Personal Stories Part 5

As Rochelle and I worked in Lynden to raise money to go to Seattle, it took us a while to see that we were actually called to Bellingham, WA instead. While in Lynden, God provided a nice little apartment on the Homestead Golf Course that we never expected. We worked as worship leaders at Sonlight Community church in Lynden and I did homeschool teaching with a wonderful local family, while Rochelle did babysitting as a second job. The Single Adult Ministry at Sonlight came to a close because we couldn’t get enough folks to come alongside folks, though there were some who did an amazing job of it. But it was beautiful to see folks coming from downtown Bellingham and coming to know the LORD in a church in the ritzier part of Lynden, simply because we loved them in Jesus’ Name. When this ministry closed it seemed that it was time for us to start our ministry in Seattle. We agreed to sign on an apartment there, but on the way the wood paneled station wagon mysteriously starting breaking down as we moved closer to Seattle. We turned the vehicle around and suddenly it stopped shaking and breaking down just as we brought it into Bellingham on our way back north to Lynden.

Our friends started to ask us whether we were called to Bellingham, but we still felt like it was too easy to go there. Surely God would call us to the gritty parts of Seattle where we would suffer for Him! Hmm… Then God called me one night to look for someone from the Sonlight ministry that had run away and I found myself outside of a beloved coffeehouse named Stuart’s in downtown Bellingham. I met a man there who was a believer but was struggling with the Trinity and as I explained that Jesus was the Word in human form he received revelation from God and thanked me, sharing his own testimony. And as I looked around at the folks there a supernatural level of love filled my heart for all of them. I didn’t find that stray person I was looking for, but when I came home to Rochelle I was shaken. I explained to her that I believed we were called to downtown Bellingham. God gave Rochelle and I a vision of a little house there and children, and she started to cry, finding it hard to believe that God would give us those things.

But it became clear to us that God was calling us to Bellingham as our “promised land”. So we moved to an apartment there owned by a friend. We had become disillusioned with the institutional church, so we decided to start a house church and invite friends just to join us and see what would happen. Some of them came to live with us in a communal way. My anxiety returned and we had a lot of struggles personally It was as if the devil was chewing us up. Our friends all fell away from the faith and left the house eventually. We realized that we needed some kind of authority beyond ourselves and so returned to the church, seeing the need for elders, instead of trying to see who the smartest person in the room was, which never worked anyway.

The Christian Reformed Church in Bellingham received us with joy and patience as we worked through what it meant to submit to leadership. There were things we didn’t agree with, but we submitted ourselves anyway and it made all the difference. Some beautiful friends who we will never forget joined with us and we started doing street ministry. And it was then that we put forward the idea of a coffeehouse in downtown Bellingham to the local churches. This idea took off and soon the LORD put $80,000 into our laps and a crew full of people who were ready to help start it! It was then also that I had an encounter with Christ by which my generalized anxiety was completely healed. I also started to take medication that took the edge off so that I didn’t have panic attacks anymore. (I still had panic attack disorder, but with medication it was a non-issue- thank God for medication!)

Amazing folks came with us on the journey, and I feel like the writer of the book of Hebrews because I don’t have time to talk about Dan and Abby, Alan, Kristin, Brooke, Amy, Linda, Bernie and Mary, Matthew, Kevin and so many others; a Board of Directors who seemed to come from heaven itself, volunteers a plenty who all became friends, then literally thousands of people who came through, hundreds of which also became friends with us so that I couldn’t possibly name them all.

I was ordained as an Evangelist in the Christian Reformed Church (picture at the ordination service with my Dad above) and our ministry had begun! Next time I’ll write a little bit about the coffeehouse as I remember it…