Gathering in South Jersey

Searching for, buying, and moving into a new home a new home has brought a number of surprises to Phil and Polly.

Though they should have expected this going into the big adventure, it is like going to a suspenseful movie: you still start when the bad guy jumps out from around the corner.

The first surprise was the economy. Between the two of them, Phil and Polly made four separate house hunting trips from Tucson between July 2007 and June 2009. During that time, they saw the economy change significantly (!) which made buying a house easier, but selling one harder.

Another surprise was the location. For all of these house hunting trips, each of them steeped in serious and seeking prayer, neither Phil nor Polly had a good sense of where they felt called to be located as a family in the larger Gloucester County area. The home that they found seems located at the perfect junction of a number of different towns, townships, and populations in the county, and easily accessed from all the areas the new church seeks to target.

Another surprise was the house itself. As a large family, most of the homes they looked at in their price range felt too small or not well located. Those that seemed large enough were too expensive. The house God has provided them with has enough bedrooms upstairs for everyone (some of us share a bedroom), an open floor plan on the main floor (and a great back deck) that can accommodate plenty of people, an office area on the side of the house for both Polly and Phil, and a finished basement, the Henrys are thanking God for His surprising provision of this place and this space.

Living in Jersey has meant a few more unpleasant surprises, however. One included some of the subtleties of the local municipal government. The township inspection of their new home didn't pass at first, creating a delay of more than a week, and necessitating that the Henry's things had to be moved from Tucson, into storage, and then, only later, into their new home.

Other nasty surprises were related to the "dangers" of the woods: there was a nearly six-foot long rat snake found in one of the basement crawl spaces on their third day in the house.

There was a run-in with an "on the ground" wasp's nest on a woods trail in the back of the house (six out of seven Henry's were stung multiple times; only Lydia escaped sting-free; Polly, the lucky one, was elsewhere that day).

Phil and Polly should have learned by now: church planting, specifically, and mission work, generally, are like a dramatic story: the surprises are what make it interesting. No matter how hard they try, even the best-formulated plans are sure to go awry at some point or other.

With so many surprises, more and more the Henrys are learning to walk by faith, learning to take Solomon's advice seriously: “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9