Welcome to Willoughby

Hello to our friends, family, and anyone who may have stumbled upon this blog! I have been wanting to blog for a long time, but never could quite settle on a good topic/theme/something worth reading. But then, quite suddenly, God decided to uproot our comfortable lives in good ol' Shelbyville and make us into official Northerners. I know there are a lot of reasons He did this, but I am convinced one small reason was to mercifully give me something to write about! This blog will be a way for us to stay in touch with our lovely Kentucky family and friends, along with keeping people updated on the amazing things God is doing up here.

If you don't know the circumstances behind our move, here is a short, "in a nutshell" version. My husband, Joel, and I have been feeling for quite some time something that I can only describe as a stirring. We didn't know what it meant or when we'd figure it out, but we both knew that God had something in store for us that we couldn't imagine. Through a series of events in which God made Himself abundantly clear about what He wanted us to do, we moved up to the Willoughby*, Ohio area to become involved in the work God is doing at a church here, Willoughby Baptist. We are not yet sure what exactly that will look like, but when God says, JUMP!, you don't say, "How high?"....you just trust Him and leap. Some days I still feel in the free-fall stage; fortunately, I do enjoy skydiving.

So now we've been in our new home for almost a week, getting unpacked and enjoying time with the lovely friends and family that joined us for the first few days. We became members at Willoughby Baptist this past Sunday and are looking forward to serving there in any way we can. God is up to something big! Can't wait to see what it is....

Pictures coming soon!
Until next time,
Chels

*Disclaimer: Because I know my mom and a handful of others who want to be technical are going to read this and say, Why do you keep saying you live in Willoughby but your mailing address is in Mentor?, I feel the need to clarify. Technically, we reside within the boundaries of Mentor. BUT... because our true home is our church, and we are located super close to Willoughby, and it sounds way better in the blog title with our last name, I will probably almost always refer to our home as Willoughby. Just settin' it straight from the get-go :)