Greetings from the crib!  This last week, I have found that a thrilling-for-all game to play for some family bonding is, what I call, "Pacifier Pursuit".  On the surface, it is simply the act of spitting out my pacifier, yelling to let the pursuer know that the game has begun, and waiting for the apparatus to be retrieved while I continue to kick my legs and whine until my mouth is again plugged.  But on a deeper level, this allows the pursuer to show just how much they love me in the amount of times that they will hunt for the lost treasure.  The game is best played between the hours of 2 and 5 am.  And if you know that you will get plenty of naps the next day, then it is completely appropriate to play several matches of this game throughout the night.

Happy hunting!
"StrawBerry" (6 months old)

Why, why, Boston why?

(Written in a modified version on August 29th)  

We're PREGNANT (due April 8th)!!!!  So, yes, we have been on Cloud 9 the last few weeks with finding that out and THEN Daniel finding out that he is being given a Chick-fil-A franchise after 3 years of hard work!  But the reason I haven't been chatting up the whole story of how we are ending up in Boston is because both HUGE announcements go together in a BEAUTIFUL story that the Lord wrote a long time ago.  

Daniel and I have recently been very challenged about the big question "where do we go????"  We've read "Radical" by David Platt, then the church we are going to did a series about that book, then we've been hearing the same "message" from EVERYWHERE that we need to be able to GO wherever we can be effective.  At the same time, we've been lulled into a love of this area (New England where we were temporarily assigned), the weather, the scenery, the people, etc. and finally we looked at each other and said "why NOT here?"  Outside of the obvious (that pretty much our world is in GA), there was nothing telling us that we weren't supposed to be here.  On the contrary, we were working well with the team here, we were seeing huge strides being taken by the CFA team, they kept saying that they wanted us to stay, we love the area up here (yes, I know I haven't seen the winter, yet)...

But we were still hesitant because how do you KNOW?  Is it bad to see the advantages of being here because is that then taking away from just walking in faith?  Well, Daniel's parents were coming up and we thought that it would be a good sign if they also could wrap their minds around us being here ... without us bringing it up.  One night as we played putt-putt with them, Mark started talking about the book "Radical" because he had been reading it since it was on our coffee table and he always gets up really early.  He talked about all that he had learned and been challenged by and asked me flatly, "Rachel, would you ever say NO to staying here like you might somewhere else?"  and I answered directly back, "Honestly, after reading chapter 4 in that book, I could never completely say NO to any place ... because what would that say about my "global mentality" if I was unwilling to go anywhere outside of the Bible belt just because it was uncomfortable?"  It ended up being the most amazing time that night talking about all of the ideas and seeing that they were on the same page and understood that we might make an "uncomfortable" decision for the Kingdom!

Daniel called a Business Consultant friend of ours (from our old Bible class) for some advice and he said that we shouldn't jump in too soon, but that we needed to at least let CFA know if we were interested if someone else was being considered for the store so that it wouldn't be taken out from under us.  We knew that there was another guy up here that was putting his name in for this store so we tried that route.  Daniel called his Business Consultant for this store and said that we would like to stay longer, if we could, because we were really enjoying it.  The business consultant directly asked, "So what I'm hearing you say is that you would like to stay through the Fall, but that you definitely would not like to be the Operator of Burlington Mall?"  So there was no getting around it and Daniel had to tell him everything we had been processing.  He told Daniel, "Okay, you pray about it with your wife and when you are 100% that you want to stay here, give me a call tomorrow or in the next week and we'll get you moving forward in the process."

