Always an Adventure

It seems there is always an adventure with our family, huh! Well, this one has to do with our current living situation.

When I was in college and God started changing my heart and life around, I started to get a big heart for Missions. I went on a retreat with my college roommate where I had gotten prayed for by some pastors. One of them said "you are called to be an evangelist". My first thought- Oh my goodness... I am going to be like that lady on TV with the huge purple hair. That is all I knew of an "evangelist". Then I went on my first mission trip to Costa Rica the following summer and that is where I heard God speak to me "this is what you will be doing the rest of your life."

That was a little overwhelming. All I knew of being a missionary was living on dirt floors, eating the cheapest food, or even some that was given to us by local people that barely had enough to survive on themselves, and traveling to remote areas of the world. The thought of that wasn't exactly what I was hoping for from God. I think it is amazing and God has called certain people to live a life like that to spread the Gospel, but it wasn't exactly for me (as far as I know). So I was happy when I felt God call me to the college campus as a missionary. Looks way different than what I thought being in missions would!

So when my husband and I signed up for campus ministry we had to raise our funds through financial partners to keep us in ministry full time. Thankfully we have amazing parents that let us crash at their houses when out on the road raising funds. That brings me to the latest adventure.

We are currently at my parents house near Tampa Bay. They had moved to a new (OLD) house while I was in college, a fixer- upper, so to say. This house needed (and needs) a lot of work! It's an awesome location, and right on a beautiful lake. BUT until the house gets fixer-ed up... it's definitely a mission field!

Being here with a 2.5 yr old and .5 yr old, has added a new dimension to that as well! Here is a look at what we arrived to this past week (as my parents were out of town and the house currently under construction):

NO AC! Alligators sunbathing on the backyard lawn (up to 16 ft. long, no exaggerating). Lake Flies like the Plague. NO POWER on half the house. BATS in the attic (recently moved to an outside bat house). A Blanket for a wall (to the outside- where the alligators and bugs are). Ply wood as doors. Only one usable bedroom for 5 adults and 2 kids. Wasps on the front door, and back windows. Spiders everywhere. Lizards everywhere. Construction Dust on everything. Humidity like no where else. Snakes randomly outside. Roaches randomly FLYING by. And the newest addition: RATS!

Ok... it sounds a LOT worse than it seems (to me anyway, my hubby may disagree). I promise, once this house gets done getting re-modeled it will be awesome. But in the mean time- it is my missionary life. This is God's way of showing me right now- don't get to comfortable! Goodnews: since we arrived, we have power and AC now. And we haven't seen the rats since the 2nd day. So it's slowly improving... right?! :)

I can't complain, just wanted to share the adventure. We have it good still, here in America!