving to a huge city three hours away. Praise God, even though they were very sad, they agreed that we had to go where He led.And as God began to open our hearts- we heard the word “Houston” everywhere.Literally every time we turned on the TV, Houston.In conversations with random people, Houston. On billboards as we were driving, Houston.I think there was a period of about two months where we heard Houston mentioned every single day. I’m not saying all that didn’t happen before, but we knew that God was keeping Houston at the forefront of our minds. We’d had several other offers for Ben to come to church to either pastor or continue youth ministry. But each time, one or the other of us didn’t feel that it was the right thing. But God.
He knew that he would reveal his plan to us, in his time. He also knew that I was not a fan of Houston, or living in big cities in general. Getting me to move away from my hometown would literally take, no pun intended, an act of God. And act He did.….to be continued
I’m linking up with Christine over at Grace Covers Me today as she releases her book, The Church Planting Wife: Help and Hope for Her Heart, and collects heart stories from church planting and ministry wives. Join us?

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Houston, Houston everywhere// the road to church planting part 4

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