Needless to say, that gave us a little gravity ... tomorrow or in the next week?  We were perplexed because it was always going to be hard for us to say that we would be okay being away from our families.  How would we EVER know 100%?  Meanwhile and COMPLETELY separately, I had remembered that one of my favorite, most respected Operators in the chain, Scott Clark in Arkansas, had said that they would be coming to Boston at some point, but I didn't remember when (they had e-mailed us way back in May when we found out that we were coming here) so I sent him a facebook message asking when they would be coming and that we'd love to see them if they happened to still be coming.  I got a facebook message back the next morning saying "We're here and can have dinner with you guys tonight before we leave tomorrow!"  Yeah, do I have to explain how overwhelmed I was?  NUTS!  So we had dinner with them, explained our course of thought, he asked us important questions (how will you like the winter?  how will you afford the cost of living up here?  how will you do being away from home?) and then said, "The best advice we were ever given when we had to make these decisions was that no matter what decision you make, whether it is profitable, whether it is a bad decision, whether it is perfect, YOU have to make the decision at the end of the day and no matter the outcome, you'll be doing it together and you'll be okay."  Daniel and I drove home that night in a stupor because the whole timing of them being there was absolutely perfect ... they were here right in the dead center of our dilemma!  And we were getting to have the insight of someone who has travelled this road before and has done it with integrity and respect.  Daniel asked me, "So what do you think, now?" and of course I cowardly said, "You go first."  Daniel said that after talking to Scott and his wife, he felt a complete peace and was 100% ... and I completely agreed, even though it was weird saying it out loud.

So the next day, we called the business consultant and said we were in!  We were very peaceful that the Lord was completely in control and that even if the answer is a NO to us, that we followed our convictions and walked in faith.  We felt like we were being asked, "Are you WILLING to do what I ask even if it wasn't what you pictured?"  And we're trying to say YES!  Now, I also want to make clear that we are NOT seeing ourselves as martyrs!  Financially, this is a great store to be in with SOOOOOO much potential, it is exciting to see the opportunity to tell people about CFA who have never tried it, the team is awesome, the area is beautiful, etc. So we're definitely NOT thinking we're self-righteousely walking the proverbial plank toward doom, but we definitely get excited to think about how we will be able to introduce so many to the brand and get to use our God-given gifts in this area!

Anyway, Daniel was called in for an interview ... in Baltimore... and the morning that he left, we found out we were expecting!  After this whole train of events, it is 100% clear to me that the Lord was saying THAT'S RIGHT to our walk in faith, even though we didn't know at the time if we got the restaurant!  We hadn't been able to get pregnant before and whereas Daniel was saying things about "when" we had kids, I was starting to say "if".  So we are PRAISING THE LORD because there is no doubt that the Lord is in control of our lives (even our little "blueberry") and though we as a "scientific culture" sometimes think that maybe miracles don't happen anymore or even more importantly, that the Lord doesn't see us, this child is my testimony that he DOES and He does things WAY better than we would on our own. 

"I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips." - Psalm 34:1

The Beginning

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Gen. 1:1 NIV)  What a beautiful start to the greatest story (luckily, a non-fiction story) ever written!  And I appreciate how direct and concise it is ... it doesn't hide behind an ambiguous analogy but boldly declares the direction the rest of the book will take.  In the beginning was the living, everlasting God who decided to create everything that we know, including us.  Without this initiating act, none of us would have a story to tell.


The rest of The Book explains why we're here.  God created us to have a loving relationship with, to "walk" with in perfect unity (Genesis 1:27).  By our choices, we separated ourselves from that perfect unity (Genesis 3:6-7, Romans 3:23).  But despite our arrogance in thinking that our decisions are better than the all-knowing Creator and our disregard for the consequences of our behavior, He initiated a secondary survival plan ... grace and forgiveness through the humiliating death of Christ, a perfect, blameless sacrifice.  And now, having received that redemption, our job is to make sure that other people learn that story ... by watching our story!  In 1 Peter 3:15-16, Peter writes, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."  We are to live and be an example, while boldly proclaiming why we are "different" and why we make the harder decisions to live in obedience to the Lord rather than following our human desire to live to please ourselves.  I imagine that Christians are supposed to be like mobile, interactive kiosks filled with information about the Lord where anyone we interact with has full access to saving knowledge!


So that is my "purpose" in this blog.  And I hope that by writing it, I remember my purpose as well.