YWAM Stories… How in the world did we get here?

So it occured to me today… I really skipped over some of the biggest details in getting to YWAM. We must go back!

Shortly after Titus was born (almost 2 years ago), both Neil and felt the Lord nudging us to hold the details of our life loosely. I think up until late 2017, I had our family living at 86 Ottawa for the foreseeable future; our kids all graduating from Oakdale Academy (our favorite little Classical Christian School); my mom & Neil’s parents lived close; we LOVE our church, Auburn Hills Christian Center, not to mention our incredible & awesome community of friends who are family….

We continued to live life — fully. And prayed faithfully over what we heard, asking the Lord for wisdom and direction. Fast forward to January, 2019. Neil and I took a couple of days and escaped to Grand Rapids. One of the goals for our time together was to spend time together evaluating the previous year, and praying about this year.

I’m not positive, but I think it was Christmas, 2016, when I first heard about my friend Megan going to YWAM with her family when she was 10 or 11. I didn’t even realize it at the time, but a seed was planted in me then. YWAM (Youth with a Mission), is a movement that was started in the late 1960’s by Loren Cunningham. Loren had a vision of waves of young people flooding the nations with the good news of Jesus. The entry-level “class” is Discipleship Training School, which consists of 3 months of classroom & outreach training, followed by a 2 month outreach. I was so intrigued by Megan’s family stepping away from life, and into a short-ish term mission. The word “dreamy” came to mind when I thought of the idea of doing something like YWAM. But really, how in the world could this possible work for our family? The two ginormous hurdles of time and money had me mentally sidelining this dream.

Back to January, 2019… we were getting more confirmation that change for our family was growing closer. We continued to pray, but we also started asking/dreaming/thinking of what was next. This time included me making an email inquiry, followed by a phone call with the director of the Family DTS at YWAM Tyler. I asked the questions I could think to ask. Chad shared his family’s story of their journey to YWAM, and encouraged us to pray about coming. His story encouraged me that if this is what God wants for our family, it’s absolutely possible!

More praying, more conversations, more research, more dreaming, followed by more praying, more…. you get it.

April rolled around, and we still weren’t sure what God had in store for us. Until the 6th. That day, Neil and I had a scheduled conference call with Chad & Crystal Freeman (Family DTS directors). We were able to ask questions together; hear Chad & Crystal’s hearts for YWAM & families; talk about more practical details about YWAM, and the possibility of coming. What became clear over the last few months was that doing something missional and significant before our kids start graduating had made it’s way to the top of our priority list. That evening Neil & I made the decision to go for it! We really felt if we didn’t say yes to this opportunity, this year, that day… we may not ever actually go. (Neil said it was our “Bob Goff moment” — have you ever read “Love Does”? If not, you should! This guy says yes to all kinds of crazy things that scream God’s radical love for us.)

So the issue regarding time was answered. Our first act of open-handedness after saying yes to YWAM was to let go of Oakdale. For the kids, for Neil, for me. Hard. The next big hurdle was the money piece. If our house sold, we would be able to afford YWAM. Our next task was to get our house listed & on the market, ASAP. I started selling “extra” things — furniture, toys, etc… just overall purging our house to get it ready to sell. Finally, everything was in place. We officially listed on April 30.

Our house listed on April 30, and our house sold on April 30.

Full asking price, the projected timing was perfect, and the icing on the cake- our buyers are Christians. 86 Ottawa continues to be a light shining in our neighborhood. Our buyers have dreams of prayer rooms, and a growing family; hosting game nights, and family gatherings. The Lord gave us these perfect buyers who made saying goodbye to our home a thousand times easier.

As soon as we had a signed purchase agreement, this idea of YWAM quickly became our reality. We were no longer saying “if the house sells, then YWAM.” Now, we were saying, “our family is going to YWAM!!!!”

The following weeks were so full — the kids & Neil were still in school; Neil was coaching golf, Nolan was playing golf, Savana played soccer….. and packing & purging continued. (The home inspection went well — there were a couple of minor things, but nothing major, and the appraisal came back just right — Praise God!) The school year ended the weekend before Memorial Day…. and drivers ed started the Tuesday after… And packing & purging shifted into a higher gear with Neil & the kids home. We travelled to South Carolina in June for Neil’s nephew’s wedding, Lucie graduated as an Honor Star from her Stars class at church. We closed on the house on June 11.

Our buyers had given us 10 days occupancy after closing, and we needed every single one of them. The last 10 days held countless trips to our storage unit & Salvation Army. Our older 3 kids were able to participate in REACH 248 (Roots youth group weeklong service around town), and everyone except Titus either attended or served at Mega Sports Camp (basically our church’s version of vbs) in the evenings. We were so thankful for the kids to get good time in with their precious church friends before we left town. Neil and I were also so blessed by breakfasts with friends, dinners with friends, ice cream with family…. lots of good connecting with people we LOVE, before we left (though there were so many more I wish we could’ve spent time with before leaving…).

June 21 (Friday) we pulled out of the driveway. All of our belongings either in a 10 x 20 storage unit, or in our 5 x 10 trailer (or in the van)… We were filled to the gills! There are so many last minute things y’all!!!

Our friends Jason & Megan graciously and generously opened their home to us for the weekend. We went from our now “old” house to a fundraiser for a precious family from church — a park picnic with friends. Then we made our way to the Hover Home for some rest & regrouping (i.e. repacking). Saturday was Breakfast with the Bredows, and open house for my cousin’s son, and ice cream at Cooks with Grammie, a late night visit with our temporary neighbors, the Reids. Sunday we said goodbye first to our AHCC family and then later, at Erma’s, over frozen custard, we said goodbye to family.

We left Michigan very early on Monday, with Knapps Donuts, and hearts full of an outpouring of love from family & friends as we said goodbye.

I’m writing this in hindsight, so I can tell you now that we’re 3 weeks into it, being here is nothing short of the best present ever! We are learning & growing, and being stretched, and recalibrating as a family, and living life in community with a bunch of other awesome families & YWAMers…