We often get asked how we ended up in Philly, as you can imagine the answer is not a simple one. The Lord has led us on a journey, His journey for us.
I will take you back to the spring of 2003, before we ever knew Philadelphia would become our home. Our Sunday School class at Matthews United Methodist, Traveling Together, was planning another mission trip. The trip was to be to Mexico and soon after the trip was planned, Frank and I decided we were not going. This was not an easily made decision but something was leading us strongly to say no. We did say no, although we said yes to the local mission trip that our class did to serve the Habitat neighborhood in Matthews. While on this trip, a man in our class shared his testimony and his commitment to Jesus Christ. He accepted Christ, tearfully, powerfully, and honestly. This moved me beyond words and I immediately decided that I had to go on the upcoming Mexico mission trip. Frank respected and honored my decision but did not join me in my decision immediately. After a couple of weeks and lots of prayer (due to several work related issues) he decided he would go too.
We now jump to August 2003, just 3 weeks before our scheduled trip. We had been planning all summer, learning Spanish, raising funds, arranging childcare. In an instant everything changed. We learned that the organization we were going with had spent over half of our money and the leader was gone. The short version of a long story is, we were not going to Mexico. We were soon presented with alternatives, our group of 21 adults had to come to a fast decision of what to do. We sat at our friend's house and the final vote came down to Philadelphia, Ohio, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. Out of 21 people, we were the only ones to NOT feel led to Philadelphia. I actually went home and cried because the decision was made to go there! I wanted to go back to Jamaica, where we had been on our 1st mission trip. We did not back out, despite our disappointment, and plans began for our trip to an inner-city neighborhood in Philly. To be honest, I was terrified.
September 6, 2003, we loaded a van and drove to Philly to serve with a church named Cornerstone, with a pastor named Joe. Leaving our 18 month old son, Paxton, behind, we join our closest friends for this journey. When we pulled into the streets of Kensington for the first time, it was dark. I can remember driving down a side street, which is actually now a street we drive on almost daily to get to our house. I remember people in the van being a little nervous and scared. I was not, don't know why, but I had no feelings of fear at all, neither did Frank. The busy week of mission work began and by Wednesday of that week, I was feeling God speak to me, clearly. I was trying to ignore him, trying to remember that I didn't even want to be in Philly to begin with. But his voice was strong and clear. I found an article that night, in a magazine that a friend had brought with her, I read this article while everyone else was out socializing amongst the group during our downtime. This article was about missions and hit home like nothing else had before. It became apparent that God was speaking to ME and that I needed to listen, pray, and be ready. I wrote in my journal that night...
Sept. 10, 2003
Please guide us as we make "life" decisions about how to best serve you. I wonder a lot about where we are and how we serve on a regular basis and I feel off-base at times. I wonder if there's more in store for us. I know I am scared to even move forward with my thoughts. Frank often doubts his place in life and voices it to me and I often wonder if we're just too attached to our comfy life to move further with any thoughts. I ask you to direct us as we serve you, wether is be in Charlotte, in the US somewhere, or in another country. Wether it be daily, monthly or yearly...long or short term. Our purpose on this earth is to serve you and I forget that all of the time in my normal life. Please keep this trip and these thoughts and feelings fresh in my mind for a long time after this trip. Don't let it fade fast as it often can.
It didn't fade, the feeling and calling only got stronger. The cool thing is this was happening to Frank too, but we NEVER spoke together about this during he entire week long trip! it wasn't until we returned home and sat on our couch and said the words that would change our entire life. We each shared the calling we were feeling and decided to seek the will of God and move forward.
We were guided by MUCH prayer, a lot of council from trusted friends and leaders, and a lot of open communication between us. We made a trip back to Philly about a month later to discuss details with Cornerstone staff members and we even looked at some houses in case it did work out. We looked at our home that day and I felt an overwhelming sense of "being home" when we stepped foot in the door! And let me tell you, it was NOT because the house was nice and pretty...it was in need of a LOT of work and was downright nasty in many places! Despite the physical appearance, I knew this would be our home if we moved here...God spoke to my heart again.
Soon after that trip, the final decision was made and support raising and moving plans began. It all happened very fast and we don't regret that at all. Within 6 months we had both quit everything about life as we knew it and moved to a new place with a new future. Frank quit his job with McGee brothers as a brick masonry foreman. I quit my dream job of owning Little Moments Photography with my best friend, Krista. We had created this business together just a couple of years prior. We left all of our close family, including Frank's parents and sister's family and also Carisa's parents. We left the church home we loved and the friends we considered to be our family.
March 5th, 2004, our 5th wedding anniversary and they day we departed for Philly and our new life, we have been here ever since. We have no plans of leaving, until God calls again...
