The Ark

We signed papers on The Ark, so it’s time to share the story. This might take several installations! It’s the next leg of our journey with Jesus. Thank you for indulging me!

Some of you may remember our Downsize Journey from 2010. (There are links to all 5 installments there) Basically, God destroyed our neat-and-tidy lives by opening up our eyes to the world He loves. We read The Hole in Our Gospel, and were completely wrecked. We’d just purchased our “dream home,” and felt like we’d “arrived” at the life we’d always wanted. But sadly, it was just a churchy version of the empty American Dream. (Note: As most of you know, that journey wasn’t about big houses being bad, it was a heart-thing. An idol-thing. More on this to come in the book!)

So: We “lost” $50,000 by selling our dream-home, and were then led by the Wisdom of Buzz Lightyear (remember that?) to move into a dumpy rental where we experienced more JOY than we ever imagined. After taking the leap-of-faith with our church plant in 2012, He allowed us to fall backwards into an old 110-year-old house in the city, with room in the basement for housemates, which just “happened” to be right by where Renew Church would end up being, and where Providence would have us meet “Julie” who would forever change our lives.

“The 1601” has been nothing but blessing. It was such a gift from God.

Then, in March 2015, while Jeff was in Africa, I was praying each day and had a strong impression that perhaps God was going to move us out into the country. On the one hand, we were completely content where we were. We loved the 1601, loved how inexpensive it was, and loved being right downtown, at the hub of everything. On the other hand, we LOVE nature and love being out in the country. We’ve always wished we could raise our kids out in the country but never dreamed it would be financially feasible.

But this impression was distinct, and it wasn’t just about us. Sure, I love rural settings, but I kept having the impression that God was calling us to create a refuge for people. A haven. The word that kept coming to mind, over and over in prayer, was an ARK.

Like, Noah’s ark. I know: So weird. I wrote “ark?” at the top of my journal, and kept praying each day. The impression stayed. When Jeff got home from Africa I shared the strange impression:

“So, I think maybe we’re supposed to build (buy?) an … ark.”

He was appropriately perplexed, but we continued praying about it together.

Over the next 5-6 months, the Ark came up over and over and over. I found an old journal from 2012 where I’d written down a seemingly-random impression when I thought I heard God ask,

“If I told you to build an ark, would you do it?”

Then I started having dreams. No, not “dream-house” kind of dreams, like actual dreams, which I never have. I had two vivid dreams that were alarming and specific, and after waking I remembered every detail. Both had to do with the Ark.

So, we started looking, sort of. 

The strange part was, I didn’t really know what to look for. You can’t just email your realtor and say, “Hey, we’re looking for an ark; you seen any lately?” There is no search-criteria called “Ark-ish” on Redfin. This clearly wasn’t about my taste or personal preferences so I couldn’t just use that as a guide. Plus, I no longer had any house-dreams. We’d been there, done that. It’s not that I don’t care about how things look, it’s just that I don’t have a “dream house” bug left in me. I literally had no idea what to look for because I was no longer driven by these things.

All I knew was that we had a teeny tiny income, so I looked for a teeny tiny (read: run-down, barely-inhabitable) house.

We found a few, even made an offer on two, but didn’t get them. Plus, I kept being faced with the rather obvious observation that the Ark was … well, BIG.

So, I figured that since this was God’s idea, He would need to tell us what to pray for and what to look for. So we asked Him and He showed us seven things …

More to come! Thanks for reading!