Joy in the Journey:

This is the story of my journey to Emmaus that has taken 22 years from the Lord’s vision to the fulfillment of a dream.  The Lord doesn’t work in our timing or according to our schedule but he is faithful and patient with us as we endeavor to follow his lead.
Twenty-two years ago I was in St. Paul, Minnesota living in covenant community praying about my future and what the Lord might have in store for me.  The Lord placed on my heart a desire to be involved in formation and making disciples and the Lord told me I would be involved in a retreat center in Mississippi.  I was somewhat excited and fearful but this vision continued to grow in me until I knew I had to act on this vision.
So January 7th, 1989, I left St. Paul, MN, and moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi with two suitcases and eleven hundred dollars to my name.  God provided me with a new family and new friends as I continued the journey of a lifetime.  Now, like many of life’s journeys, we never know where it will end up or how long this journey may take.
In my mind I thought maybe five to ten years, but God had other ideas.  God established me in Vicksburg with a career in law enforcement and a marriage to my wife, Kristy.   I continued to pray and ask God if he was ever going to fulfill this vision he had given me years earlier.  The Lord seemed silent on the subject and I started to wonder if it was really ever going to happen.  It all seemed so impossible at the time but God is a fulfiller of the impossible.
I continued to journey along life’s sometime rugged road seeking God in various ways as I continued to grow in maturity and responsibility in God’s Kingdom.   Until four years ago, the Lord put Brandon Spain and myself together through the Vineyard.  After a short time Brandon and I would come together in prayer asking God what he wanted and seeking His guidance.  For a year, Brandon and I prayed together in the mornings meanwhile, Brandon and Sandy and Kristy and I would get together and talk about what we felt the Lord was doing in our lives.
The main focus was a retreat center, but where, when and how?  It still looked like this may be ten years out but God again had other plans.  God started laying it on our hearts that NOW was the time.  We were all excited and somewhat afraid all at the same time.  This was a big leap of faith for us all.  It’s a time when you have to trust God and believe you heard him and follow with all your heart.
The Lord was gracious to us by giving us confirmations from friends like Gary Garner, who had a vision of “No Mistake Plantation” describing it to me and telling me what to look for as we searched for a physical place.  God even gave our babysitter a dream about the place, and she described it to my wife, Kristy.  God led Sandy on the Internet to find our retreat center one day, and we all traveled to “No Mistake Plantation” that following Saturday.

As soon as we entered the gates, we knew that this was the place and I rejoiced in God’s faithfulness.  We were in the honeymoon period of this venture.  Now this is not the end of the story.  Really this is only the beginning because as you know we have God’s Kingdom but we have an enemy also and he seems to work overtime.
A time of adversity, Things were moving along quite fast as we purchased the property and started working on the physical building and planning to build others.  I won’t bore you with all the details other than to say that with any vision you need support and prayer because the enemy will attack.  You learn to press into the Lord or you will fall.  I think we all had days we didn’t know which end was up and where to go.
The Lord gave us a scripture “Unless the Lord build the house those who labor, labor in vain”.  Yes, at times we allowed him to build the house but I have to admit there were times we did labor in vain.  But we have learned much from this and we have the scars to prove it.
So now it’s been two years since we started this venture with the Lord with its joys and sorrows, which is all a part of life, isn’t it?  I would like to say we are done struggling but that would be a lie, but I do know that God has led us here, that he is faithful to fulfill what he has begun in each of us.  The joy is in the journey not just getting somewhere.  It’s with the people we travel with.  It’s sharing our lives together and sharing what God has done in us and through us.  We are the ones that are important to Him, not just a vision or a building. Its putting our lives in his hand and saying to Him I want to journey with you.  That is where we find real joy in Christ and being like him to each other.
So whatever vision, dream, God has given you, hang on to it and trust that God will fulfill what he has spoken.  But most of all continue to hang on to Him in whom we have an eternal journey.   My friends, be blessed and I pray that God’s life and will for you will be fulfilled

A fellow traveler:  Joseph