A Whale of a Conversation
The only thing we didn't get to do on our honeymoon was see whales because it was past season. I've always longed to see these majestic creatures, but kept missing opportunities in both the US and Australia, where the weather didn't permit.
When a sweet friend gifted us the ability to get whale cruise tickets while we were recently in Maine, I was like a child, GIDDY with excitement!
The day came, and I prepped ALL the things we'd need, including 5 layers of clothing and jackets because we didn't pack winter clothes and it was going to drop to about 40 degrees on the water. Of course, I was hanging over the side as far as possible as we sped through the water on a super speedy catamaran. I was determined to not miss a whale sighting...the wind in my face was COLD! (And, I loved it!)
I had every expectation of it being the BEST
whale excursion they'd ever had! My anticipation was SO high!
whale excursion they'd ever had! My anticipation was SO high!We saw fin whales first, then seals and Atlantic dolphins, then finally spotted a humpback. THIS is what I'd been waiting to see - a massive whale in full breach...
What we saw were 4 tail flukes.
Don't get me wrong - I was THRILLED to see what we saw and loved every moment of the cruise, but I was also disappointed because I knew there was so much more to be seen and to experience.
I brought my disappointment before the Lord. What followed was a whale of a convo with Him... I clearly heard my Father speak to the depths of my heart.
"Daughter, this experience with the whales is mirroring what you're feeling and sensing in your relationship with Me.
You have such expectation. You know how big I am and long to see Me in the fullness of who I am in might and majesty and raw beauty - to be left speechless before Me, and have your breath taken away in My presence on display.
You've seen Me in part, yet you know how much more is just below the surface, and you're longing for it."
Selah.Pause in His presence.
Have you ever felt like this? You KNOW there's more in Him, yet you're only experiencing a portion that's so much smaller than what you recognize is just below the surface?
My whale experience absolutely mirrored my internal longings for Him, and it's given me a tangible experience that's like a pin on a map and a line drawn in the sand. It tells me to return again and again with continued expectation in my heart of seeing and experiencing more of Him.
I've seen Him in measure, but I KNOW there's so much more to Him. It's just below the surface, and He delights in revealing Himself to us in power, might, and beauty.
I have complete assurance within me of seeing Him in all His glory as I continue to look for Him with full expectation in my heart!
THAT was a whale of a conversation!
What has He been speaking to you recently?
Living for Him,
Andrea
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
STORIES FROM THE ROADZoom Gathering: Tuesday, July 14th, 8 PM EST
We've officially been on the road for TWO months now! Our first "Stories From the Road" included launching out from GA, then traveling to North Carolina, Maryland, and Washington D.C. where God showed up in each place!
Our second month has found us at Gettysburg, the Lancaster Area, New York (Croton-On-Hudson), Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the start of our Maine travels.
We've continued to see God move in the most beautiful ways, heard God speak to our hearts personally, had our assignment in Him more clearly defined, watched God touch lives in big and small ways, and always seen Him so very faithful along the way!
Each month, we're sharing our latest stories, what we're learning and hearing from God, and hopefully inspiring others to create stories of their own.
We would love for you to join us this Tuesday, July 14th, at 8:00 p.m.!
(No recording will be available - some stories are more sensitive.)
This is the perfect time to hear behind the scenes on the road and ask questions real-time!
--> RSVP to get the Zoom link - we hope to see you there!
OPPORTUNITIES TO
CONNECT & GROW DEEPER
Did you know Brian has a men's mentoring group that meets Thursday nights at 9:30 p.m. on Zoom? This group is a brotherhood of men committed to following Jesus together. As we learn at His feet, we encourage one another, celebrate what He's doing in each other's lives, and grow into the men He created us to be—walking confidently in the gifts, purpose, and good works He has prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10). This group is designed to propel men as kingdom leaders in every facet of their lives.
I (Andrea) am considering starting a weekly morning Zoom gathering for women and would love to know who's interested! It would be a welcoming space to grow together in our faith as we explore hearing God's voice, prayer and intercession, understanding dreams, and developing a deeper, more intimate walk with Jesus.
