Look at God.

I’ve been waiting to post this for a while….mostly because we couldn’t go into a lot of detail about what God has been doing this past year.

A year ago, we stepped out in faith and obedience and started writing a marriage blog. I had the tugging on my heart to start a blog in 2020, but for various reasons (mostly shame and fear) I kept putting it off. When we left the XO conference in 2023, I felt like the holy spirit just overwhelmed me to start writing. To the point that I told Andrew in the car “I need you to stop talking so I can write.” After I wrote the first blog post on the car ride home, we started talking about marriage ministry. We both have felt this calling for a while but it just kept getting stronger and stronger. And the exact words I said to him were “I feel like something big is about to happen…I don’t know what it is but I just feel like God is preparing us for something.”

That conversation happened on Feb 12, 2023.

Feb 16th 2023, my husband decided to reach out to one of the speakers from XO marriage. He wanted them to know that what they do really does matter, does impact real people, and real marriages. He told them a little of our story and just said thank you…..not expecting any sort of response at all.

Later that afternoon he received a response. To say we were shocked is an understatement. When the response contained “I have forwarded this to the XO team”…even more shock. When the XO team reached out to setup a meeting, continued shock.

We have been working with the XO team since then to share our story. 1 year of not telling people (or very very very few) what is happening. 1 year of preparing. 1 year of non stop attacks from the enemy. And let me just add this side note….if you think spiritual warfare isn’t real….do anything that will further the kingdom. You will quickly learn how intense it can be.

At the same time, we felt like the Lord called us to move our church home. Our church home that we have been at for the last 10 years!! And this is the time He wants us to move….in the middle of all this craziness. Let me tell you, the enemy had a field day with this. We have never felt so “disconnected” when it came to having a church home.

And there was the fall through of Andrew’s business plan for a gym downtown. The girls struggling in school, being set up with speech therapy and other assistance. A child moving out of our home. A economic recession which isn’t great when you own a boutique. Continued therapy to navigate all the highs and all the lows.

The list goes on and on…..

Most of that was easier to deal with because I felt like God was speaking to me, leading me. But somewhere in the middle of summer….it felt like God fell silent.

I had no idea what was happening.

I’m not saying all of this for anyone to feel sorry for us. I’m saying all of this because it sets up the next part of this conversation.

But God.

You guys I couldn’t make this stuff up even if I wanted to. It’s been amazing to see God move in the chaos. To experience His faithfulness first hand.

In May, we stumbled upon a building in Coahoma for the gym. I walked in to the building for the first time and looked at Andrew & Kassie (shout out to one of our favorite realtors) and said “Where do we sign?” I knew that was where God wanted us to be.

We officially bought that building in December.

We visited different churches in our town. Can I just tell you how many amazing church homes we have in our small community?? We felt like God has called us to a specific place.

We have a new place to land.

We drove to Southlake at the first of December to film our testimony. What normally is a 4 hour trip, ended up being a 6 1/2 hour trip. Physically getting there was crazy! The enemy was really pulling out all the stops to get us off track.

Before we left, the people that knew what was happening were praying. I was texting people as we were walking into the house to film and they were praying. The XO team that was filming prayed over us before we started.

Those prayers were 100% felt. I believe with my whole heart that the Holy Spirit was in that place. The peace that we both felt during the entire interview process was indescribable.

We ended up filming for almost 4 hours.

Our testimony video was shown at the XO conference we attended last weekend. The amount of love and support people have shown us is overwhelming.

God continues to show up for us.

And He’s not done.

🖤