Yes, Lord!

It has been a really long time since I blogged but I have been praying that the Lord would grant me some time to share what He has been doing in our family. What a journey we are on! We believe the Lord began speaking to us about plans that He had in store for us at Retreat this summer. The message that spoke to us the most was Anywhere. Anything. Anytime. Total surrender to let the Lord use us. To let the Lord stretch us. What did that mean we were unsure of but we began to pray. Some of what I am going to share may seem crazy, it may not make sense to you and that is okay. Because of His grace and His goodness I am able to have a personal relationship with Him and I am learning to use His word as a lamp unto my feet. I am learning to hear and obey His voice. And when He confirms to us what we should do I pray that my heart will always say Yes, Lord! He asked us to step out of the body of believers at First Baptist Church quickly after the Retreat. He gave me the verse Isaiah 1:19 "If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land." God is teaching me there is much provision and protection in walking obediently in His ways. We have been equipping ourselves at another church in Stillwater, Eagle Heights Baptist Church. The emphasis on biblical worship and discipleship is so refreshing. We have so enjoyed getting to meet some very neat believers and grow with them during this time but we knew that the season is closing for us on Cushing, OK.  Some of the things I am going to take from my journal I have been keeping. This is a new thing for me. I have a horrible memory. Just horrible. So I wanted to make sure and keep record of all the ways the Lord has spoken to us through His word as we prayed for what the Lord might want to do with our family. In August Dustin's work came to him and told him that they were lowering his salary by $15,000 this year. Same work, same busy call schedule but they projected him to make $15,000 less and so that's what they would pay. My husband had been a little frustrated with management of his clinic and not really feeling fulfilled or appreciated. When we heard this news we just began to pray. Maybe the Lord was wanting to move us out of Cushing. On August 7th we began to pray that we would be open to going wherever he wanted us to. Psalm 35:9 "There is no want to those that fear Him! Oh fear the Lord, you His saints. The young lions lack and suffer hunger but those that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing." Very soon after church one day we started thinking well, what if we looked for a job in Stillwater. That was comfortable. Only 25 miles away, we could stay in our home.  I found a listing that afternoon and that evening Dustin applied. What we didn't know was the website that he applied for the Stillwater listing actually sent all of his info to a whole bunch of hospitals and recruiters all over the US. On Monday morning he was overloaded with emails and phone calls from physician recruiters but nothing from Stillwater. We just kept praying. Nothing Pleases God more that when we ask for what He wants to give. When we spend time with Him and allow His priorities, passion, and purposes to motivate us, we will ask for things that are closest to His heart. -Bruce Wilkinson, Secrets of the vine. Dustin read some of the emails of opportunities and one peaked his interest. A hospital in Kentucky needing someone to help train family practice residents. He loves teaching and enjoys doing it so much that it really interested him. He told me about it and I laughed. We were only comfortable applying to a job 20 minutes away, surely the Lord would not be taking us 13 hours away... We started praying that the Lord would confirm if we were to answer this email and find out more information. Dustin prayed on Friday of the weekend he was on call that the Lord would plainly show him and take away the patients if we were to talk with them more. He normally sees about 20 patients a day. On Friday he saw 7 patients and not a single call all weekend. This never happens. never. More praying. Praying that the Lord would continue to confirm to us early in the process His will.  He decided to reply to the email and set up a time to talk to the recruiter for the hospital. The recruiters name was Abby. The hospitals name was St.Claire. Our daughters names are Abigail & Claire. Morehead, Kentucky. We have never been to Kentucky. We know no one there. I was also going through a bible study again by Pricilla Shirer called "Discerning the voice of God." On 8-13 I wrote down God's voice is timely. Ecc 3:1-7 When God gives you instructions you can trust He has given you what you need for now. Abby sent us a packet of information about the hospital and town to look through and give her a call if we wanted to talk more. The mission of the hospital:

Who wouldn't want to be a part of that mission statement. Very interesting story about the founding doctor of the hospital, Dr. Claire Louise Caudill, who had a great vision for her community to have quality medical care. She has a book written about her "Country Doctor". Bought the book on Amazon and started to read it. What is this town like? Where did it come from? Trying to understand the heart and vision of the founder. The more we found out about the opportunity the more the Lord seemed to confirm that His hand was in it. Psalm 46:11 "Be still and know that I am God." We continued to get into His word. Dustin talked to Abby again and she asked what is the thing you liked best about the information on the hospital that we sent you. When Dustin answered, "Your mission statement." She was quiet. She said in the 13 years that she has been recruiting she has never had anyone say they liked the hospitals mission statement best. It is what drew us to find out more and talk with her more. We began to explore what this looked like. We began to see that the Lord wanted us to trust Him with the details. "For we walk by faith, and not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7. We scheduled a time to come and view the hospital and talk more. Utica Park came back to us and said you know we have made a mistake on your projection of income for this year. After all we are not going to pay you $15,000 less we are going to now give you $15,000 more. Not surprising. I think back to that now and wonder if the Lord specifically did that in His perfect timing to get us in line with His plans for our family. Would we have begun praying and seeking so diligently what He wanted for us if Dustin's job hadn't come to us with a cut in pay. My prayer for my husband on 8-30 was that the Lord would put a new song on his heart. 