We're also opening up a limited number of individual mentoring opportunities, whether weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.
Providing these opportunities are another way we can partner with God in journeying together with others and respond to His Great Commission to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19-20). We'd love to journey with you!
Want information on the men's group?
Are you interested in participating in a women's group?
Would you like to know more about individual mentoring?
(There is a cost for each opportunity.)
Please reply to this email or reach out to us via text to learn more!
BECOME A TRAVEL PARTNERWe're traveling wherever He leads—praying, encouraging, mentoring, writing, teaching, and sharing the truth of who God is and the joy of walking closely with Him.
Many people have asked how they can be part of the journey.
First and foremost, we ask for prayer, especially for those we'll meet while on the road - for their hearts to be open and awakened to Him. For us, please thank God for His protection and travel mercies, for open doors/campsites, and pray for us to clearly hear Him leading us in every way, including logistically.
If you'd like to support us financially, every gift helps us continue saying "yes" to God's call. Whether it's a gallon of gas, a campground stay, a meal on the road, or simply a gift as God leads, you're helping fuel miles, ministry opportunities, mentoring conversations, writing projects, and God-ordained encounters across our nation.
In many ways, you're traveling with us.
Not everyone is called to go, but everyone can be part of the journey.
Ways to Give:
Thank you for praying, encouraging, and traveling with us!
WHAT'S NEXT???Our next stops include Maine, then a brief stop back in Connecticut before returning to the Lancaster area, where we've had the honor of being invited to gather with an Amish community for a time of worship and prayer.
While we've traveled, we've had multiple opportunities to pray for people, including those recovering from or facing surgery, as well as other illnesses and needs.
If we can pray for you, please reach out! I have a prayer journal, and I'm writing each request and answered prayer in it!
Living for Him,
Andrea & Brian
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
What Does It Look Like to Live Forward?
This is part of a larger discussion, but let me open it with the idea of what it looks like to “live forward.”
As a whole, we live in a world that’s divided, and we accept that as today’s norm. That’s not God’s desire for us.
He’s told us to live together in unity, to love one another, and to lay down our lives for each other. He’s told us to remove the plank from our own eye before trying to take one out of someone else’s. We see admonitions like this throughout His Word.
God has also told us a house divided can’t stand, and history has proven it. TRUTH: We can hold differences of opinion, still love one another, and maintain healthy relationships.
Living forward can dramatically change the future our families and our nation are headed. It starts with each of us laying down the need to be right, heard, vindicated, etc., and relies on us living forward, walking in love as He has loved us.
We can’t change the past, but we can learn from it, and we can choose differently as we intentionally live forward in love and forgiveness. If we don’t, we’re going to see cycles, including civil war, continue to be repeated.
What does it look like to live forward?This question dropped into my heart a couple of weeks ago, and it’s stayed with me.
I think it’s safe to say there are things in the past that each of us would love to change if we could. While we can’t go back and relive it, making different choices than we did previously, we can intentionally choose actions and words that touch today and create a framework for what can become a different future.
Notice I said “can,” not “will.”
It’s easy to create a storyline in our minds of how things will unfold, but that’s almost guaranteed to become a work of fantasy, rather than non-fiction, because we don’t get to determine how our new choices will be received by others or how they’ll react or respond.
I’m not walking out “living forward” perfectly, and I’m figuring it out as I go. Only time will tell if it bears fruit. That said, here are some things I feel are important - a lot more could be said about each point.
- Listen - to the Holy Spirit and to the other person.
- Own your mistakes and ask the other person’s forgiveness.
- Forgive if you’ve been asked.
- Don’t take false responsibility. If others are trying to take false responsibility related to you, help them let that go.
- Live by your convictions while also walking in love.
- Let go of expectations of the other person or how you feel things should be now.
- Live out what God has shown you and be consistent in it.
Living forward begins in our families – they are the building blocks. Start there. Lay down your offenses. Fight for one another, rather than against. Live according to your convictions and respond in love.
If we keep letting the world guide us in this, the path is one that leads directly to the decimation of families and to war, and there’s a very planned agenda for each.
