For the Love of Packing....

 “Lifting up his eyes then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?’  He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.”   John 6:5-6

Since the writing of our last blog post/letter our lives have changed in some very significant ways!  God has been allowing some tests in our lives.

I must confess that when we listed our house I never thought it would sell in less than a month.  To say that our lives have been speeding by in a flurry of packing, moving, selling, and trying to figure out a few details for our arrival in Costa Rica, would be an understatement to say the least.  

We have been living an episode of “Hoarders” as we try to load and move things that we will need between now and when we leave, price and arrange things for a large scale garage sale, pack for Costa Rica, and haul things to a storage unit that we will keep here in Tuscaloosa.  As you can imagine getting each item into the right pile is a challenge in itself, but there are also those pesky items that qualify for several piles.......  

In addition we moved from a 3 bedroom 2 bath into a 2 bedroom 1 bath, so trying to find a new home for everything is fun too.  To help you with a mental picture of our lives I’ll share this story.  Kaleb was in our dining room one morning and pulled out a chair to sit down for breakfast.  After pulling it out he got a funny look on his face when he realized that he could not climb over the pile between himself and the now open seating.  He then had to walk all the way around the table in order to get back to the chair that he had just pulled out to sit down.  He then looked at me and said, “Dad, this is a little over the top!”.

In addition there are the doubts.  I’ve found that when I’m following close to Jesus I am ready to be in Costa Rica right now!  Then there are the times when other voices start to tell me that, “This will never work out!”  or, “Why would God send you there without telling you why you are going?” and the ever persistent, “What about a job?”.

My beautiful wife and her new found friend in a Costa Rican orphanage.

In the midst of the chaos I came across the verse at the top of this page, and I found comfort in it.  Did you see the part where it says “He said this to test him”?  Jesus had things all figured out and didn’t need Philips help, but He loved Philip enough take the opportunity to grow him through the experience.  He tested Philip and Philip didn’t even score that well, but Philip learned to trust Jesus on a deeper level and got to see God’s perfect plan worked out.  

That is a truth that I am holding on to at this time in my life.  He is bringing tests into our lives because He loves us!  He is trying to grow me!  He is watching my steps and my expression to see the look on my face when I see the whole picture!  I love that, even though I may not enjoy the hard times.

Please don’t get me wrong, this past month has been a very rich time in our families life.  It has not all been testings and doubts.  We get to see Him in the little things like people wanting to buy items at our garage sale that we didn’t even know we were selling, and unexpected notes and calls from friends and family with verses and words of encouragement.  We also get to stretch our faith with our children’s in praying for guidance and for our lives to bring God glory.

Our lives are an adventure and we love it!  Please continue to pray for us as we do our best to be faithful to His call in our lives, because we are gettin to see the results of your prayers!  

Until next time,

The Ridderings

My family visiting some friends at an orphanage in Costa Rica in 2012.  Can't wait to see these people again!

P.S. - Although we do not know yet what we will be doing once we get to Costa Rica we are only going because we feel lead to and are trying to be faithful to His call.  We have been accepted into an organization called World Outreach Ministries.  If you want to support our ministry, the fastest way is to make an Online Donation via www.WorldOutreach.org/donations -- and select Aaron & Faith Riddering from the list.  The system can process USA & International cards and bank drafts.  You can also set up automatic monthly Gifts with your credit card or bank draft if you choose the "Monthly" option.  Or simply mail your check to:  World Outreach Ministries, PO Box B, Marietta, GA 30061 and designate for Aaron & Faith Riddering #239.

The Letter

The following is a letter that we have sent out to friends and family at the beginning of this journey. We will post an update hopefully in the next few days.


Dear Friends and Family, March 11, 2013

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:1&2

God has been taking us on a journey and has been leading us one step at a time with only enough light to see the next step. I am writing this letter to fill you in on what God is leading us to next, and to ask for your prayers.

Our lives used to “make sense”. We had long term goals that we were working towards, I had a business that had grown and was doing well, and we had a church that we loved and got to help with youth group and AWANA club. Each year we’d send out our Christmas card and there was really nothing unusual to report.

Then God started to bless us. Not blessings that we would have asked for, but blessings as we

understand blessings now. He began to take us through a series of what seemed like unfortunate events.

Romans 8:28 says that “…God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” Hard things were in His plans for us, but looking back now we wouldn’t trade or wish away any of those times because of the things He has shown us and the ways we have felt His love for us.  He wants to glorify Himself through our lives, but doesn't say that it will be easy, only that He will be with us through it.

First God took us through a summer with very little work. I mean so little that we aren’t sure even today how we made it through financially. There were many sleepless nights and hard calls to the guys that worked with me to say that they could take yet another “day off”. At the end of that summer I looked back at the check book and really cannot say how all the bills were paid. I say that this was a blessing because for the first time there was an element of our lives that didn’t make sense and could only be explained as a miracle, and we had gotten to see first hand that God can be trusted with our lives.

Then there was our auto accident. I was at fault in a large accident that involved many vehicles. I thank God that no one was hurt badly, but we found out after the wreck that we were under-insured and would probably have to pay some property damages and law suits out of our own pocket. This was a big blessing in disguise as there was a long period of time that it looked like we’d have to pay out a large sum of money, and were able to find His peace through it all. In the end we had just enough insurance to cover the damages and some law suits were dropped. God showed us that He was in control, and no amount of insurance could insulate us from Him or His will for us, and that we would not want to be insulated from His will for us.

