Growing

How much can happen in a few months? 18 weeks? 128 days? Since our last “official” update in September, we have gone through changes as a church and a family. Our family has grown up, with Malachi halfway through his year of Kindergarten, Noelle making it through a week-long hospital stay,* and Autumn turning one and walking. I might have spotted a few more gray hairs on myself and definitely some more on Josh. (Hey, gray hair is a crown of wisdom or something right?) We are settling in to our new home, learning our way around the community, and continuing to meet our neighbors. I can almost get to most places without Google Maps. (Definitely Costco. And Aldi. And both Dollar Trees.) 

Short Pump Community Church (SPCC) held vision casting meetings throughout the fall which ended in time for the holidays. Not every gathering was bigger in numbers, but every single gathering had a new individual or family in attendance. God moved subtly and mightily through our times of teaching, prayer, and worship to light a fire in the hearts of those who gathered. God is beginning to call people to partner with us on this journey to reach Short Pump with the unembellished yet beautifully mysterious Gospel of Jesus. 

On January 4th, while I sat on the edge of Noelle’s bed at St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond, making sure her IV was secure and her Elsa Band-Aids were within reach, Josh gathered in our home with friends and fellow disciples for our first weekly “service” as Short Pump Community Church. People came early to set up in my absence and stayed late to clean after, and I was grateful for a community that didn’t expect perfection, but just desired to come together to worship and fellowship in God’s presence. Tonight we gathered 7 families under one roof, sang, prayed, learned and shared. We spread out among tables and couches and rugs to eat together, talked into the evening, and wrestled our kids to the cars to get their sleepy eyes back home. Some of those families have already felt called to begin tithing and now call SPCC their church “home.” 

As a church, we are seeking God for strength and guidance as we grow in hearing His voice and obeying Him as He calls us out of our comfort zones to spread His grace, truth and life-changing Word to those in our circles of influence. God has already begun to show us that our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and strangers will invite us in to the real, raw, and vulnerable places of their hearts when we make an effort to love them in action, are faithful in prayer, and His timing is right. He is working behind the scenes to make Himself known and as we consistently make ourselves available to listen to the Holy Spirit and respond in surrender. 

We’ve started walking in this obedience and have already prayed for unbelievers at elementary school bus stops, sushi restaurants, and in driveways. We’ve had spiritual conversations with people at every level of faith (in Jesus or Buddha or the Universe) in saunas and parks and everywhere in between. That’s how we’re measuring our success in this season; not by numbers in rows or even in circles (we can’t control whether anyone comes to faith in Christ after all), but in how much we and our fellow disciples are listening well to others and sharing wisely the transformative power of God in our own story as we connect it to their hearts.

January 16th marked one year of living in Virginia, so I’m coming to the point of not being able to say that I “just moved here” anymore. And although I still SO miss home, this is starting to feel more like home. To those who pray for us, thank you. Please don’t stop. 

With my heartfelt love and gratitude, 

Ashley 

*On Tuesday 12/31, New Year’s Eve, Noelle began complaining of ear pain and running a fever. Those are typical signs of childhood ear infection so I wanted to have her seen, but it was NYE. EVERYWHERE was closed except the hospital. Even the three urgent cares I called. So we gave her Tylenol and figured we’d see how she did through the night. She slept fine. The next day (New Year’s Day) she seemed better in the morning but later on started up the same thing again. She would play, seem ok, then start fussing about her ear. So, first thing on January 2nd, even though her fever was completely gone at this point, I still took her in to an urgent care doctor (long backstory short- due to insurance issues, I had not been able to get the kids a local pediatrician since we moved in to our new house). After three hours of waiting, we were seen and her ear looked FINE. (What?!) She complained of pain when the doctor touched it, but besides that, no signs of infection. Sigh. Ok. Rest of the day she was back to her normal self. Enter Friday, January 3rd. I was pulling Noelle’s hair back to put in ear drops the urgent care doctor prescribed for her ear pain and I was greeted with a puffy, red, sticking-out-of-her-head ear. That is NOT GOOD. So I: called the former peds office (an hour away), sent pictures to the nurse, texted all of our doctor friends and tried all at-home remedies to rule out “other stuff” from the serious and rare condition that Doctor Google (and my brother Dr. Caleb Dukeman) said might be Mastoiditis. Oh yea, and side-note, January 3rd is Autumn’s first birthday. By the end of Autumn’s birthday dinner Josh and I determined that everything else had been ruled out, and we needed a trip to the ER. So I packed Noelle up, drove to the ER, and walked through the rain into the waiting room. Thank God there was no wait, friendly nurses, and a doctor who listened even though I knew she thought I was being paranoid and crazy at first. I told her about our experience with Malachi’s ADEM and, although rare, it is not impossible that my daughter could have Mastoiditis. So she gave her ear another look, called the doctor at the main hospital for his opinion and ordered a CT scan “just to be safe.” Well, 8 days in the hospital should be enough to tell you that she DID in fact have Mastoiditis, and a week’s worth of IV antibiotics and 3 weeks of oral antibiotics after discharge should be enough to tell you how serious it is. We are so grateful for God’s hand in some of the amazing people we met along the way and the friends and acquaintances that rallied around us. We are peacefully believing that God has prepared the way for the finances to be covered (a week before this hospital stay we received a letter stating our government insurance was being extended longer than we had anticipated and could be one of the biggest blessings we’ve received during this season- pray with us that this is the case)!