Welcome to the Beginning

Hey friends, family, and other random people that happened to stumble across my page.  I want to introduce myself.  My name is Aaron.  I'm a married father of 2 amazing kids.  I started this blog to keep people posted about what is going on in my life, in my family's life, and to share my journey of faith that God is leading us on

About 2 months ago my wife and I felt God leading us from the frozen (at least 6 mo. out of the year) tundra to greener pastures, St. Petersburg, Florida.  Holy moley!  That's a big change.  Really God?  1600 miles is a long way away.  Are you sure?  We hate winter, but this is a big move.  What started as a bout with cabin fever which we likely would have never acted on, has morphed into a calling by God to help plant a church in Saint Petersburg.

My wife, Jolene, has family in St. Pete (as it is affectionately called by the locals), and we visited there 2 years ago.  As soon as we got on the plane to go home to Minnesota we said to each other, "When are we moving?"  We didn't move, but every time we'd get a blast of cold air, or a winter storm we would look at each other and ask when we were going to move to Florida.

This happened a lot during this past spring, as we had blizzards in the forecast during the first week of April.  I was trying to satisfy some cabin fever and my own curiosity by looking at rent prices there.  Wouldn't you know it, if we found similar jobs we could easily afford to live in Florida.  Like I said before, we probably wouldn't have acted on it, but I soon got the nudge from God that I needed.

Literally 2 days after I started looking at homes/apartments in the area, a good friend of mine, who I was in youth group with, and had been in a school for church planters posted a link to his blog saying that he and his wife decided where they were going to plant their church: Saint Petersburg, Florida.  I told this to Jolene and her response was priceless, "SHUT UP!"  I don't believe in coincidence.  I believe that God has a purpose for everything we do, and all of our desires, but I wanted to do what the Bible says and put God to the test.

My son has suffered from anxiety from the day he was born.  He hates any type of change in routine, so much so that he wore the same pair of shoes, curling his toes to fit in them because he didn't want the stress of shoe shopping.  When he came upstairs to 6" of snow on the ground 2 days after I saw my friend's post about their decision to plant their church in St. Pete and declared, "That's it.  I've had it.  When are we moving to Florida?" I knew that God was doing something.

Little by little God has answered every question I've had in a favorable manor.  I'm going to school for teaching elementary school and Florida is ranked in the top 5 for teachers in the nation.  Good for my future. Jolene is in hospital administration.  The #1 industry in St. Pete is medical research.  Good for her future.  My daughter is on board, OK with leaving her friends and excited to make new ones.  God's will is becoming very clear.  It's amazing what happens when you take a step of faith. The pastor I had growing up always said, "Walk in His ways, and He will give you ways to walk in."