As I sit here on this Saturday between Good Friday and Easter, I’m reminded of the hard and sad thing that took place yesterday, Jesus’ death. On the flip side, I also know the great news that we will celebrate tomorrow, His resurrection. But what about today? Yesterday is known as Good Friday. Which in my son’s words last night, “Why in the world do they call it good? There’s nothing good about Jesus dying the way He did.” And then there’s tomorrow which is known as Resurrection Sunday! But what about the in-between of yesterday’s sadness and tomorrow’s incredible news and great joy? What about Saturday? What about today?

If I’m being honest, 2020 has left me feeling like I’m stuck in the Saturday between a terrible death that occurred yesterday and the hope of knowing Sunday is coming. In fact, had you have told me in 2019 all that we would experience in 2020 I probably would have laughed and said you were crazy. Losing our job of 14.5 years, a global pandemic, a quarantine that has every extrovert going crazy and every introvert on cloud 9, and of all things a toilet paper shortage just to name a few things for 2020. I saw a meme the other day that said, “I’m going to call my mom and see if her offer to slap me into next year still stands.” As funny as that is, I can’t even tell you how many times this year I’ve told a few very close friends how I’m so ready to be on the other side of all that has hit us in 2020. Again, stuck in what feels like a never ending Saturday between a very terrible Friday low and the best news ever come Sunday. Yet, it’s in this in-between Saturday that I’m reminded that God is more concerned about my character and the process than He is the next destination. Oh how easy it is to forget about the process. We just want the end result and we want it quick. After all, we do live in a microwave society and waiting and being patient isn’t easy for most of us. It’s also here, on this solemn Saturday, both literally and figuratively, that I have to remind myself to cling to faith and not to feelings, to cling to what I know to be true and not what I feel.

So if you’re like me right now and you find yourself living between what once was and what’s coming, know this: Friday was brutal. Friday was hard. Friday wasn’t fair. But it was necessary to get to Sunday. Without Friday’s events, we wouldn’t have a resurrection on Sunday and my friend, Sunday is coming! Good things are on the horizon and Sunday will make both Friday and Saturday worth it! God doesn’t waste anything in our lives and He certainly won’t waste the waiting, pain and hurt of Saturday. He can be trusted so join me on this solemn Saturday in trusting God. Let’s remember His words to us in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Sunday is coming! That we can be sure of!

Happy Easter friend!!

– Heather ❤️

Life Update – Hello to all of our amazing friends and family. Let me start by saying thank you for all the prayers, gifts, and words of encouragement as we step out in faith. We are beginning to see some of those prayers, open doors and returned from Phoenix last week after spending some time with mentors and some very cool Jesus people!

Jesus People, I like that label!!

I recently took some time to dive into some of my own faith roots. If you know me, I am all about discovering my family heritage. In fact I couldn’t wait to get the results of my DNA test back to see how much American Indian I am (I was told my whole life my great, great grandma was half). Come to find out, I am zero Native American. *Insert sad face*

I did discover that I’m 2% Northern African/Middle Eastern so this explains my affinity for hip hop.

Knowing my family heritage has always been important for me. For me, if I can understand where I came from, I can discover why I am the way I am. I can know some of my family’s roots . So when I dived into my Pentecostal roots I turned first to Acts 2 in the Bible. This study led me to look at moments in history where the Holy Spirit moved in powerful ways through the followers of Jesus who not only believed in Him but also in the infilling of His Holy Spirit. From the book of Acts, all the way to the great reformation, to the church establishing the Protestant faith, to the Azuza street revival in L.A., the Holy Spirit has been moving and continues to move deeply.

I’ve always known that the Azusa Street Revival sparked many of our modern day denominations but to dive into the stories of what happened through William J. Seymour and so many others really is amazing. It was said the fire department was called many times because of what looked like flames over the church as it made some think it was actually on fire. How remarkable it must have been to see those signs and miracles!!

But I don’t just want to see another great awakening, I want to be part of it. I want to see our modern day churches hunger for God in such a way that when God shows up it causes people to see fire! I want to be a part of the Jesus People!

⁃ Dustin

I recently flew to Phoenix for a few days. Before take off the pilot did the usual thing where he gets on and talks about the flight, what to expect and all that. I hear him mention it would be a bit bumpy leaving Salt Lake and a bit bumpy landing in Phoenix. Now had this have been me a couple years ago I would have really panicked. But that’s not the me today, I’ll tell that story in another blog, another time.

