Having not written on the old blog in a while, there is a lot to say. Since my last entry on march 3rd, a lot has happened. We decided that we feel the Lord is leading us to move and work in the Happy Valley neighborhood in Bellingham (#17 on the neighborhood map, next door to I-5 to the east and Fairhaven (#19) to the west, and WWU (#15) to the north). Folks have asked, “Why Happy Valley?” My answer = while I investigated neighborhoods in Bellingham, I found myself repeatedly daydreaming about how I could serve this neighborhood, which wasn’t happening in the other neighborhoods. This coupled with the encouragement of others to check out the area. Happy Valley/Fairhaven was an area that continued to be an overlapping neighborhood when people suggested places to pray about. “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (Acts 15:28).
K8, on our family blog (http://mymomsaysiambalanced.blogspot.com/), expressed some thoughts on moving to Bellingham, which I think are well worthy of sharing here:
When Aaron and I lived in Langley, we would often drive down to Bellingham for an afternoon. We would go for a walk around Lake Padden and have supper at La Fiamma. Our conversation at one point or another would lead to how cool it would be to live in Bellingham and how much we loved that community. Yesterday, we had a little outing to Bellingham. We hiked around Lake Padden and ate at La Fiamma. The only difference between the trips a few years ago and yesterday was that we had Montana with us AND we signed a lease on an apartment in Bellingham. CRAZY! It's so exciting to be taking yet another step in our journey and cool to see it come full circle. Little did we know 2 or 3 years ago that we would be moving to Bellingham. It seems God was planting those Bellingham seeds in our hearts. It makes me think of Proverbs 19:21 (from the Message)... "We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God's purpose prevails."
K8 mentions we signed a lease on a place in Happy Valley, and the story is cool. After sending out a prayer letter to folks, expressing our decision to serve in Happy Valley, I received an email from Larry. He expressed that if we were going to be in Happy Valley to check out an available place for rent in the Bellingham Cohousing (http://www.bellcoho.com/). I had driven by a few months ago, looked it up online thinking it would be a cool place to live, but discovered at the time that there were no openings. So I was excited to discover that it was now an option. It is a campus of condos where residents intentionally allow their lives to overlap w/ their neighbors. There are optional shared meals, and lots of opportunities to share life w/ others (check out more on the website). K8 and I have always talked about living in this manner, so we are stoked to move in April. God surprised us, and opened this door for us to start living and serving in Happy Valley.
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