Awhile ago I wrote a blog titled ‘California Bound.’ That was basically the steps we took to get here while this blog is focused more on the part God played in all of it.

Summer of 2018. I had this insatiable desire to know God on a deeper level. I spent hours listening to audio Bible, podcasts, YouTube sermons and I read an insane amount of books.

This is when I found Kris Valloton on YouTube and I listened to almost every message he has on there. And there’s a lot, guys, like a lot a lot!🙃

He was and is one of my favorite speakers because I can relate to so much of what he says. He teaches a lot on the spiritual realm and it’s a subject that causes a lot of people to raise their brows with a look that says, “Uh, I think you’re taking this too far.”

But it’s real guys, I know this as surely as I know my name. I can’t always explain it, but I can feel it and I know for sure that the spiritual realm is much closer then we think. It is effecting our life in ways that are hard to comprehend and even harder to explain.

Fall of 2018: Our life felt crazy busy, plus there was life problems to walk through that we had no idea how to navigate.

Life felt rather overwhelming.

Me: “Let’s move to California and go to Bethel Church.” (This is the church where Kris Valloton, Bill Johnson, Sean Feucht and more people that I found through my Youtube searches attend.)

Checkers was all in. It’s funny, really, I’m always the one to come up with the crazy ideas, like doing a DTS, foster care and moving to California but it’s Checkers that makes it happen. I would probably spend the rest of my life thinking about it, but he has a game plan in action before the words are even fully out of my mouth. (Ok, that might be stretched a little. Just a little tho!)

We talked about it for awhile but in the end we decided not to. We had a life in PA: market, Checkers had a good job, we owned a house, Kenzie loved her school and there were many more pros to staying where we were.

Summer of 2019: Life was still too busy, life’s problems we’re still unresolved. We felt trapped in the cycle of work and payments with little time for our family. Religion, strongholds and little acceptance for the choices we made felt like a noose around our necks.

We longed to break free, to live life to the fullest, to live the life we feel called to live, to have time for ministry, to be free from the judgement, to pursue more out of life then making money and paying the bills.

We revisited the dream of moving to California. We started praying about it.

Guys, it was crazy how quickly and completely God confirmed that moving across the country is the right move for us.

1. In music class Kenzie was learning the song ‘Burn the Ships’ by King and Country. Every time it was her turn to pick the song for Worship she picked this song. After Checkers and me listened to the lyrics repeatedly, we finally googled it so we could read the words. Guys. It is crazy how much the words fit our feelings and emotions at that time, despite the fact that it’s actually talking about addiction.

Burn the Ships…

How did we get here?
All castaway on a lonely shore
I can see in your eyes, dear
It’s hard to take for a moment more
We’ve got toBurn the ships, cut the ties
Send a flare into the night
Say a prayer, turn the tide
Dry your tears and wave goodbye
Step into a new day
We can rise up from the dust and walk away
We can dance upon our heartache, yeah
So light a match, leave the past, burn the ships
And don’t you look back

Don’t let it arrest you
This fear is fear of fallin’ again
And if you need a refuge
I will be right here until the end
Oh, it’s time toBurn the ships, cut the ties
Send a flare into the night
Say a prayer, turn the tide
Dry your tears and wave goodbye
Step into a new day
We can rise up from the dust and walk away
We can dance upon our heartache, yeah… 

It’s time to burn the ships, cut the ties, dry your tears and wave good bye.

Confirmation from God, from an unexpected source (our 6 year old) doesn’t get much more specific then that.

2. A mentor of mine told me: “Life is harder when you stay in what’s familiar to you.”

This made so much sense to me but I’m not sure if I can accurately explain it. I’ll try tho.

You see, different regions have different strongholds. Different spirits that are ruling the area.

The spirits controlling the realm you grew up in, the ones you’re familiar with, will effect you more then those you’ve never experienced.

Therefore they will have more power over you and it will be harder to live the life you’ve been called to live, in that region. (Note: it’s harder but not impossible.)

3. This verse was highlighted to me over this time. Mark 6:4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.”

Nope, I am not proclaiming to be a prophet but I think there’s truth in this verse for every person, prophet or not. Our families and closest friends know the ugly details of our pasts. They know it all, the good, the bad and the in between.

How often do we hold people to those memories instead of giving them grace to change, to grow and to become who God has called them to be?

However, in a new region a person is often free to be who they are called to be without the hindrance of people keeping them tied to their past.

Again, you can be free anywhere, not everyone is called to move across the country. But for us, this was all confirmation that moving to California was the right move.

Those were the main signs of confirmation that we had but there was also many small, almost insignificant things, such as a random quote on FB, scripture verses that stood out that we never noticed before, different sermons and so much more that confirmed this to be the right move.

At this point we had already tentatively started moving forward with plans to move to CA. We laid out a basic plan and timeline.

To be continued…