We are signed up for the ARC Assessment in less than three weeks… this is the place where you sell your vision for your city and for your church, but we no longer had any idea where we were going to plant Awaken Church.

So Brian flies to St. Petersburg, Florida, to find the spot. I was at home doing all of the normal mommy duties throughout the day, anxiously anticipating exciting news on the other end of the line. Every phone call was about the same – discouragement. Nothing felt like home; nothing felt right.

The night before he was flying out the next afternoon, I tossed and turned for four hours and could not sleep. I felt so prompted to look up the city we had heard tossed out by the Hankeys at lunch that day in Minnesota. On the map, there is not much to see, but as I started scrolling through the city-data and the demographics, this city had me extremely intrigued. Convincing Brian to drive almost an hour-and-a-half from St. Petersburg to visit this little dot on the map would be no easy task. I stayed up until I was greeted by the sun emailing Brian every possible fact I could find about this North Port, Florida, area… he called me a few hours later and said he was on his way to North Port.

And now we know that is the best decision he could have possibly made…

The voice had changed on the phone, the excitement had returned, the dream engine was working on overtime. I had never seen this place called North Port, but I knew that this was the destination that God had intended all along.

And then we had Hurricane Irene. We had already overcome so many hurdles… Now we had a location, we had finished all of the required paperwork and questionnaires needed by the ARC team in order to attend the 3.0 Assessment, and Brian’s parents get in town from Florida to keep Selina and Wyatt. My mom and sister were coming over to Atlanta to keep Lacie for us. Overnight, we lose our power and the expected time for the power to return was five to seven days. We have well water, so no flushing toilets and no running water… and it is August. Brian and I begin to question once again, how can we leave Brian’s parents in this state with our two children? How could this be God’s plan? Immediately upon realizing our questions, Dad Z put his foot down that our going was not optional. We needed to get our bags and head to the airport. And so we did…

We were full of anticipation… we had no idea what was in store for us. The next three days would shape us for all time!

Jacqueline