All Moved In

Andrea's 31st birthday present was waking up in our new house with a pancake breakfast on our terrace overlooking the city! Yet even before that, we had already been getting decent use out of the house, as the space it now provided allowed us to be hosts for a handful of events.

The evening prior to our first night at the house was also significant, as we received roughly 30 visitors to the house for an evening of open Discipleship Training School classes. YWAM Mazatlán Campus Durango routinely schedules one DTS class to be held in the evening so that they can extend invitations to local friends and churches to audit the class, fostering both community connection with local believers as well as the opportunity to learn and grow together in a classroom setting. We welcomed DTS students from around the world, the DTS teacher for that week, and numerous local friends for a great class on the Holy Spirit. A few days after that, we hosted a visiting team of ten students from YWAM Kona for two nights, as the base was at capacity and couldn't house them.

And earlier in February, we also made use of our larger living area to host a super bowl party! Several friends and players from the team I coach joined us in a gathering that also totaled nearly 30 people as we collectively mourned the Eagle's inability to successfully adjust coverage responsibilities against jet-motions.

And although we officially began living at the house at the end of February, our moving process was slow and gradual, taking place over several days prior to our first overnight stay, and continued during the two weeks remaining on our apartment lease. Then, on March 13th, we said our official goodbye to our little ground-floor studio apartment where we spent the first seven-and-a-half years of our married lives, and where I lived an additional two-and-a-half years prior to getting married. It was a bittersweet evening as we surveyed the shell of the apartment, now void of the decorations and belongings that made it ours as we reminisced on the many memories made there. Our landlady shared our mixed feelings, as she too was excited for our new house while also saddened by our departure. Despite our move being a significant upgrade, I realized that even good transitions can sometimes produce grief, as there is still a loss that occurs. Yet we look forward with excitement at what God has given us both in the house and those with whom we will share it, while also looking back with gratitude for everything He did in the decade prior.

(If you're reeeaalllyyy curious, I put together a 'brief' (8ish minutes) walkthrough of the house. You can watch it here.)

Birthday Breakfast

DTS open class

Super Bowl Party

Goodbye Apartment