Yes it's true, I have kept it from most people except for my community down here who have walked the journey with me. My reasoning for keeping it from people was because up until now nothing was for sure and I wanted to hold my hands loosely around my dreams until the Lord made it clear. I also held it from people in fear, in fear of what people would think, in fear of causing my loved ones anxiety, in fear of letting people down. These fears have haunted me for years and have caused me hold back even when I knew God was calling me into the neighborhood. Finally I decided to stop allowing fear to control me and I stepped out in faith. I prayed to God that He would make it clear to me if this was where He wanted me, because if not there was no way I was going. So now let me let you in on a story, a story of God working for many years.
I was living in Africa when God brought a crazy, passionate, Jesus loving young lady into my life. Her name is Sydney Sample and she had just read the book "Irresistable Revolution." She had told me to read the book, I think I read a little and stopped, too exhausted with life to read a book. So while I did not read the book Syd talked often about the book. It was about a guy Shane who moved into a rough area of Philly where he lived in community with other believers and sought to be neighbors to their community. They started "The Simple Way" which is a community that still exists that is in this neighborhood and they do a lot of amazing things in the community just by living intentionally and sharing what little they have to meet the needs around them. The idea thrilled me! Soon four of us, Sydney, Tyler, SayTay and I decided we wanted to start that in Chicago. We began looking at apartments and dreaming of our life in Chicago where we would live in community and seek to live like the Acts 2 church.
We returned home from Africa and it seemed our dream had dissapated, each of us followed God's leading in different directions and we didn't speak of our dream again. I followed Jesus' leadng to many countries and it seemed that maybe it just had been a silly dream we made up ourselves; but without my realizing God had planted a seed.
A year later, once again in Africa God pushed me towards Chicago without me even realizing. The funny thing is my entire life I felt called to Africa and yet God brought me to Africa to call me to Chicago! He never told me specifically Chicago at that point but He put it on my heart to get my degree in Counseling so that I could further help the children I was working with. I didn't go right away though, I still had it on my heart that I would work at a children's home in a foreign country so I continued for another year doing that. Finally after many years I moved to Chicago with the intentions of going to school and getting out of there quick. God had different plans.
My second week in Chicago God brought me to a church and for the first time in my life I found the church God had been putting on my heart for so long. I wanted more than just having Bible Studies and programs on given hours with other believers and the occassional outreach, I wanted to see people whose love for Jesus consumed their entire lives. I believed so deeply that church was not just a weekly place you went to, but it was a body of believers living life together and allowing Christ to work in and through them all day, everyday, no matter where they were, or what they were doing. I found this in West Garfield, this small body of believers whose love for Jesus called them to live radically, letting go of the comforts of the American Dream so that they could follow Jesus into this neighborhood that so many wanted to turn a blind eye to.
These people soon became my family. God began to break my heart for this neighborhood but I still had it on my heart to work in an orphanage overseas so in the summer of 2014 I spent two months in Guatemala and got to do what I dreamed of my entire life; I worked alongside one of the most amazing couples and was able to learn about doing therapy for children in children's homes. It was incredible and at the end I was asked if I would join them. It would be the dream I have dreamt of my entire life but yet in the core of my being I knew God was not calling me there, He was calling me to Chicago. The children were so deeply on my heart that I could think of nothing else.
I had been wanting to move into the neighborhood and so my friends and I looked at apartments and had it lined up that we would be moving in when I got home from Guatemala but then in fear we backed out. So for another year I ached to live in my neighborhood and prayed that God would bring people into my life who had the same calling who would move into the neighborhood with me. Almost a year later after talking to my church about my desire to move in but having no one to live with my friend Michelle had an idea! Her children's speach therapist had spoken of looking for a house in the neighborhood! She didn't know much about her, she wasn't even sure if she was a believer but she told me she was crazy and energetic like me so we would probably get along! I soon got a call from Lauren and after one conversation I knew God was at work. She immediately invited me to have dinner with her friends who all lived and worked intentionally in the neighborhood and they met Mondays to share a meal and pray over the community.
I continued to meet with this group on Mondays and got to learn about their hearts for the community as well as get to share with them my heart and about the kids. Lauren quickly got excited and so I invited her to help out with our camping trips, that summer she went on every camping trip and by the end of the summer her heart had been stolen by the children and she dove right in. Lauren and I all along had been praying that the Lord would provide us a home in Garfield. We prayed that the Lord would make it clear to us whether or not we should move there because we only wanted to be lead by Him. We also prayed that He would shut the door to anything not of Him. So they journey began and God shut door after door after door. We went to several houses praying, asking God if it was the house and He made each clear that it wasn't. At one point we found a house but it was not right by the church and although it was still only within a few blocks, I knew no one on the block. We had no peace about it and so we turned it down. After a year of looking and praying Lauren texted me one day to tell me that she put an offer in on a house. She told me to not even think about it because there was no way we would get it, it was beautiful, and perfect and she put in a low bid; But our God is not a God who follows human logic.
Lauren got an email that night that they had accepted her offer!! In the days to come we realized that there were several much higher offers and yet they chose to accept hers. God gave us the house! Very soon after Lauren was at an event when her roommate introduced her to a girl she knew and upon hearing that Lauren had just bought a house in Garfield Kate asked "Do you need a roommate?" Lauren laughed because no one ever asks that, it was once again God at work. Kate too had been praying about moving into the area.
So one Sunday night the three of us got dinner and we talked about our home, all of us had God given dreams of living in the community and having a home that we could open up to our neighbors. We wanted to have a safe place where children could come and know that they would be received with open arms. We wanted a home filled with games and toys, a yard full of bikes and balls where children had the freedom to be kids. We wanted to be plugged into our community and learn what it means to be a neighbor.
The night of the closing our community group gathered on the livingroom floor sharing a meal and lifted our home up to the Lord to use as He pleased.
Just this Sunday after church I received a text from Lauren that she was working at the house and asked me to come help. I pulled up to find a porch filled with children. No one told them we were going over there but they had seen Lauren and came over.
The next few hours was spent hanging out on our porch laughing with the children, creating a make shift basketball hoop with a crate on our gate and then the children helped us clean the house. It was so very clear that we are exactly where God has called us.
The next day we returned to the house again to do some work, as well as invited some friends over for dinner. As Lauren and I unpacked some belongings from our cars a man on the street offered to help us. We had just finished unloading her car and forgetting about my car, we told him we were okay. A few minutes later we returned to my car,probably with looks of defeat as we gazed at my heavy boxes of books! The same man, who had now returned to his front porch, called out, "I'm coming to help!" Seconds later one of my girls big brothers called out from his porch, "Do you need help?" and immediately joined us grabbing boxes. The two of them happily unloaded my car and returned to their porches. Before leaving the first man shook my hand introducing himself as Dave and told me he lived across the street. "If you ever need anything just let me know," He smiled.
I am already in love with our home and so excited about our new world. I know it won't be easy. I know there will be times when I will be afraid but I know without a shadow of a doubt that God has lead us here and He has a plan. God is so good.
