Out Of The Desert
Our home away from home, South Bay Christian Alliance, Chula Vista, CA
I’m a huge fan of Os Guinness (and his ministry The Trinity Forum.) If you haven’t heard of him, go look him up on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube because he is a gazillion times more articulate than I am.
Anywho, back to not-very-articulate-and-no-British-accent me. I’ve been reading Os Guiness’s book The Call and every page is gold. It’s such rich spiritual food. One of those nuggets of wisdom has been his explanation of the mystery, and complexity, of calling. He says this,
“[W]e must remember the distinction between the clarity of calling and the mystery of calling. Again selfishness prefers the first, but stewardship regards both…Can you state your identity in a single sentence? No more should you necessarily be able to state your calling in a single sentence. At best you can only specify part of it. And even that clarity may have to be qualified. In many cases a clear sense of calling comes only through a time of searching, including trial and error. And what may be clear to us in our twenties may be far more mysterious in our fifties because God’s complete designs for us are never fully understood, let alone fulfilled, in this life.”[1]
Over eight years ago, Jeff and I felt called to be part of the Alliance’s ‘Greenhouse Church’ program. At the time, the sense of calling came about when we calculated how much interest we were paying to the bank on our mortgage. We realized if we had been offered to live in a parsonage, the church would be saving his entire paycheck and we could hire another person with that money. It’s all God’s money and it’s all God’s stuff anyhow.
Plus, when I was in seminary, I knew of someone who was going to move to Chicago after graduation to live in a parsonage and do her two year home-service before going to the missions field.
We wanted to be part of that. And (and!) there was a little house on the church campus. It seemed like a win-win-win. The incoming person or ministry couple would benefit from housing and a home-service opportunity (win), we would get more hands (win), and the kingdom would advance (win).
Well, we’ve been praying and casting vision for it for eight years, and have been waiting on God to open that door.
Fast forward to this year and we sense God is opening that door.
In February, a C&MA missionary to Uruguay, Mark Taube, came to San Diego as part of his home service tour. He stayed in the little house on campus. I needed a Hallmark ornament to mark the occasion of our first missionary staying in the house. It turns out, Mark and his wife lived in a parsonage while serving at Bloomingdale Church in the Chicago suburbs. He told us this church had several parsonages for resident interns and ministers. My deduction skills tell me this is the same church that I had heard about while I was in seminary.
In March, a couple reached out to us wanting to meet us and hear about our ministry. We met with them and heard their testimonies and God stories. We talked on and on about Jesus. They were super encouraging! But womp womp, they were moving to Texas in a month. But because Jesus is awesome, they donated a lot of furniture for the parsonage, happy to see the stuff used for ministry.
Right before Easter, our neighbor across the street put a few dressers and a queen bed on the curb for free, and a lady we met on Offer-Up gave us a bunch of nice stuff for free.
At the end of April, we went to our district conference, and while eating lunch, Jeff was providentially at the same table as the staff of Northgate Community Church. After hearing Jeff’s story, their family pastor Houston Robinson emphatically said, “we are going to help you.” Again, because Jesus is awesome, it turns out their lead pastor also served at Bloomingdale Church in IL.
In mid-June, the young adult THRIVE ministry from Northgate Community Church drove 2.5 hours (each way) from the Palm Springs desert area to help us move all the office equipment out of the little house and make it a parsonage. They knocked it out of the park! I cried. A lot. Jesus is so faithful. They had Christ-like attitudes the whole day while they patched holes, painted walls, cleaned an oven and a bathroom, and moved furniture.
They served us. They prayed for us. They loved on us.
They were an answer to prayer.
Luke 11 tells us to be persistent, even a little annoying, in prayer.
And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
Luke 11:5-8.
Dear reader, I don’t know what you’ve been waiting for. Maybe you’ve been praying for a spouse, or for the Lord to open your womb, or for increased financial provision, or for soul wounds to be healed, or for wayward children to come back into relationship with you, or for someone you love to come to know Jesus, or for a season of grief to end, or to feel deeply loved by another, or to feel deeply loved by God, or for a passion for God to be kindled in your heart. Or maybe you’re praying for clarity in your calling. Keep praying. When we are in prayer, not one word is wasted.
And if you want to pray for us, pray that we fill the house with the intern(s) that God is calling to serve in Chula Vista.
Grace and peace.
Guinness, Os. The Call. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc. 2003), 51.
