Where it all Begins
Ember Acres is the result of a call that God placed on our lives years ago.
When Daniel and I met, it seemed like an odd pairing: a purple-haired freshman in art school and a strait-laced Coast Guard member with a background in world religion, wildlife management, and leading worship. While we knew from the start that this relationship was something special, we could have never imagined the depth of love that God had shown by bringing us together.
As the military tends to do, Daniel was called to tech school and I was continuing to study in Portland. After his tech school, he was stationed in Southwest Harbor, Maine - about 3 hours north of where I was attending college. Our long distance relationship continued to grow and weekend visits became the norm for a while. While visiting one weekend, we woke up to realize it was Easter Sunday. Daniel was still new to the area and hadn’t found a church to call home yet, so we googled churches in the area and gave one a shot. What we didn’t realize was that quick-google-search-church would be instrumental in both our walk with Jesus and our call to ministry.
That first Sunday visiting, I immediately knew we had found a home. While I would continue to attend church sporadically while in college, Daniel began to attend regularly and eventually got plugged into the worship team there. We had found a church family that challenged us to grow - both as people and as sons and daughters of our Father.
Although we knew there was a potential military transfer in the future, we continued to settle down and dive into our community, getting further involved in our church and building relationships that would carry through any hardship or distance. As weeks turned into months and months turned into years, Daniel’s military contract loomed over us. We felt such a sense of community where we were, but as a young married couple, we were still figuring out if we were ready to pack up, commit to another 4 years of military lifestyle, and say goodbye to the family we had made. The alternative was less than exciting as well - Daniel had 1 more year of his contract left and was due for a transfer. The thought of packing up and moving somewhere completely new for a single year, only to be faced with unemployment at the end of it, was not a reality we wanted to face.
As we sought God for guidance, one thing continued to be clear: we were to stay. There was no grand revelation of what God was calling us to do here, there was no world-changing career opportunity for Daniel after his contract ended, and we were still facing the possibility of having to move somewhere new for a year to finish his contract. We were unsure of the path ahead of us, but we knew God had a bigger vision.
Stay tuned for the next part of our journey - told by Daniel - to see how God continued to show up and show off in our lives when we made the decision to follow His call!
