Reassurance

We have been having a lot of people ask us how the whole New Zealand process is going, so I think it is time for an update. We received our ITA (Invitation to apply) early May. We have been working on getting everything filled out for that and saving up the money needed to submit our application. All of us have our medical examinations completed and are now just waiting to get our police certificates back from the FBI. Once we have those we will be able to send off our applictaion.

Lately I have been having a lot of doubts on moving to New Zealand. I get so nervous about leaving our home, family, and church. Dan and I decided to go to church tonight since I will be serving in the nursery tomorrow morning and will miss the service. On our way to church I was talking to him about my feelings and the doubts I have been having over these past several weeks. I told him that we just really need to be praying more about it and make sure this is what God wants us to do. We got to church and during the service the pastor started talking about Paul when he was in prison, writing to the church in Colosse (Colossions 1:24-29).  In these verses Paul was talking about how to be a true servant of the Lord.  One of the points that was made was how Paul rejoiced in his suffering for the sake of other believers, and was willing to sacrifice his personal comfort in order to spread the Word.  Our Pastor then began to talk about how we are afraid to ask God what his will is for our lives, as we may not like what he is telling us.  The problem is we enjoy being comfortable in our lives, not only in our earthly lives but our spiritual lives as well.  It is only when we become uncomfortable, that we really start to stretch our faith and grow in our relationship with Jesus.  

Toward the end of the service we felt it would be good to go up to the front of the church to have the prayer team pray with us about our decision of moving to New Zealand.  Once we were up there we met Pastor Garth at the front and started talking with him about moving.  You could see immediately that something was spinning in his mind.  He asked us what part we were moving to because he was going to a prayer meeting later this week for a man named Franz, who is actually a Pastor at Calvary Chapel (another church here in Modesto), that is moving to New Zealand with his family next month to set up a missionary school near Auckland. He asked us if it would be ok for him to give Franz our contact information to help set us up and get us connected once we are over there. Before we had even started praying, God was filling us with the reassurance we have been needing, that this is His will. He has been making this path so clear to us, so we are continuing to step out in faith on our journey. Everything we have been doing to prepare for our move has been going so smoothly, and it just feels right.  I know we still have many more hurdles to jump before we are even close to going, but tonight really helped to re-ignite our passion for God's will as well as our lives. 

To sum up this post in a few short sentences... Dan and I are in awe of how amazing God is and what he is doing in our lives.  Even if New Zealand doesn't end up working out, it will still be gain as this process is bringing us so much closer to Him.  Which in the end is all that really matters! 
~Danielle and Dan