The issue I’ve had with flying is I just don’t understand it. Yes, I get it’s science and all that but how a big metal tube stays in the sky going hundreds of miles per hour is just pretty amazing. To top it off, I don’t understand anything about the cockpit. If I ever had to land a plane, let alone even fly a plane, I just couldn’t do it. This is where we are all thankful I wasn’t called to be a pilot.

Back to my story. So of course I’m not looking forward to the bumps but I’m thinking it won’t be too bad. Getting off the runway took forever as it was a snowy day. They finally de-ice the plane and off we go. Things are fine, a bit bumpy but nothing terrible. I’m thinking how easy those bumps were and we were good to go now for a smooth rest of the flight. I was wrong. We are in the air about 20 minutes then it all went downhill from there. So. Many. Bumps. This is the part where I’m asking myself if turbulence can cause a plane crash.

If you know me, you know I’ll talk to anyone, any time and by now I’ve already made friends with a real nice lady named Wendy who does this flight from Salt Lake to Phoenix rather often. She wasn’t one bit afraid either I might add. But, now, instead of our conversation being about her line of work, I’m now telling her I’m not digging the turbulence.

I decide to look out the window and literally with every bump I see that the plane is kind of tipping from left to right. So with one bump you’d get a whole new view out the window then another bump, your view changed again. Now I’m all for flying but not this kind of flying. I look to the girl sitting by the window and she’s sound asleep. Let me just tell you how sleeping through turbulence makes zero sense to me.

The turbulence continues and I’m thinking to myself, “Let’s just land this thing. Find the nearest airport and land it.” I look again at the girl sitting next to me and think, “How is she sleeping through this?” So, before I tell you my next thought, I have to tell you how the girl sitting next to me reminds me of one of my dearest friends. Her name is Glory. Her dad was an incredible man and I absolutely loved him. He had a quiet and gentle confidence about him and I remember he always made me feel safe in all the adventures I ever joined his family on. To top it off, he was a pilot. From all that Glory ever told me about him as a pilot, he was a good one at that. So in that moment, I’m thinking of my friend Glory and I remember asking her one time if she was ever afraid to fly. She told me, “How could I be afraid with my dad as the pilot? That’s never really crossed my mind.”

Clearly I’m having a million thoughts going through my head so my attention goes back to the girl sleeping next to me. I look at her again and she is STILL SLEEPING and I’m STILL WONDERING if I’m going to die or not. I ponder waking her up so she can spend her last few minutes awake knowing the plane was going to crash. I don’t end up doing that but I do have a thought: “I wonder if her dad is the pilot? How else could you be sleeping through this? I bet if my dad was the pilot I’d be sleeping through this mess too.”

And it was in that bumpy, uncomfortable, turbulent moment, I hear that ever gentle voice say, “You can trust the pilot. You can trust Me.”

I’d like to say I had immediate peace as soon as I heard that. The peace came a few minutes later after I processed what God had just told me. You see, life gets bumpy at times. You can even say sometimes you hit unexpected turbulence in your journey. We often we fear things we don’t understand. We often question the bumps in the journey and if those bumps will still get us to our destination. Many times those bumps are what have to happen to get us from point A to point B. Those bumps have to happen to get us from the place we can no longer stay because we have to get to our destiny.

On that flight I had to remind myself to trust the actual pilot. But further than that, I had to remind myself to choose to trust God both for the flight and for my life. I’m on a journey to my destiny and these bumps aren’t going to kill me. In fact, they are only going to make me stronger for when I get to where He’s taking me.

So what did that bumpy flight to Phoenix teach me? It taught me that God can be trusted. Even when I don’t see or understand everything, He can be trusted. Every. Single. Time.

– Heather

For those of us with young children there is no better time than the road trip. *Enter Sarcasm

Currently, we are on one as I write this blog.

Road trips with the fam is both the best of times and the worst of times. My daughter’s routine goes something like this: “I’m hungry. I’m thirsty. My stomach hurts. Ryder’s looking at me. How many birds live here? What if we get stuck here? I need to go potty.” And on and on it goes.

My boys are at the age where it’s just one constant statement: “Are we there yet?” It’s enough to make any sane adult go crazy. Not to mention the fighting over whose tablet is whose and who just broke wind for the 100th time.

Yet road trips have become one of my favorite family activities. In fact, we now call them adventures because we might get lost, stop at a thousand gross gas stations (because one of our kids can’t seem to hold it) or we simply take the long way to our destination.

When you start looking at it as part of the overall experience, the long drive doesn’t seem so bad.

Life is that way too. If we focus on the hard parts, it feels like we will never break out of hardship. Hardship has been and will always be part of our life adventure. Just remember the destination isn’t just about getting there, it’s about choosing to live while you journey!

– Dustin