In January of 2013 me and my family went to Hawaii for three months. I have written about this before in a blog post called The Journey to Hawaii, which you can go and check out if you want. When we were leaving to go back to Sweden we thought that we were going back to Hawaii more permanently. Our original plan was to move there for two years. A few months after we had come back to Sweden we applied for our visas. But God had other plans.
We faced some complications with the visas and from the embassy. It was a long and difficult process for us. We were hoping to be in Hawaii again by either August or September in time for school to start. But the visa process took longer than we had hoped and expected, and it soon became clear that we weren’t going to be in Hawaii by the time that we had hoped for. While we were waiting for our visas one of our friends suggested a YWAM school for mom and dad to attend that started that September. This school was located in The Netherlands. They prayed about it and felt that God was leading our family to The Netherlands for the next three months. When we left to go to the The Netherlands we were thinking that we were still going to move to Hawaii after this school had ended. We thought that this was just a change of directions for three months.
During our time in The Netherlands we found out that our visas had been denied. It was a time of confusion and even sadness for us. We had packed for 2 years in Hawaii, and hardly had any winter clothes with us. We had felt sure that God had been leading us back to Hawaii. I remember that after a while we sat down as a family to pray and talk about where we felt that God was leading us. We knew for sure that we were not meant to go back to Sweden. God started speaking to my parents about the UK, and in December when we were leaving The Netherlands we started driving towards the UK. Eventually we ended up moving there.
How my family ended up in the UK was definitely an adventure for sure. It was an exciting, yet a crazy and tough adventure. Before coming to the UK we would never have guessed that we would one day be living here. We have almost lived here for 10 years now. These 10 years have included both ups and down for us. There has been moments of doubts and uncertainty. But despite the hard moments and seasons there has been no regrets. We have grown a lot both individually and as a family these past few years. God has shown his faithfulness towards us, and has shown us time and time again that he brought us here for a reason.
God sees the bigger picture. He sees the beginning and the end. We couldn’t understand at first why we didn’t end up moving to Hawaii. Although later we found out that it was probably for the best that we didn’t move there. God saw what we didn’t see. We thought that we could see the next season of our lives, but God saw the bigger picture not just the next two years. Often times we may not understand why we go through what we go through or why we have to face struggles or though seasons. But through it all God always has a plan. Following and trusting God’s plans is not always going to be easy. Sometimes God’s plan might not make any sense to us either. But obeying God’s call is always going to be worth it in the end even when it doesn’t make any sense. I’m thankful that my parents chose to obey God’s calling. I know that this wasn’t always easy for them, and we faced many obstacles as a family along the way. But no matter what they didn’t give up.
God taught our family a lot during this season. One thing that I have been learning is that life may not always look like we think it will, and God may take us through different seasons in life, but choosing to obey God even through the difficulties and uncertainties will always be worth it. No season when following God will ever be wasted. You will never regret going all in, and obeying him.