I'd like to pick up with our "story" and begin to share with you how we've seen God unfold the most amazing plan I've ever (personally) had the pleasure to witness. Looking back over the past couple of years I can see that God has been moving into place the "puzzle pieces" of our life and the picture is getting more clear to us every day.
In early June of 2011 I received an email from a sweet friend asking for prayer. Tammy only asked that we "pray that God's will would be done." She and her husband had an opportunity laid right in their laps and they were seeking the hand of God, and searching the heart of God, to make sure that this was His direction for their lives. She never gave me any details, but just asked that I pray for them. And I did. I told God to make Himself and His will known to David and Tammy and to lead every single step they took. He is the God of details and I knew He would speak clearly to them... and I knew they would listen. So for the next couple of weeks, Tammy and I emailed back and forth a few times. She continued to seek God, I continued to pray, and all the doors seemed to remain open for them to keep moving forward in this unspoken opportunity that had been given to them.
At nearly the same time that June, I met my sweet Mama (Linda, to y'all, Mom to us) in Shreveport. When Mom and I need some girl time, we try to meet at our halfway point, Shreveport, Louisiana. There's a great mall there with a hotel at the end of an outdoor/boardwalk mall. We can safely and securely park our vehicles and then just spend our few days together shopping, walking, eating (cheesecake, praline cheescake, to be exact), and swimming in the hotel pool. It really is a great way to "get away" and have some one on one (plus Sam) time with Mom.
It was hot as blazes so we spent a huge amount of our time together in the pool. It was probably the most relaxing time that Mom and I had ever spent together on one of our little outings. Maybe that's why the ride home on that particular visit was even more difficult. I drove on southward with one of those burning lumps inside my throat. Partly because I was missing Mom as soon as we drove out of the parking lot, but partly because of the pain that was sinking deeper into my heart. "Call me when you get home" Mom said. That familiar pain of our house not being our home surged to the surface again.
This time seemed worse than ever before. Honestly, we had always managed to "kick the ball a little further down the road" for me by painting something, remodeling a room, planting roses in the flower beds, or cleaning the carpets. But all those things had already been done, and the spirit of oppression that hung so thick inside our house seemed to envelope me when I finally walked through the door. For the first time in our nine years, I felt hopeless. If you know me at all, you know that hopeless is the very last word that would ever describe me! I'm the "glass is running over" girl. Even during the most difficult times, God is always right there, moving me forward and helping me refocus on the truth.
Sam and I returned on a Saturday morning from our trip to see Mom. When I walked in the door I checked an email that I had received a little earlier from Tammy. She had emailed me some details about their opportunity and was wanting me to pray with her about some of them. She and David had found a place in the country. She emailed me the description of the "place" and all the possibilities that were involved with it. Because I own a catering company, she told me that they were considering using this place as a venue for weddings and receptions and wanted me to serve as the caterer if they were able to make this thing happen. She asked if I would come look at the place and give her my opinion about whether or not the Hattiesburg area would really use something like that.
She described a huge home with a swimming pool and a pool house that would be a great home on its own! There were 60 beautiful acres and the most amazing barn she had ever seen. Tammy had ridden horses and was raised with horses when she was young, and this barn was set up to board horses for other people.
I was blown away by all that Tammy described and told her that her idea about a wedding venue sounded like the most incredible (and much needed) idea I had heard in a long time. It was beginning to look like God was opening a door for me to work with Tammy and to help her grow her new "opportunity" into a great "job" for me!
Tammy asked that I take a ride down to this property and look it over with her. I completely agreed but since I had just returned home from a trip I told her we would just do it the first of the following week. She agreed and we went on about our weekend.
That Sunday morning we were so blessed to be in our church home with our church family. No matter how far I've been for all these years away from my relatives and "home", my church family have stepped up to the plate for me! They have managed to love me despite myself and have been able to lift me up when I felt like I was sinking. After church was over on that Father's Day Sunday (6-19-11), we started visiting with some of our friends when the services were over. Paul went one direction and I went the other. I turned and saw Tammy and David coming directly toward me. Tammy hugged my neck and told me that she really thought I needed to hurry up and go look at that place. She told me that some of the open doors they had been seeing over the past couple of weeks were beginning to close for them, but that there were still ways that they could make it work. She just wanted to make sure I saw the place.
