Currently, our family has been seeking what God wants us to do for ministry next. As we were seeking this out, we were also "selling" our house, going to a church that's not "in town", and dreaming of maybe finding a church to minister with in ..hmm... maybe.. Colorado? (we live in Iowa)
I thought all this through one day and came to something that was so heavy, I couldn't wait to share it with my husband when I got home.
The answer became clear to me.... "Here"
Preface: We've been trying to sell our house (on and off for 5years) for reason of the fact that I don't like the city we live in, but also, its a 2 bedroom and we have 4 living and growing children. That makes 6 of us! To the average American, that's an "Oh my goodness! You guys NEED a bigger house!" That was our thinking too... until now. But for some reason, God was not moving us. We were stuck. We barely know our neighbors, I was rarely outdoors, or we were always gone, doing some church thing somewhere else. We have a good block, but the city is not my thing... I grew up in a small town. That's what I'm comfortable with.
I asked myself one day... Who are we trying to minister too? Why are we ministering? My answer? Hope. The Hope of Jesus. Whether you are a Christian or not, everyone needs hope to survive, and everyone wrestles with hope, especially if they normally have little to no money.
Ah, little to no money. Our family is labeled, "low income" family. For good reason, we make very little money, in our one income, no degree (yet) household. I'm not complaining, just trying to give you some insight to our present situation. We are living the typical low income life, living just within city limits life, mostly paycheck to paycheck.
We live in a community that is living the same way, the main difference is, Hope. We have Hope. Sometimes, we struggle with that even, but family (in the fullest sense of that word) are always there to lift us up because we are children of God. "God was not moving us." We need to be "here". We are in a huge community that need the Hope of Jesus, whether it be encouraging fellow Christians along the way, and allowing them to encourage us, or/also, it be people that have no hope, no Jesus in their lives. We need to tap into the community, we call ourselves stuck in, and re-frame our perspective into "this is the community God has trusted us with." "Here" is where our ministry lies.
We are living proof, by our income, and lifestyle, that even though life sucks a lot of the time, you can still live with hope and rise above this world. That there is more to life than status, income, and outward appearance. Then when we wake up in the morning, we don't have to carry weight that we can hand over to God. That we don't have to be controlled by "the man." That we can live frugally sustainable and be holy. That we can have fun as one BIG family of this community. We already have fun with our music, art, games, etc. within our house walls, why not go outside of our walls and share THAT love, THAT evangelism, THAT family fun that we were created to share. (True Church) Why keep looking outside of this community, that probably needs our ministry the most? We need to stay "Here".
After I puked all this up to Josh, we talked about maybe putting the words, "JUST KIDDING" on our "for sale" sign in the front yard, and give our neighbors a good last laugh.
Now, in order to successfully do this, we need to change some things. We need to keep learning to become as frugal and sustainable as possible. And when we do this, we'll be able to teach others and share what we've learned so they too can live, create, produce and cultivate the ground that God has given us. So although Josh and I have been living pretty frugal all our lives, we need to change our perspective of what it truly means to live frugal. We've learned that it does not always mean cheap. It does not mean we are deprived.
It truly means "to be content with what you already have." hmm. that sounds biblical! It also means to use what you have to it's fullest, not let things go to waste. Eat healthy, be healthy. Use your home and make it sustain your family and thrive, use your land and make it produce to it's full potential.
Now, we live on the East side of Des Moines. So our little lot may not produce as much as acreages would, however, it's what God has given us, and I believe He knows what He's doing. I'm not sure Josh and I would do so well having THAT much land anyway. We are content in having our small house. In fact, it's made our kids that much closer, not just in living quarters :) but also in their friendships. And of course, they don't get away with much cause I SEE EVERYTHING!!! MUAAHHHHAHAHAHHAA (evil laugh)
One of the main things we've heard about our home from others is how "real" it is. We take that as a compliment. It's not a mansion, it's the home we've made it into. We do love our home, and are continuing to fall in love with it the more we think about staying. We're planning ways to make it better sustain us. How to take care of our family frugally. It's not easy, it's work and sacrifice, but we know this is best for our family. We've learned a lot reading this blog (www.frugallysustainable.com) and we are so thankful to Andrea for sharing her wisdom. What a ministry she has! What freedom she's taught us! We want to do that, in this broken, hopeless world.
On another note: Praises to God, my Naomi is getting fat, and Isaiah finished his first year of "official" school. (whatever that means in homeschool language) ;) Tesh just passed her 2 year post op anniversary, and is beautiful and healthy. Eve has conquered her fear of water and has learned to swim without her wings, this summer! My garden (4th attempt) is growing a little, we'll see what kind of harvest we end up with. And the hubs is LOVED by his bosses, loves his job, and we can't wait to dive together into what God has in store for us in this community. 
