Faith That Moves (to the) Mountains

We are called to be a people of faith. It’s that simple. Hebrews tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Think about that for a minute- impossible to please God without faith! Jesus told His disciples that they only needed faith the size of a mustard seed in order to say to the mountain, “move from here to there” and it would move (Matthew 17:20). How incredible that our salvation hinges upon a little thing called faith and that our daily Christian life is supposed to be saturated with it. 

What has God called you to lay down before Him in faith? Your job? Your health? Your family? Whatever it is, Christian, I pray that you would be encouraged to leave it at the cross and be reminded that He is with you and He is worthy of your faith in Him. The writer of Hebrews continues in Hebrews 11:6 that “he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Whatever you’re carrying, bring it with you into the throne room and leave it there as you seek Him- you’ll find that you won’t need to pick it back up and that your hands will be too full of blessings to hold your worries anyway.

My husband and I were called to exercise our faith in a very practical way this year; we welcomed our son into the world and were thrust upon God’s grace in a whole new way but an added element that stretched our faith, that you may not be aware of yet, was deciding to move up to Truckee, California in order for Isaac to assist pastor Gary Barrow in the ministries of Calvary Chapel Truckee. 

Yep. We’re moving. 

In

20

days.

You may be thinking, like I was, WHAT?! You just had your son and you’re surrounded by your family here! I know. You don’t know anyone up there except for Gary and his wife! I know. It’s just as expensive to live there (if not more) as it is to live here! I know. They can’t even pay Isaac! I know. 

And more importantly, GOD KNOWS. I don’t know exactly what God has in store but I do know that He has called us to move there in faith, believing that He can provide for our every need and that He will do mountain moving things in our life and ministry. You know the best part? He’s been proving it already. 

Before Isaac and I got married I felt the Lord impress upon my heart that He was preparing him to be a youth pastor, if not as Saving Grace then somewhere. A few weeks before we got engaged, Gary asked Isaac to come to Truckee as his youth pastor. Bingo! Nailed it! But no. Isaac declined the offer without a moment’s consideration and we both prayed and knew that we were called to Saving Grace for the foreseeable future. Fast forward a year, a wedding, and a bun in the oven and what do you know but my husband, who has always lived in the same city and always wanted to live in the same city, unless God called him to the mission field (which we always thought would be abroad), tells me that he’s praying about that offer to assist Gary in Truckee. Cue the abrupt stop to the music in my head. In that moment I saw the dreams of seeing my son grow up surrounded by his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and our friends shatter into a sad mess of broken hopes and unmet expectations. But in the following moment (okay, maybe it took two sad moments of self-pity) I said, “Okay, God.”

“Okay, God. If this is you then I’m all in.”

And so we prayed. We prayed together, we prayed apart, we sought God’s face, we checked our hearts, we sought counsel, we waited, we prayed more, and we came to a place where we knew that God wasn’t going to give us an explicit yes or no. We knew that we are called to walk in faith and we had seen enough to warrant a step out in faith. A step that landed upon solid ground.

In case you’re not aware, Truckee is a little resort town on the north end of Lake Tahoe where approximately 17,100 people reside in a blissful mountain escape surrounded by trees, lakes, rivers, and a quaint little downtown that has remained much the same since the town’s incorporation in 1868. Truckee is not a middle of nowhere hillbilly-ville, despite the first impression you may have had. Truckee is saturated with multi-million dollar homes and lost, wealthy people. In fact, if you google it, you’ll learn that the population was 16,474 people as of 2019, but in the last two years they’ve had an influx of Bay Area residents searching for a peaceful mountain oasis in which to work from home in the midst of the COVID craziness. Why do I bring this up? Well, for two reasons, both of which point to the beautiful wisdom, power, and purpose of Almighty God. First, it has driven up the housing market by astronomical levels and rendered Truckee a town where the likes of my husband and myself CANNOT afford to live. Second, it has brought a fresh group of hungry, lost, searching souls to the “hunting ground” of Calvary Chapel Truckee.

The Truckee River which flows through Downtown Truckee

Why do I talk about not being able to afford it like it’s a good thing? BECAUSE GOD HAS PROVIDED! That’s right, folks, He’s done it again! When we first began to pray about moving to help Gary and Tina we just assumed that we would live in Reno, NV which is about 30 minutes away and half the price but as we continued to pray we really desired to live in Truckee to be surrounded by the people we’re moving to minister to. It seemed an impossible ask given the inflated housing market due to the increased demand and very low supply, especially of low-income type housing. But doesn’t our God delight in turning impossible into possible? We were getting close to the wire and still had no leads on a home in Truckee when on September 1st we heard news that a little one bedroom cabin on the west end of Donner Lake had become available at a price we could afford! God’s work was so superb! It actually brings tears to my eyes to recount it to you now. The cabin is owned by Christians who used to attend CC Truckee and they never have vacancies, yet, just 30 days before we were moving whether we had a place or not, they received a 30 day notice from their tenant. Through pastor Gary we were able to apply and God provided exactly enough income through my remote position with SGWM and through Isaac’s new job up there (remember how the church can’t pay him? He is going to work full-time as a delivery driver for Consolidated Electrical Distributors and volunteer full-time for the church as well) for us to be able to qualify. On September 3rd we sent our signed lease and deposit and we move in on October 1st! 

This is what God does when we come to Him with our mustard seed faith! He moves mountains (and He might just move you to the mountains)! We surrendered our hopes, our dreams, and our plans and left our hands open to what God wanted to fill them with and fill them He has. 

We are so blessed to be able to continue stepping out upon the solid ground of God’s faithfulness and ask that you’d please pray for us. Please pray for the youth and young adults ministries that Isaac will be leading and pray that God would bring many to salvation as we witness to and in the community. Pray for our marriage to grow stronger and for our son to know what it is to live a life surrendered to Christ. Pray for our hearts and the hearts of our loved ones as we move away from the comfort of home. Pray that God would help us build community with the people of Truckee and that He’d bless our move on the 1st. Pray for our vehicles to withstand the hard winters there and for safety on the icy roads as we both learn to drive in snow.

There’s so much more I could say but I’ve already said much. I will leave you now with an invitation to hear more on September 26th. Please come to our dessert gathering at Calvary Chapel Saving Grace where we will share more about the work we will be doing in Truckee and how you can be involved. It starts at 6:30 pm and you don’t want to be late! Dessert will go fast and we’re expecting a large crowd but we’d love to see you before we go. Your presence there and your prayers mean so much to us. 

With love,

Hope