the next step

So here it is! Our next step in our journey with God.
I hesitate a bit to write this out because there are a few of you who I would love to tell in person. But who knows when the next time we will have a moment...so here goes.
The Lord has laid the homeless, the poor, the needy and the brokenhearted on our hearts. He has made it very clear to us that He wants us to take His words and put action to them. We are to give our lives over to Him so He can use them for His glory. We are to be living vessels. This means we need to be available to Him, to be ready and willing to go where He is asking us to go. And so, after much prayer, thought, and excitement we have decided to sell our house, pay off all our school debt, rid ourselves of most possessions, buy a diesel RV, convert it to use veggie oil, and travel the States to minister to the poor as a family. Andy will be working at Woodburn H.S. for one more year as we prepare and get all the details in order, but will resign after this year.
At the moment we do not have any details figured out for our time traveling. We are taking it one step at a time and know that this is just part of relying on the Lord for everything. We do know that He will light our path and has done so thus far.
We would like to contact believing communities who are active in serving the needy community, in hopes of joining them, helping them, and letting them help us. Our point is not to go around and attract attention to ourselves, but to attract attention to Jesus. Our point is not to go around and get people off the street, but to show these people that there is Hope, and that they are important and loved. Loneliness, sadness, and hopelessness is spreading like wildfire across the US; God asks us to go, find, and love- not in the way we think of love, but by way of Him. God IS Love.
We feel this trip is a launching pad for our next chapter, which is mostly unknown- we have our own ideas and thoughts but will wait on the Lord for that.
I know this will be a journey to strengthen our faith and love for God. We do not think and dream about this trip as being all a fun adventure, if we wanted a vacation, we would go to Disneyland or Great America. We are prepared to be stretched, challenged, and maybe even put in situations where we just want to give up. We ask that you join us in prayer and intercession to lift our hands, like Moses, during hard and easy/fun times.
Our hopes are also that this will be an incredible teaching tool for our children, showing them what it truly means to love the Lord through action. There is only so much we can teach them with our mouth, the rest needs to be through example. I am so excited for them!
I could go on and on about this (and I have a little bit :)) Ultimately we are wanting to become more like Christ by stepping out of the boat.
Lots more to come...