1-year ago

1-year ago today, I flew into Sea-Tac for a 2-day stay and an interview. I was so relieved that my waiting was close to over, and my family and I would soon be moving to Seattle...

I met Stuart Bell for breakfast, we shared testimonies together, we walked the market, we prayed throughout the downtown. 

I felt I had come home.

But then that job didn’t happen. And neither did any other. For nearly another 7 months...

Those were hard months. It became a burden when people told me they were praying for us, or asked us when we’d be going... we became homesick for a place that we’d never lived in. We knew no one in this city, yet we missed them dearly. We began to feel like Paul in his letter to the Romans:

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you- that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." - Romans 1:9-17

Brothers and Sisters... I can’t tell you that I understand better now why we were prevented from coming to Seattle sooner. I can’t tell you anecdotally the mystery of God having us wait. I can’t tell you with any true certainty what the purpose behind some of the hardest 7 months of my life was... I have some ideas, and I can see how God used that time... 

 What I can tell you is that God told us to go to Seattle.