Discovering Hope Through Faith

1 Peter 1:6-7 says: In All this you greatly rejoice, through now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than goldm which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Man.. That speaks directly to J and I. I mean in the past month and a half A LOT has gone on. Here are some key points.

• Daycare didn't go as planned. We find out that we have to pay for part of J's school out of pocket and we are living pay check to pay check.
• Exhausted all of our option at that point and gave our notice on June 1st. We didn't know what we were going to do but we just know that God was telling us that we had to move out. M absolutely hated this. I was so emotional through the whole thing. It was my first place on my own and with my husband. We both just felt like failures dispite the fact that God was leading us down this road.
• by June 15th we have moved into M's parents camper for undetermined amount of time. None of us knew how it was going to be or work. We all knew that God was pointing us in that direction to be able to save money for J's school bill.
• July 10th money that was coming in STOPPED... SKREECHHH.... We both at this point felt COMPLETELY down. We didn't know what to do. We both became debbie downers. FOR A MINUTE. :  ) Litte did we know God was still at work just as he had been and M received a phone call literally not even 30 minutes after we had found this out. A friend that is in our small group called and asked if M would be interested in a subbing house manager position at a non-profit organization that houses homeless pregnant. God is so good.
• I was here for about 2 weeks before the Overnight manager gave her notice. Well sorta.. We knew that she would be done at the end of August well needless to say it got bumped up by a month, and the 26th (today) is her last day. J and I prayed because the house didn't know how everything was going to work because they weren't prepared for it, all they knew was that they wanted a young married couple. After praying we both felt that God was calling us to be the overnight manager's at the house, I talked to the Lead House Manager and the Executive Director about it. They thought about it. We interviewed for the position on the 20th and found out on Monday that we got it and we move in on the 29th. EKKKKKKK...

We are so excited about what God is doing for us and through us. He has sent us here to be a missionary in our own back yard. You think that you know things until you are in the environment and hear stories for you to really realize how bad not just homelessness but pregnant homelessness. But while it has been exciting it has also been WIERD. God put me hear to answer the house's prayers and they were put in my life to answer my prayers. I also think that this has been so weird because I feel like I am FINALLY at the age that I can see and understand that GOD is WORKING in MY life. Its so great to be a woman of God and FINALLY see and understand. Not that he hasn't worked in my life before because he has and I know it, but to finally realize that I had no part in this working out.

I hope that you will join us on this wonderful journey that we are about to embark on. We also that you be in prayer for not only us but the other staff members and the residents of the house. The prayers of these moms and their child(ren) are so greatly needed.

From Our Heart To Yours,

The Rigdons