An April Update

Having taken approximately 1000 pictures on Easter yesterday, I figured today was a good a time as ever to update the old blog with some recent pictures of our beautiful and hilarious little boys.

If you get our email updates (which you can by emailing benwhittinghill-at-gmail-dot-com) you know how the Lord has so clearly gone before us and is bringing people into our path to share the gospel with and disciple.  A core team is forming and we are beginning to gather every other Thursday night at our home.  We are using this time to clearly communicate the core values and vision of the church, with hopes of transitioning these gatherings to a Sunday morning church service sometime this summer.   

After praying for a general city for so long, it is amazing to start putting faces to the masses and getting to know some individuals that make up this hurting city.  And that’s really what it is…hurting, broken, and so lost.

I’ve had the opportunity to begin taking a few women through Kay Arthur’s “Lord Teach me to Study the Bible in 28 days.” That’s a super long title for a really concise and thorough book that is perfect for introducing Bible study  to someone who has never done it before.

One of the first passages the book has us examining is Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” And that is exactly what has been happening to this area.  These precious people do not know God, they don’t know His Word…and it is causing terrible destruction.  So many times I have thought to myself I am so rich. I am rich to have grown up in a godly home. I am rich to have come to know Jesus as a child.  I am rich to have been taught how to study the Bible at a young age. I am rich because I know Jesus.  I know what His Word says, and I have His Holy Spirit actively working in my life.  I am so humbled, because I know all of this is just pure grace.  And it is fueling my passion to share the timeless truth of God with the people He has surrounded us with. 

We have been so blessed by the support and encouragement we have received from so many people as we start on this journey.  We feel really lifted by your prayers and we know we are not in this alone.  So thank you. 

In our first month here, we had Ben’s mom visit one week, and my mom and brother, Micah, visit the next week.  We had a wonderful time with both of them, and it was so special to have our mom’s see our new world.  By far the hardest thing about being up here so far is being so far away from all our amazing people.   So having them visit was good for our hearts.

And now, here are a million pictures of our children.  They make us laugh all the time and I have so many moments when I look at them and think, what just happened? How am I already a mom of two kids?  Sometimes I feel like I should still be in college.  But then again I was 5 months pregnant when I graduated so it’s not like that was that long ago. 

Levi is a character.  He is processing and talking faster than we can keep up with. And really he is just hilarious.  He LOVES sports.  I do not love sports.  But I am learning to play “bakkyball” and “fooball” with him with great enthusiasm because it’s his absolute favorite thing.  He turned anything into a “bakkyball goad” (basketball goal). Sometimes it’s the top bunk of his bunkbeds, sometimes it’s Elijah’s crib, and last night it was the drying rack we hang clothes on. He also LOVES clothes.  Which, of course, I never saw coming because like all babies, he used to cry every time I dressed him.  And now the first thing he talks about it what shirt he is going to wear that day and which shoes.  And since we are potty training and having accidents still, he changes pants quite a few times some days, which is great fun for him because he just loves clothes.  And whenever I’m folding laundry he can hardly contain himself when he sees all his favorite shirts nice and clean – Stripes! Yellow fuffy shirt! I wear my Ju-Bullgog shirt??  The excitement is like that of being reunited with an old friend.

I have so many moments when his cuteness is just overwhelming and I literally tear up because I just think that one day I’ll be saying goodbye to him when he’s going to college and I’ll have all these flashbacks of him dancing around the kitchen floor in his most athletic way saying “play fooball with me, Mommy! Come play fooball with Levi!” and it’s like now I’m IN those moments that I know I’ll miss so I’m just trying to stop. Often. And soak it all in.  

And Elijah. Oh our precious sweet, Elijah.  The Lord knew I needed this smiley little sweet heart in my life.  He is such a gift and I am so thankful for the joy he brings our home! We can already tell that this little one is going to be our sensitive little teddy bear.  He lays his head down on our chest to snuggle.  He grips me tight when I am laying him down at night.  He smiles all the time and giggles when you tickle him.   He isn’t pulling up on things, he doesn’t have any teeth in sight, and I don’t mind at all.  He seems so much more like a baby than Levi did at this age, but maybe that’ s cause Levi was my first and when he hit 9 months old I felt like I almost had a full blown toddler on my hands.  Sweet E loves to bounce on all fours when you’re holding him on your lap, and he belly laughs when daddy plays peek-a-boo with him. He has started being really playful with Levi and it’s like they’re developing their own little understanding of each other.  I’ve been especially grateful lately for God’s sovereignty in giving me two boys right in a row.  They are such a gift to me, and such a gift to each other. 

I squealed a little bit when I saw what a perfect picture Ben captured of me and Levi on my birthday.
Never have I ever seen this much snow on my birthday before!

 

 Ben is the sweetest daddy, and is especially good about getting down on the floor with the boys and playing with them on their level.  I love watching him love on our boys!

For how rough-and-tumble Levi is, he has quite a little nurturing heart.  This is him pretending to feed "baby E-lijah," who just happens to be a rolled up blanket.  

