We picked up our new home last week. It's a 41' Motorhome we picked up in Florida. We drove it back to Brandon this weekend, a trip of around 700 miles. We towed our car on a tow dolly behind it. I know this is nothing unusual for many people but I will be honest and say it was scary and stressful. The tow dolly has surge brakes that prevent you
from backing up while towing necessitating a great deal of planning before going into any parking lot, gas station, etc. I was exhausted after just a hundred miles or so. Marie took over and you would have thought she was on a morning commute to Starbucks... no stress. She seemed as comfortable as she was in our family car. (Marie has a CDL and drove a school bus for several years, so there's that...)
So, guess who drove the rest of the way to Brandon?
We have set up temporarily in the church parking lot at Vineyard Jackson where we served as Pastors until this past December. One of the challenges we have is simply where to park a vehicle that is 41 feet long (over 60' with the tow vehicle)
Everyone keeps asking what it's like to live in a motorhome. We can only speak to a bit over a week of experience but so far we are really enjoying the space. This home has a bath and a half configuration which is really wonderful. I have my bath and she has hers. This allows us plenty of space to dress and get ready in the mornings. The bedroom is extremely comfortable and there is a great deal of living space towards the front of the coach.
The biggest challenge is not living space but storage space. We have just begun going through things we put in storage when we sold our home. We thinned down what we kept to just what we thought we would need in a motorhome so we've already thought hard about the things in storage. Now, reality has set in, and we must thin down even more... so the decision-making about what goes with us and what goes away is going to be interesting.
I was asked by a friend this week how we could afford such a coach while asking for support. Most of our early supporters were people who've walked with us through this whole process and they are aware that we sold everything we had to move into this new ministry adventure, but more recent supporters don't know the story.
When God stirred us to begin Metron MInistries we resigned from our pastorate. We sold our home and have taken the equity and purchased our motor home so that we can be completely mobile and ready to go where we are needed. We simply sold our home to buy a home. No 'support' money was involved. We have no income source, however, other than you and the occasional offering. We are inviting people to partner with us to help cover our basic needs in order for us to serve and equip churches and leaders and to continue to do missions.
We have begun to get a few events on the calendar. We will be ministering at the Inverness Vineyard in Birmingham on the weekend of February 27th and are actively working with a few other churches to establish dates for later this year. We will be in Denver with Leif Hetland in early April and will be in Medellin, Colombia for a Vineyard Partnership conference in mid-April.