But David leaned in closer to us and said, "Rhonda, we really think that God has this place for you."
Why in the world would he say something like that? They had run into a couple of little problems, but they had been seeking God and we knew that God was leading them. Maybe I misunderstood David's comment. I told them I'd love to go look at their place and that we could probably do it the following day.
On the ride home, Paul asked me what David and Tammy were talking to me about so seriously. And for the first time I told Paul about the emails I had gotten from Tammy over the past couple of weeks. I told him all the details and then told him about our conversation after church only a few minutes before. Paul was nearly silent. Then he told me, "well after we finish lunch, just change clothes and we'll drive down there and see if we can find this place."
Honestly, if I hadn't been belted in and sitting safely behind a locked door, I would have likely fallen from that moving vehicle! I will honestly say that at that point, even though I knew we were going to see a place that God had clearly taken David and Tammy directly to, I felt a glimmer of hope spark deep inside me. God pushed me forward one more time and I was hopeful that Paul was willing to explore this "job" with me.
Needless to say, I cleaned their plates out from under them, changed clothes and we headed back toward Hattiesburg. Paul called David and asked about the directions to this place we were supposed to be checking out for them. We program our faithful friend, Lola, and headed south on I-59. We were directed right to the front gate of Tammy's "find" and below is the picture of the first view I saw of the place....
In complete silence we drove down this long driveway. We pulled slowly up to the place that Tammy had described as complete perfection and found her estimation to be spot on!
Here is our first view of the back door entrance to the home that Tammy described to us....
We proceeded to peek inside each window like little kids. The house was completely empty and perfectly clean. The decks and the pool were in good shape, the pool house really was such a great space! The barn was absolutely beautiful and the most efficient use of space I had ever seen. There was another barn at the very top of the hill on the farm that seemed to be used as a workshop/storage building.
We walked over every step of the farm that Tammy so beautifully described to me in her email. Time seemed to stand still for us as we thought of all the possibilities a farm like this would really have. Could I have understood David correctly? There really was no way that God could ever have something like this for us! There's nothing that we could ever do to deserve such an amazing place as this! Paul and I make a good living for ourselves... but this place would never be possible for us!
Sam had spent his entire 7 years at that point in the little house in Moselle. Our yard wasn't somewhere that he had ever spent much time and he wasn't really too excited about much more than cartoons and playing inside. But here, as we walked hand in hand across this yard, toward the barn, my little Sam said, "Mommy, I've never been so calm in all my life."
Tears filled my eyes as the little boy who had been labeled with ADHD was able to understand what 'calm' meant and actually felt like. Looking back now, I can see that Sam had felt what you and I call peace, for the very first time in his life.
It was time for Paul, Sam and I to head back to church for evening worship. We sat in the truck and took one more look over this dream that had just passed in front of us. Paul told me, "the description that Tammy gave you for this place really made it sound almost too perfect." Then he said the most uncharacteristic thing I had ever heard him say, "Rhonda, this place isn't exactly perfect.... but it is perfect for us."
Tears filled my eyes again and the hope that had flickered earlier in the day, took a good deep breath and really started to spark. I still couldn't wrap my mind around some place like this being "for us", but the fact that Paul's heart was receptive was hope enough for me that doors might soon be opening and that God really was at work in the heart of the man that I loved with all of mine.
As we sat in church that night I was reminded of the prayer that I had prayed for so many years...
"Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!" And God granted him what he requested. 1 Chronicles 4:10
Are you praying for answers and having trouble believing that they will ever be answered? Please don't lose hope. I beg of you to hold on to the promises that God has made to you. He absolutely will never leave you alone. He will never abandon you. If you will seek Him with your whole heart He will hear your prayers and He will answer you.
Although I haven't gotten close to finishing this story of faith for our family, please know that God is not finished working in my life, and He's certainly not finished what He's started in yours.
Soo good!! Powerful message.
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