Memorial Box Monday: The Phone Call

This post is part of Memorial Box Monday which Linny started over at A Place Called Simplicity. Stop over to http://www.aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/ and read other stories of God's faithfulness in the lives of others as they share their memories. You can join us and link up too!

In 1976 my husband entered the seminary after serving in the Air Force for 8 years. We moved our family of 6 to St. Paul MN so he could go to school. After two years of study it was time for his Internship. With our large family there were few places outside of the Twin Cities that could accommodate us, thus only three were offered. A church in northern MN., a church in my hometown of SE Minnesota and a parish out in north central Montana. It would have been so easy to stay in our home in St. Paul, and it would have been easy to go back home to family and friends, or even stay in Minnesota but we wanted to do what God felt was best for us, and felt drawn to Montana. With prayer and much discussion we did end up going to Malta, Montana for Joel's internship.

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Getting there was a bit of a challenge, as we owned our home, and even though the attic of this old house was literally infested with over 200 bats, my husband did not want to sell it. His feet were in cement and at first he was unwilling to discuss it mostly because he was worried about where we would live when we returned for his final year at the seminary. I felt strongly that God would provide, and besides that I was ready to leave that house and the bats behind, so we were definitely at odds with what to do. After much prayer and then a few good talks, we came to the conclusion that God wanted us to sell the house. Just a short time later it sold ~ even with us telling the buyer about the bats. We packed up our U-Haul, 4 kids, 2 cats, and 9 plants, and began our Montana adventure. I drove our little hornet station wagon with 3 of the kids, the cats, and plants in tow, and Joel drove the truck with our oldest son as a passenger.

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Stepping out in faith and moving to Montana for a year was a great decision for us. We met wonderful people, learned a great deal from the Pastor and his wife, and had a fantastic year!

Oh, and the house we needed on our return? Well, about 1 month before we were to return, with my hubby beginning to worry about where we would live......we received a phone call from a seminary student who owned his own home and was going on internship just as we were returning. Someone at the seminary had told him about us, and he and his wife wondered if we wanted to live in their home the year they were gone~! And besides that...if we paid the mortgage, then when they sold the house we would get that year's portion!

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Isn't God amazing. We trusted His guidance, and a shower of blessings came into our lives! Our memories of that year still warm our hearts 32 years later! I think I will need to put a picture of the home provided for us into my Memorial Box as a reminder of God's faithfulness!