We do "spring baskets" somewhere in the general vicinity of Easter Sunday, but not on the actual day.  This is how my family did it growing up and I like how it still allows us to bless the boys with some fun new things without being the main focus of Easter Sunday.  You can tell Elijah was quite pleased with his basket.

I think my plan of indoctrinating Levi with a love of books since the day we brought him home from the hospital is finally working. This guy genuinely loves to read. I'll come in his room at 6 am to nurse Elijah and find him quietly sitting on his bed reading a giant pile of books by the light of the window.  

 It's so nice to have children that love being posed for pictures and never try to sit on each other or crawl away. 

Shwew. We have a winner. 

 

I feel like Elijah is saying dude, don't you think this pose is a dead giveaway that we're trying to escape?  Levi - no way man, I look like a natural.

We were so blessed to have some dear friends from Atlanta, Rodney and Kaye Dill, in town for Easter Lunch. It was such a blessing to get to visit with them and be encouraged by them.  

That dimple and double chin is just too much to handle. 

BAM. He just found a Lindt ball. 

This might be one of my favorite pictures of all time. 

This one is really serious about his football moves.

One of the highlights of the day was FOOTBALL EASTER EGGS. Best 87 cents I've ever spent at Walmart. 

I'll conclude this extremely long post with a picture of Levi nurturing a large rock.  If you've read to the end of this post, YOU WIN!

Moving week!

Well, we are here!! These past few weeks have been kind of a blur of packing boxes, tears, goodbye's, surviving the Atlanta airport, unpacking, and boxes. A massive amount of boxes.  But we made it! And we are honestly doing a lot better than I thought we would be. The last few days in Atlanta were really, really, long. Emotionally, physically, and spiritually draining, and we were a little bit of a mess.  Now that we are over the major hump of moving everything and ourselves up here, we've been able to just slow down and process what actually just happened.
I look outside and see the snow falling, and see the tired faces of the people in town, and read in the Word about the fields being white for harvest, I just have this great sense of peace that this is right where I am supposed to be. 
And of course with that my busy little self starts to get antsy to get a church started! today! and the Lord presses on my heart that the work to be done is the Spirit's work and as we yield and wait, He will do the work of bringing people to life. So we wait, we watch, and we pray - and rest in the mighty power of the indwelling Holy Spirit!


Here are some pictures from the move!

 

  

We had lots of amazing people helping us on moving day.  I thought I had just a "few things" left to pack inside the house, and 8 hours later, we finished. That'll bless ya.  

And there you have it. Practically all we own in the back of a truck.

It was really emotional for me to saygoodbye to our old house in Acworth.  I got terribly sappy remembering all the "firsts" that happened there, all the moments rocking my boys in the nursery, all the incredible fellowship and laughter that happened in the kitchen.  But when we did a final "walkthrough" and Levi was happily chirping "goodbye, bathroom!" "goodbye, YiYi's (Levi) room!" "goodbye, kitch-den!" it reminded me that of course it's the people that make a house a home. And so I'm incredibly beyond-grateful for the 3 people I get to do life with, no matter where we live.

This guy couldn't have been more excited when he saw the BIG YELLOW FIRETRUCK in our driveway!  These pictures of him sitting in the truck are so special to me because they document how little he was when such a big event happened in his life. 

That face!! He just melts me.  And it also melts me when he is asking for something and he tells me, "Mommy, say 'sure YiYi!'"

 

Ben and a team of guys drove up on Monday and Tuesday, and unloaded Wednesday and Thursday.  I enjoye staying at my mom's house for a few days and spending some quality time with her.   

And then the boys and I and our trusty traveling buddy, Steph, flew up on Thursday.  We were doing great until we barely made it inside the airport and they wanted to charge me $100 for my bag being 16 pounds overweight and I was thinking never would I ever want to spend that much money on a stinking overweight bag.  I held my already nervous nerves together and asked if there was anyone who I could speak to about that.  I think it helped that Elijah was hanging on me sound asleep and Levi started screaming when I left a 3 foot radius around his stroller and I told them, here's the thing, we are moving across the country today and the trucks have already left and this is the last of all our stuff and it's just clothes and baby stuff and I can't leave it behind. So some really kind Airport ladies helped me stuff enough of our clothes into the cheapest bag we could find (which naturally was zebra print) and Steph took it on as her purse.  So that was eventful.  

Then we stood in the elevator for a few minutes and forgot to press the button, and when we got to our console we grabbed our last meal of Chick-fil-a for a loooong time.  And we didn't even sit down, we rushed back to our gate so we would be ready when it was time to board.  But as we stumbled up to the gate literally spilling fries and about to puncture our lemonade cups (because it's not that easy to pull suitcases and push strollers and wear babies AND paper bags full of lunch all at once) everyone was standing up and about to board the plane.  We worked our way through the crowd since obviously people with children get to load first, and by this point I was shimmying around with my roller-board hanging off my shoulder and people were totally giving us the oh dear are these clowns really on our flight? look. 