As dire as that sounds, look at history and repeated cycles.
We can create a different future. It starts with each of us.
How will you live forward today? What steps can you take?
Living for Him,
Andrea
Scripture References: Psalm 133:1, John 13:34-35, John 15:13, Matthew 7:3-5, Matthew 12:25, Ephesians 5:2, Colossians 3:13, Ephesians 4:32, Leviticus 19:18, James 1:19, Romans 12:18
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
CROOKED & STRAIGHT PATHS
Remember the days before GPS – before the best route available was planned out for you, and you were guided by a voice telling you the path to take?
When I was a young girl on trips with my parents, I loved being the co-pilot, sitting next to my dad, following the route on the paper map, and giving him directions as we drove.
Maps and routes fascinate me – they always have. I always want to know which way takes the least time, then I compare it with the most scenic, and decide which route is best to take. I might not mind the sense of control it gives if I’m entirely honest with myself. Interestingly, I have a compass tattoo on my arm, reminding me of His leading and direction in my life.
For the last two or so years, God has highlighted Isaiah 45:2 to me: “I will go before you and make the crooked places straight…”Anything seemingly crooked in my life, I spoke to, filled with faith that “every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth.” (Isaiah 40:2) Countless times, I’ve stood immovable on those verses, declaring it over my life and the paths before me, especially when the paths have seemed particularly rough.
Then recently, I was brought up short when I read Ecclesiastes 7:13, “Consider the work of God; for who can make straight what He has made crooked?” and it pointed me back to Ecclesiastes 1:15, “What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered.”Ummmm...I thought God was in the straightening business, not making crooked?
Have you ever had a moment when what you’d firmly believed about God was brought into question, and it didn’t make sense? It was one of those moments for me.
But having experienced moments like this before, I viewed it as an opportunity for a conversation with Him.
“God, do you REALLY intentionally make paths crooked before us? You’re a good God. Why would you make something irrevocably crooked with no ability to straighten it?”
What did I hear in return?
“Who defined crooked as ‘bad'?”
I sat with that and thought it through logically. Instantly, I shot back in my memory to high school geometry – “the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.” Then, in my mind, I had a bird’s-eye view of the top of a tree-filled mountain and saw a starting and ending point. The problem was that it was impossible to travel in a straight line to get from one point to the other.
A crooked path around was required.
I began to think of the times on trips when Brian and I had chosen slower, winding paths because of the beauty we’d see and the adventure we’d find, and my perspective of crooked paths began to change.
What if God intentionally made some paths crooked for our benefit?
It’s not as easy or smooth as the straight path. It requires more of us, and may even mean letting go of certain things, including control and what seems most logical. While it may take longer, what we experience and who we become along the way are gifts from our loving Father, given on the crooked path.
This realization led me to consider the difference between paths crooked by man that God straightens, and paths crooked by God’s hand that can’t be made straight.
There’s great comfort in knowing that when I’ve messed up a path, He can fix it.
There’s great trust required in embracing my inability to straighten a path He’s made crooked.
Ecclesiastes 7:13 begins with, “consider the work of God…” When you look it up in Strong’s Concordance, “consider”1 means to see, look upon, or discern. When I look on crooked paths set before me, what do I see and discern? Can I see His greater plan? Can I trust Him in knowing He is good and loving and that what lies before me on the crooked path is an unexpected adventure that will grow me, even in its challenges, and I’ll see great beauty along the route?
So, how do we find our way on the straight or crooked path, orient ourselves, and navigate? He’s told us: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105) That’s our Holy Spirit GPS voice leading us.
I still believe “Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth.” (Luke 3:5)
I’m also now content in and excited about the crooked paths. This new understanding has given me a lot of peace when I look back on times when I questioned God’s goodness. I see His lovingkindness in having me take rough roads that were far from smooth, and I’m grateful for who I have become along the way.
What is God speaking to you about the path you’re currently on or the one set before you in a new season? If we can pray for you as you “travel,” please reach out!