8-31 Devotional online "He has called us to bear fruit and He keeps His hand on us as we bloom wherever we go. Wherever He placed us. He covers us safely from attacks of the enemy and gives us the Holy Spirit to guide our every step. My husband began a men's bible study group that week. Discerning the Voice of God Bible Study "To affect lives with God's power I must go with God's plans. He desires to show himself strong to you and in you and will encourage you to do things that will require trust and faith. 2 Corinthians 9:9 "He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." Discerning the Voice of God Bible study "See Him. Join Him. Serve Him. Why do some believers experience the power of God more that others. I think I see God's supernatural activity so clearly in my life because I have decided that they only appropriate response to Him is complete obedience. I am committed to obeying his leading no matter how absurd His instructions are." I thought alot about Abraham. How he was willing to obey Whatever God told him. Abraham was called a friend of God not because He heard God's voice but because he was committed to obeying God's Voice. He answered, "Yes, Lord". 9-3 The Lord began to urge me to prepare the house. This was hard for me, really hard. I love my home. We have really enjoyed living here. The Lord began to speak to me specifically and tell me to not plant my roots so deep that He cannot move me and use me. Stability. I want stability for my family. my children. I learned that this stability is not in things. A home. a car. A school. A town. My only stability is in God's plans for me and His provision for my family if I will obey. I am just a steward of all the things He has blessed us with. Prepare the house. Preparing my heart to let go of Cushing. Discerning the voice of God on 9-7 "A life of obedience calls us to prepare for the adjustments God requires. If we don't prepare to modify our plans, we will end up more frustrated and overwhelmed." Mark 8:34-35 "If any of you wants to be my follower...you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake of the good news, you will find true life." Giving up my selfish desires is hard. Laying it all down and following the Lord when He tells me to move 13 hours away to a place I have never been before is hard.  Psalm 143:10 "Teach me to do your will." Obey Him. Be steadfast. He is worthy. He is faithful. 9-10 Moms 31 Ministry's first session and Andrew was awake at 5am throwing up. I wrote in my journal "I am not supossed to be there today. God is equipping leadership for me to step out." He began to cut our ties with Cushing. Ephesians 2:10 "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared BEFOREHAND that we should walk in them." What has he prepared beforehand for the Cupp Crew? He has prepared good works for us, things He wants us to be a part of...we need to be obedient and walk in them. Preparing to visit Kentucky. Great visit with the Tumlisons. (Our missionary friends serving in Honduras) Cinthya said something about traveling light. I really liked that morsel. It challenged my to pack light because this world is not our home. Mattew 6:19-21 Bible study with Eagle Heights. Abraham again. Obedience again. Okay, Lord I got it! Preparing our hearts. Psalm 62:8 "Trust in Him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart to Him. God is a refuge for us." 9-19 I wrote in my Journal: Text from Denice this morning. Timothy 4:2. We need to remember that whatever God asks us to do, it's always worth any inconveince or difficulty we face in the process. He will always make a way for us to accomplish His will when we are obedient to Him. Read this verse. Dueteronomy 5:32-33 Be careful to walk specifically in His ways, right on. Romans 8:28 The Holy spirit reveals God's plan to me as He orchestrates the circumstances of my life. Psalm 81:13-14 If we listen and walk in His ways, God will protect us from our enemies and adversaries. John 12:26 See Him. Join Him. Serve Him. True servants of God follow Him and go where He goes. Abraham (Genesis 12:1-9) sets off for a foreign land. He chose to obey and trust God. My devotional said: Like Abrahams experience, your obedience might involve some difficult "moves" on your part. But any discomfort your experience will eventually lead you to God's blessings. Psalm 64:10 "The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and trust in Him." Praying the Lord would provide. Details we didn't know yet. What did it pay? What was call like? Why did they want us? More time off to do mission work overseas? Trusting God. Praying Ephesians 4:20 that He would do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ask for. Just waiting on Him to see the whole picture. A song on my heart Christy Nockels "Waiting Here for you." The day we leave to go visit Kentucky I got a text from Kari Wright. Hebrews 1:11 "The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living." I had just finished the book "Radical" by David Platt. Very, very good. Very, very challenging. Dustin was reading "Not a Fan" by Kyle Ingleman. We loaded the plane and as Dustin was reading came across this chapter.

