I have always known and have always spoken out of my own mouth that God’s timing is always perfect and always on time. However, living out the faith that is required to trust this one sentence is quite a journey. As we have gone through this three-and-a-half-year process, there have been so many times when I have asked God to speed things up. There have even been times that I have cried to God… why have You brought us this far for it not to work out? The list of obstacles, barriers to overcome, and walls to climb have at many times felt not only hard but just plain impossible.

But with God…

When I find myself most overwhelmed, I will write out the impossible checklist. I simply say to God something that goes like this… Okay, well these are the things that I don’t see any possible solution for, I have no resource with which to make this happen, and my efforts have been futile so far… so I TRUST YOU and I TRUST YOUR TIMING.

He has more than shown up every time I have cried that prayer. I look back at the list of the impossible and now see all of those things not only happening but happening way above and beyond what I could have ever asked or imagined.

It almost seemed like all of the pieces to the puzzle came together, and God revealed how He was working out his massive plan when we went to North Port as a couple for the first time.

It truly felt like it took an eternity to see a North Port exit sign. We left Maryland on Tuesday afternoon at 1:00 PM; exactly 48 hours later we drove into the city limits at 1:00 PM on Thursday afternoon. North Port was everything that I had seen in my heart and spirit, and so much more. I will never forget when I was crossing the Charlotte Harbor bridge that connects Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda, I was overwhelmed and almost wrecked the car right into the bridge. In that moment, I felt the greatness of God, the smallness of me, and the magnitude of the fact that God would choose us!

I do not think that I could ever truly explain how I felt driving the streets of North Port and encountering the people that I met there. Every house that we passed I felt this boldness come over me… we, Awaken Church, are going to introduce this city to an amazing God and how life can look when you are living in and with a community of faith.

Everyone in North Port has a story. There is hardly anyone who is from North Port.They have moved there looking for a better life for their families, a place of community. I saw the hunger for something more in so many of the people that we met there — many telling us that they would come the day we opened our doors. The day I met with the City Planner of North Port to let him know about Awaken, he leaned his chair back and started clapping. “North Port has been waiting for you, and you and your husband’s stage of life will be who will be most effective at reaching this city.” It was in this moment that I realized that God’s timing truly was perfect. This city that had just exploded with young families in the past ten years — now the infrastructure and leadership was finally catching up.

God had been setting up the city to be ready for Awaken; He had been preparing the hearts and lives of those who would be coming with us to plant Awaken; He had been preparing our sponsor church; He had moved family (Lee and Sheila) into the area to be the greatest cheerleaders we could ever have hoped for; He had been preparing our family personally; He had been preparing Crosswind to be able to send us out strong; He had been preparing the hearts of our friends and family around the country… He had always been working on our behalf and behind the scenes over time, even when we could not see!

Jacqueline