The movie on the ipad that was going to be my saving grace didn't work so I just fed Levi snack after snack and tried to keep him from striking up conversations with everyone around us by explaining to him that lots of times, people like to sleep on planes.  

 

Thankfully airplanes are like giant white noise machines, or the flight attendant would have heard Levi ask in his convincingly sweet little voice as he taps the tray in front of him, "hey little man, I have some pretzels? I have some pretzels, little man?" 

He was a wiggly 2 year old, as is expected, but overall, both boys were champs.  

 

We could not have done it without our awesome friend "Fuff" (as Levi calls her)! 

 

And both boys finally passed out as we were exiting the plane.   

If you're still reading this incredibly long post, you get a prize.
Here are some pictures from our first few days here!

This is our driveway. I have a feeling it's going to look gorgeous in every season.

And this is the view out of the living room.

Don't worry, I'll have another incredibly long post in a few weeks with pictures of the house and the story of how this adorable little farmhouse was an answer to prayer in so many ways.


If you get our monthly email update, we have included a lot more specific details of what has been going on this past week.  The Lord is alread bringing people into our path and opening doors of opportunity! If you would like to be added to the update list, send me a message with your email address or comment below, and we will add you :)

We are moving to Vermont.

I have been wanting to write this post for a while, but for many reasons it has rattled around in my head instead of making its way to paper. Until now...when our moving date is just 2 weeks away.

We are moving to Vermont. It's over 1,000 miles away, and it touches Canada.

This is something we have been praying about for over 3 years, so it's a crazy feeling that it is really happening.  

From the beginning of our dating relationship, Ben and I frequently found ourselves having these exciting conversations about going to the nations and being missionaries among the least reached peoples of the world.  We literally thought we would get married, and then sometime after that, move to a foreign country for the rest of our lives. China, India, somewhere in the 10-40 window.  

In our first year of marriage, Ben would sit at the computer and research countries of great need and we would ask ourselves, "Why don’t we just pick up and go right now? What is stopping us?"

But it was the Lord.  He had plans we couldn’t foresee and was in the process of directing our steps right to where He wanted us.

Our first Christmas season together in 2010, we spent a day with our dear friends, Ben and Tiffany Presten.  We chopped down Christmas trees together, talked about traditions we wanted to start with our children one day, and then the conversation took a major shift when they announced that they were moving to New England.
 We listened intently as they shared about the specific and unbelievably clear ways the Lord had directed their hearts to this area of the country that is largely unconnected from the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Over time the Lord filled in more details of His calling for them, down to the specific stae (Vermont) and specific town (Wilmington) that they were to go.  The Lord was calling them to go to the least-churched state in the country and start a church that would be a faithful gospel witness among people who most likely have never heard a true presentation of the gospel.

They asked us to pray for them, and pray about going with them.  And as we did, the Lord placed a burden for New England – and Vermont - on our hearts as well, and it became clear that our being a part of the work that God is doing there was not an “if” but a “when.” We prayed and prayed about going with them but felt like the Lord was saying “wait.”  Ben and Tiff moved in the beginning of 2012 to start Valley Town Church in Wilmington, Vermont.  The Holy Spirit is at work in that small town and it is amazing to watch the power of the gospel on display in such an undeniable way.

As we prayed about Vermont these past three years, asking the Lord how He would want us to be involved with what He is doing there, He placed the town of Brattleboro on our hearts and started directing our attention there.  Brattleboro is an artsy, lively little town on the border of Vermont and New Hampshire.  It is considered one of the larger cities in rural Vermont (12,000 people compared to the 2,500 people in Wilmington) and is filled with people who need to hear the good news.  The Lord has confirmed that He is leading us to start a new church in this town with the passion and purpose of being disciples who make disciples of Jesus.

Sometimes I jokingly talk about our family moving to Narnia, because of the extensively long winters and the massive amounts of snow that covers that whole part of the country.  But as I watched “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” for the first time in a while on Thanksgiving Day, I was brought to tears with the uncanny symbolism between Vermont and Narnia.  Vermont, and specifically Brattleboro, has been held hostage by the enemy for so long. Minds and hearts are frosted over by lies and unbelief.  Generations have come and gone under the curse of sin and children have been born there and grown up without ever entering the doors of the church or hearing the true gospel  - Jesus loves you, He died in your place, and He was raised so you can have new life in Him. 

But Aslan is on the move.  Jesus is at work in New England  - hearts are thawing out, and signs of spring, signs of revival, are showing.  We believe Jesus has announced that the enemy’s time is up and that He is beginning to do a new thing in that city, and we are excited to be joining Him in His work.  The heartbeat of this church is going to be dependance on the Spirit, living in and being devoted to prayer, and feasting on and ministering the Word of God. 


So please pray for us, friends.  The harvest is plentiful, and the laborers are few.  The Lord has confirmed in our hearts that Brattleboro belongs to Him, and there are many people in that city that He has appointed to eternal life.  We know the victory has been won, but that the enemy will not go down without a fight...so we deeply covet your prayers. 

If you are interested in staying up with date with this journey, leave your email address in the comments or send me an email, and we will add you to our monthly email updates. Thank you!