Living for Him,
Andrea (& Brian)
Endnotes:
- “Consider.” e-Sword, version 2024, Rick Meyers, 2024. Ecclesiastes 7:13
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
BUILD: A WORD FOR 2026
I’ve never had a single one-word focus that carried across multiple years, but this year I realized that’s exactly what God has been speaking to me over the last three years. When I asked Him what His word was for 2026, I heard, “build,” and immediately knew this year would mark the culmination of a season.
As we talked, God reminded me of the word He gave me for 2024—alignment—and how He went before me, making the crooked places straight. That alignment prepared the ground for the foundation to be laid, and it required a great deal of excavating during that year. It included deep, piercing digging needed to set the structural beams in place, preparing them to carry the weight of what was coming. I was honestly relieved to see that year end, yet deeply grateful for what had been uprooted and removed, and I felt an expectancy stirring for what would follow.
Then came 2025, with the word structure. God gave me a picture of framing being erected and emphasized the importance of following His blueprints.What I didn’t anticipate was how much would be happening behind the scenes—or how long it would take. As the structure went up, so many unseen inner workings had to be installed, and that phase felt painstakingly slow. At times, it seemed like there wasn’t much to show for all the effort, even though essential work was being done beneath the surface.
When God spoke about 2026 being a year to build, I heard Him say, “Things will go faster now. The time-consuming aspects are complete. You’re going to see the rest come together much more quickly—the beautifying and finishing touches that make it ready for occupancy.”
He didn’t say a certificate of occupancy would be issued before year-end, but He did say it would be ready to be lived in for the foreseeable future.
I believe many of us have been in a similar multi-year season—first, the laying of a foundation that required hard (and sometimes stony) digging to create space. Then came the slow, often painstaking process of erecting the structure, where much of the work was hidden, and it felt like progress was minimal.
Now, I sense hope for what will feel accelerated compared to the last two years. There will still be important decisions to make, but this season carries a different kind of partnership with God. It’s as if He’s inviting us to “choose the paint colors and tile”—work that feels lighter, more creative, and “fun” compared to what came before.
KEYS FOR 2026
Recently, Psalm 27:13 has been a continual refrain: “I would have lost heart (other translations say ‘I had fainted’), unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”I believe this verse holds a cornerstone key for 2026, along with a few others.
“Believed” comes from the Hebrew word aman, which means “to build up or support.” To build, we must believe—especially if we are to complete what God has begun without losing heart or fainting along the way. This word also carries the meanings: to be firm, faithful, steadfast; to trust; to be permanent or quiet—important in the sense of not wavering, grumbling, or speaking words of unbelief.
As Western believers, we often assume that what God births, or what sits squarely in the center of His will, should be easy or painless. Yet Jesus tells us plainly in John 16:33 (AMP): “‘I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.’ [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]”
Psalm 27:13 is immediately followed by verse 14: “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!”
This isn’t just repetition about courage or finding our inner peace and strength in Him—it’s intentional reinforcement. In the original Hebrew, wait means “to entwine, tie together, bind together, and wrap tightly.” And courage means “to fasten upon, seize, be strong, strengthen, help, fortify, conquer, be constant, and hold fast.”
To build in 2026, it will require us to:
- Wait on God—positioned as those who are entwined, tied together, and wrapped tightly with Him.
- Remain courageous—fastened to Him, fortified in our inner worlds, holding fast to what He has spoken and shown us.
- Find our peace in Him, even when storms rage, and we find ourselves standing in the middle of them.
Trials, tribulations, and suffering are opportunities to trust the Lord rather than be offended by Him. He has overcome everything we face, and His victory is ours. Knowing this, we can be filled with joy.
Some people say they’ll “never build a house again” because of how difficult the process was—and I get that. I can’t promise the build of 2026 will be easy, but I do know this: He is in it. He makes all things beautiful in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Believing in Him keeps us from losing heart. And I truly believe this is the quicker part of the process—the season where transformation and completion happen much more swiftly.
I can’t wait to see what the Lord builds in each of our lives this year!
If you need a word of encouragement, a prayer, a friend . . . reach out - I would love to connect with you!
Living for Him,
Andrea
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