Funny, huh. Sounds alot like the challenge the Lord gave us at retreat. Anything. Anytime. Anyplace.
The very last page of the book we saw the verse again that the Lord has been bombarding us with lately. 2 Chronicles 16:9 God is looking for humble hearts that He can use and show himself strong to. So 9-21 The big revelation! Such a strange feeling knowing we are supossed to be there but didn't really know the details. I wrote in my journal "we are reporting for duty". Psalm 65:11 "You crown the year with your goodness and your paths drip with abundance." Discerning the voice of God: If you want to see God operating in our lives we must adapt to His plans and accept His invitation to be a part of them. The Holy Spirit is at work in your to change your desires to match up with the Fathers desires. We must keep our life plans flexible. Never make concrete plans without leaving room for God to do something different. We met Abby for the first time at the hospital at 9am.

A big day. We did not get back to our room until well after 10:00pm. A great day. Like a painting that we were able to really see come together. The opportunity. Dustin would have an established clinic about 20 minutes outside of town, Owingsville, he would be helping teach family medicine residents. Provision: financial. security in the market. Time for our family. 8-5 normal work week and 1 week out of 8 in the hospital. Family of physician doctors. Like minded. Mission minded. Provision: 6 weeks of vacation time to visit family and do missions overseas, Possible grant for student loans payoff. After talking with them and understanding that the OB's take care of the c-sections we really felt like the Lord was telling us that He was supposed to deliver babies again. Never saw that one coming. I wrote in my journal after that day: As it was all revealed it was so interesting that we felt like everyone was truly on board with the mission statement of the hospital. We are supposed to be in Kentucky. The Lord has provided stability, security and missions for us through St.Claire. Abby asked us that night after a long day of touring, talking with people, dinner with physicians, ect...how many other places we were interviewing at. When we told her that we had only answered one email. We were only visiting one hospital. She was really silent. Dustin shortly got a call from yet another recruiter. I don't know how many emails we have received since filling our the information for Stillwater in August...hundreds probably. My husband continues to get calls from recruiters that want to share with him opportunities all over. We have only answered one email. She asked us that night what our gut feeling was and we told her confidently what we knew the Lord was continuing to confirm to us. We were to join St.Claire and move to Kentucky. I wrote in my journal that night "We felt confident coming to visit before any of the real details were laid out that the Lord wanted us in Kentucky." Why? We know now. To help build a residency program for family medicine doctors to impact their communities and the world for Christ. To be able to be involved in overseas missions ourselves. Great provision. Great abundancy lies in the counsel of the Lord. John 10:10. So the question became not if we would go to Kentucky, but when? We will be starting the new year in a new community, a new hospital and a new mission and vision for what works the Lord has prepared beforehand for us to walk in. There is so much more to the story...a part two I pray that I will have time to write but for now I pray that our story will encourage you to seek Him, walk with Him daily so he can speak to your heart, His word can guide your steps, and you can taste and see that He is so good! We are taking it day by day right now and just trusting Him. Would you join us in praying for the sale of our home? We put the for sale by owner sign in the yard on wedneday and have shown it twice. We know the Lord has just the right people....He alone is worthy! 
(...to be continued...I forgot to mention how beautiful it is there. The town is in the midst of Daniel Boone national forest. Below is a picture of Cave Run lake.)