The Journey Begins!!

As most of you know we are Moving to Montana.. I am changing the direction of the blog and making it more of our Journey Blog, to keep our friends updated on all the stuff we will be doing.. It could be either I (laurie) or Chriss posting on here, but we are wanting to keep up with the blog to keep people posted on all our hereabouts. Below I am posting a copy of our Story letter. Some of you got it in the mail recently but some have not.  If you would like to be on our mailing list just let us know and we will get you on their, but you will also get updates if you check out our blog every so often, I will post the blog to faceblog when i post updates. Happy reading and thanks for all your support, and prayers.


Dear Friends and Family,

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus - Phil.4:7

We would like to take this opportunity to share with all of you how God has been changing our thoughts and desires in a completely different direction then what we were planning just a short time ago.

As most of you know we have had our house on and off the market for most of the past two yrs. Well we finally sold it to a very dear couple that wanted to buy it for an investment/rental. Finally “our” plan was coming together. We were on the hunt of finding that perfect house that we had always been dreaming about, which was 5 to 10 acres in the country so that we could have a few animals to teach our kids some of the responsibilities we grew up with.

Well God definitely had other plans. On April 15^th our pastor was preaching on “Living a Legacy”. During the sermon I felt what I thought was the Spirit say, “Chriss before you make a decision to purchase a house, I want you to go spend a week with Sika and Rita in Montana”, which are missionaries from our church serving with YWAM Tribal Waves. Of course when I heard it I was doubting that it was just my thoughts.

During that same sermon I Laurie, heard what I thought was the Spirit tell me that we should go to Montana for one week to visit our Missionary friends. I shrugged it off because we were not going to take any trips this year because of buying a house, but it was so strong that I decided to write it on my bulletin so that I could pray about it. Not more then a couple minutes later Chriss looked over and read what I had written down and whispers to me that “We need to talk”! WOW!

We couldn’t deny that God had definitely spoken to both of us. A month later we went out and spent a week just seeking and praying that our hearts would be open to what God may have planned for us. By the time we came back God had changed “our” desires and started filling our hearts with “His” desires. We knew that we were being called to missions, just not sure where.

We never really talked much about DTS (discipleship training school) while we were out there, but it suddenly became important to us. We started doing some research, seeking council and talking to more people about it. The desire kept getting stronger and the doors seemed to continue to open. With all the confirmation points that we have been shown along the way, we believe this is the next step God is wanting us to take.

So with all that said, we are planning on going to Montana for DTS starting March 4^th 2013. We would Love to have your prayers as we take this step of faith with our family.

Thanks and Blessings to All:

Chriss, Laurie, Gracie, Kaitlyn, Keri, & Lexi Stutzman