During the same time period that we were trying to compromise on the New Zealand topic, key word trying, we both felt like our time at our current church was coming to an end. We really loved our church and were both heavily involved in our respective ministries, so it wasn’t an easy decision. We knew we’d miss our church family, too. But in the midst of the unknown, we really needed some guidance and we didn’t feel like we were getting it there. So one night, Matt decided to lookup churches. The first one that popped up was BridgePoint Church in the Tyrone area. It looked cool, and we were coming from a smaller church so we thought it would be fun to experience a big one again. We decided that we’d visit BridgePoint first, then visit other churches in the weeks to come. Do a little bit of church hopping.
Sunday comes and we arrive at BridgePoint. It was pretty neat. We just so happened to be there during football team day, or whatever they called it. Everyone was dressed as their favorite team. Cool. They even had confetti during the service, which made me laugh. How silly these people were. But it was refreshing. And FUN. The message was fine. But right at the end, they announced that their next sermon, 20/20 Vision: God’s will for your life, would be starting the following Sunday. This sermon series was to uncover this question: What’s your 2019 going to look like to get you to where God wants you to be in 2020? Of course we had to go, this is exactly the message we were seeking out. We had NO clue what to do. Or where to start. This was our starting place.
The first sermon of the series quickly approached. I was so excited to go. I couldn’t wait to hear all that God had to say to us. And wow, did He show up! God was SO direct with us. That sermon was the one that made us decide, in unity, YES! We will go! Now, the timeline at that point was still shady. I was willing to go yesterday. Matt’s timeline had shrunk from 5-10 years down to 3 years. So, progress. Each Sunday that we attended, God told us very specific things about our calling to New Zealand and gave us extremely specific verses to hold onto. The verses didn’t just come from church, either. They came from friends’ posts on Instagram, the Verse of the Day on YouVersion, etc. The verse I’ve been clinging to the tightest is Isaiah 43:19. “Look at the new thing I am going to do. It is already happening. Don’t you see it? I will make a road in the desert and rivers in the dry land.” WOW. Just wow. I read that verse and started crying. He was going to make this all happen! Because I know that we sure couldn’t make it happen on our own. There’s no way. We had been in so much debt. We were living on the strictest budget and still couldn’t seem to get out of the red. We were having a hard time living as is, never mind trying to immigrate across the world. But we knew that God would make incredible things happen. (And he has!)
By the end of the sermon series, we were on the same page. We both knew we were moving to New Zealand. I felt like we would move in June. Matt felt like it would happen over the summer. Close enough. He arrived! I couldn’t make that happen on my own, folks. God did that.
Click for Part 4:
The Cullums Immigrate 
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