Then Bella was born. This was a huge blessing in our lives and we wouldn’t trade one minute, but this also brought many hard realities that are now part of our daily lives. When she was 3 days old we were waiting on the results of a test and the Dr. told us to pack our things and be ready. He said that if the tests came back the way he thought they would, they were going to flight for life her to Denver and she would have to have emergency open heart surgery. He also said that this would cost between $500,000 and $800,000. Our insurance only covered up to $200,000. Again God showed us that all we had worked and saved for, our “dreams”, could fly away in a moment. He spared us from this, and Bella’s heart has leveled out and the doctors are very pleased with some “unexplained” improvements, but again He showed us that He was in control.

God also used Bella’s oxygen needs to show us that we needed to relocate rather than try to raise a child who needs sea level oxygen at 9300 feet above sea level. Alabama has been a good fit as we have family and a great church here, and there is pretty much non-stop storm activity to keep me busy.

Finally God took us through some really hard things with some investments that we had. We also sold our home in Westcliffe for about 55% of what we had been told it was worth, because of the market and having to sell quickly . He has been with us through it all, and has been showing us that it is all His and He is happy with our best attempts to manage it.

So, there we were, living in Alabama and enjoying our lives in a very simple home, with a church that we love very much, only about 10 minutes from Andrew, Hannah, Parker, and Hudson, and with pleanty of work as an insurance adjuster. Things once again seemed to be making sense and becoming normal in our lives.

Then Faith came in from the deck one day, where she had been reading her Bible, and said, “If you haven't read your Bible yet today you should read James.”  I took her advise and when I got to the last verse of chapter 4 I read, “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” Before reading this verse I could have honestly said that I didn’t know what God wanted us to be doing or where He wanted us to be. However, at that moment when I read that verse God said “Costa Rica”.  I finished reading James and then came in to compare notes with Faith and

she said that throughout the book God had laid the same thing on her heart.

We were both very excited about this but thought surely God would reveal the “when” and the “what” just as He had told us the “where”. Days passed, then weeks, and months…… We talked from time to time about Costa Rica, but God wasn’t forthcoming about any other details. Surely He wouldn’t ask us to go there without telling us why, what part of Costa Rica, or when.

Or, would He?

At one time we had thought that we would like to do some part time mission work. In our minds this was a good idea as I could work my seasonal job and then do mission work for 2-3 months out of the year. We had saved and planned for this, but when our investments went the wrong direction, we lost a very significant part of our net worth. All of our plans to be self-supporting-part-time-missionaries seemed to go up in smoke.  We thought maybe we are to be full time missionaries and raise support for that, but without details of what we will be doing it seems like that door will be closed for now.

As I’m sure all of you know, when God starts to pull your heart in a direction, He doesn’t give up. Faith and I started to read “Radical” by David Platt. We just saw the book at Barnes and Noble and thought it looked interesting. We started reading not knowing that it would challenge us to the core, and bring things into a new kind of clarity. Then our pastor started a series on Romans 12:1&2 and how we are to be living sacrifices. At the same time I started a Bible study called “Mulitiply”, which also happened to be written by David Platt. Not to mention that the story of Abraham keeps coming up over and over again. It seemed like everywhere we turned we could hear God whispering His plans for us.

So, there we were at the corner of common sense and Costa Rica and I am guessing by now you know which way we turned.

We didn’t know what our next step was but thought that we should probably list our home and let God direct through that. We thought this would buy us some time to figure things out as we try to tie up loose ends, but as of today we have had it on the market 6 days and have had as many showings either under our belt or scheduled, and one offer with a closing date less than a month away.

I wish I could say that now God has told us what we are to do once we get there, but He is good and He seems to be in the business of stretching our faith and trust, so I guess I’ll be really surprised if things start to make sense before we get there.

There are many other ways that He seems to be affirming this direction, but because I wanted this to be a letter and not a book, we’ll just have to talk to you about those details when we see you next.

So, now that we’ve told you about some of the journey that we’ve been on, we’d like to ask that you pray for us. Actually we’d like to beg you to PRAY for us!

There is a friend in our current church that has asked for prayer in the past, and then says “If you aren’t going to, please don’t waste both of our time by saying you will.”  We NEED your prayers!! We truly have nothing figured out at this point. We have no safety net, and we have written God a blank check. Nothing makes sense to our worldly minds, because we don’t have any one detail worked out yet. All we know is that we were created to bring GLORY to our God and His Name, He is calling us to Costa Rica, and we may not have a place to live in the very near future.

We’d like to ask you to pray that God helps us with the little details of getting to Costa Rica. Please pray the He takes care of our financial needs, because He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Please pray for safety for our family in as much as our safety does not interfere with His plan to glorify Himself.

If you are getting this letter we consider you to be a close part of our family. If you have thoughts or imput, please don’t hesitate to pass that on to us!

Your Family in Christ,

The Riddering’s

P.S. Please keep Costa Rica in mind for upcoming travel as we’d love to see you there and spend time with

you!