You can read Part 1 here where I tell about how we finally stepped out on faith and went to the city that God told us to go to. I will pick up the story from there.
The windows of heaven had opened the moment my husband said: "God, I will go!" It was one miracle after another and I was getting everything I asked for or even wanted. It was a surreal time in our lives. From packing our Penske to our arrival in Ohio, there were continuous surprises of blessings.
When we had to pack everything we had acquired since we were married in 2000, we didn't know HOW we were going to fit 16 years of material goods into a Penske truck. However, God touched the heart of a preacher to show up at our house when we were loading the Penske. The preacher said God sent him there and by the end of it, we knew beyond any doubts that had it not been for that man, we wouldn't have fit everything! It was literally packed from top to bottom with no space to the very last mattress and sliding the door down with barely an inch left of room. Not only did God send that man, but God even sent others that just kept showing up that my husband had worked with for 10 years. Then, God sent women also to help me clean because I was recovering from the car accident a few months prior and couldn't do much. I remember crying a lot just amazed at the people that showed up that loved us! Also our last church service when our Pastor announced we were leaving, there were lines of people waiting to say goodbye to us. The things that each of them said to us had us in total shock. I didn't even know these people thought such good things about us.
The moment we crossed that Kentucky bridge and entered Ohio was one of the best feelings of my life! However, we weren't prepared for what we felt when we arrived and stepped on the ground in the place God had called us. As soon as my husband and I stepped out and had our feet on the ground, an extreme feeling of the Holy Spirit came over us. We both looked at each other realizing the other had felt the same thing and realized we were going to see something happen here because we were literally standing on our destined ground.
Money started coming back to us that we didn't know we would get - from an oversight in the accounting for the house we bought to people just giving us cash, we recovered almost everything we spent to move as soon as we arrived! The house was better than we thought and the neighborhood was jaw-dropping compared to living in a mobile home park for 10 years lol. We had lakes, trails, 20 acres of woods that we were free to roam in, sidewalks, playground and field for the kids to the play. We didn't realize all this was available to us as being residents in this neighborhood. Then the location was absolutely the best we later found out for the commute to the city and safety.
We stayed with the church group we had been a part of for 18 years as they had a church there in this area. The pastor was great and every message that man preached was like eating a full course dinner in God's Word! It was so good, that I couldn't wait to go to church every single time because I was never disappointed. The pastor had told us he had been praying for over 3 years and that God sent us in answer to his prayers. God used that man to bring me into my gifts, which has always been there but I didn't have anyone to help me understand and walk in them until him. He also talked about dreams and I finally was able to have someone interpret my many dreams I have and have had since I was a child. And they were spot on! However, I saw from the first day that something was amiss and the pastor faced enormous opposition and I had to watch it unfold to the place where the pastor resigned.
God led me to go to a revival of a local Pentecostal church. My husband wouldn't go but I was going to obey the strong pull of the Lord and went alone. I remember walking in and all of the sudden I was literally glowing! During the revival that night, God spoke to me so strong I went to the altar and balled my eyes out begging God to help me. Immediately all these hands were on me and women had surrounded me praying for me and comforting me. I was like, what is this?? I had never had this before and the love enveloped me and I thought to myself, I've needed this all along. After church, I was still glowing and I didn't know why but then the Pastor rushed over to me and caught me before I walked out. He was very interested in knowing who I was and said please come back tomorrow night. I finally convinced my husband to come with me the next night and when we walked through the doors into the sanctuary I saw the pastor look at us from the front like he'd seen a ghost. He came up to us and started saying that we were the ones from his vision and God had sent us. The pastor went on to say that when I came the night before I was literally glowing bright and God was all on me. He said when I left, he turned around to all the people and said, "There's something to that woman! I'm telling you there is something to that woman." Then, he said when my husband and I both walked in together, God spoke to him and said, "That's them! Those are the ones I showed you in your vision 3 years ago and those are the ones I have sent."
So here we are having someone tell us we were sent by God to them again. He went on to tell the entire church from the pulpit many times that God sent my husband and I and we were 3 years late but nevertheless, we came. One Sunday morning we went back to this church and God moved in an amazing way. There was a pastor and his family that stopped in to visit that the pastor of this church didn't know. This visiting pastor followed God's leading to stop by. The pastor let this man get up and preach and WOW, I have never forgotten this man. At altar call, my husband went to pray up front and after returning to my seat after prayer, I looked up to see my husband praying with hands up on his knees and he was... GLOWING! I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me but as I stared, he was literally glowing and it was all around him. I saw the visiting pastor walk back to his seat, sit down and he looked forward and saw my husband and he jumped up, ran to my husband and helped hold his hands up. I remember thinking, this man sees it too!! I was excited, like what is going on here?! After altar call and dismissal, the visiting pastor came running to my husband, grabbed his hand said, "What is your calling brother?" My husband looking confused said, "I don't know." The visiting pastor was really confused and looked at me like how could he not know LOL! He drilled my husband saying things like: "You're a preacher though right? Missionary? Pastor?" My husband told him he is trying to figure that out. The visiting pastor told him if you ever come to my church in *****, Ohio, you have my parsonage and everything is yours. We were a little shocked at this but this man was absolutely ready to hand over his pulpit to my husband and his parsonage for lodging. My husband was still glowing and he glowed all the way home that day. That week is when God told him to leave the former group we'd been a part of for 18 years and start attending this new church and we obeyed quickly! And what happened there is another post in Part 3!
