Hello Again!
I know it’s been a terribly long time since this blog has seen any action. It’s been a busy busy year for us and updating the family blog just seemed to fizzle out. No time, no energy I guess. This was an easy blog post to write but also a difficult one. It was easy because we really felt the need to share God’s goodness to us over the past year, and a difficult one because it exposes us. It lets people in more then we often like to do as humans. But this is the year of being real, and brutally honest. It is the end of charades and pretending we have it all together because really who has it all together? We don’t, and you don’t either, and if you think you do, you best leave this post and start seeking God for wisdom immediately because you’re deluded. Just sayin’. We’re also not trying to trick anyone. We’re gonna tell you straight up that this blog is about us, but more importantly it’s about the God we adore and His goodness. So, if you’re skeptical about God’s power to act, please keep reading! Our prayer is that you too will encounter Him this year. Psalms 34:8 says “Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!” So, sit back with a snack because she’s long. Enjoy our year in review. No popcorn please, I’m (Shane) allergic!
This year has been an interesting one to say the least. Emotions have ran high, and the blessings just seemed to keep on coming. It’s hard to believe this year is already over and we’re off to the races again. WOW! Three days into a fresh new year. To describe the year in three words would be easy “God is faithful”.
It’s crazy to rewind back to January and in see our dire and somewhat frantic circumstances. At that point we knew that only God and Him alone could make this year work. We realized pretty quickly after the announcement of the twins that many things were going to change in our life and we needed a serious dose of faith. And God delivered! We were in a small two bedroom townhouse expecting twins, needing to move, needing a whole lot of baby stuff we didn’t have, needing a bigger vehicle, needing money, and needing a bit of encouragement because as excited as we were, we were also at times scared silly. What would we do with two babies at once? Where would we live? How would we afford them? Who could we count on for support? The questions seemed to bombard us and left us in a frazzled state. Remember you’re looking at two people who never wanted twins. We wanted one more boy to give Gavin a brother and make our life easy, and then we were finished. It’s funny how God’s plans are so different than ours, isn’t it? We also knew by this point that Jenny wasn’t going to qualify for maternity leave due to a shortage of supply work with the DSBN. My business wasn’t exactly thriving but despite that I felt strongly after praying about it, that I was to stay the course and to keep taking pictures. Sure I could have gone and looked for a job but God kept saying no. And Jenny would pray and would also get a resounding no. It’s hard to see your family struggle and feel responsible for that lack of provision, but nevertheless I pressed on and kept doing what I do.
January came, and with the start of the new year we decided to start tithing after watching a stellar video by Craig Groeschel who is the pastor of
lifechurch.tv (check out the website). Sadly we’ve been Christians for many years but never trusted God with “our” money. I say that almost laughingly now. We actually thought it was our money and we were doing God a favor by giving Him the left over spare lint-covered change buried deep at the bottom of our pockets. God asks us in His word to tithe and that simply means to give Him 10% because He says the first 10% we earn isn’t our money anyways, but His. Who are we to argue with God? In our situation it was the last thing that made any sense. But we knew it was clearly the right thing to do so without even enough money to get by we started honoring God and giving Him the first 10%.
1 Samuel 2:30 says for “those who honor me, them will I honor”.
We went to a Dr’s appointment in early January where we were told if we wanted to move it better be before Jenny reached 30 weeks, our we’d have to wait until after the babies were born. The Dr. didn’t want her exerting herself after this time because it could put her into pre-term labour. This wasn’t something we wanted to hear nor did we want to wait to move as staying at our current residence created a whole new set of problems we were unequipped to deal with. We were certainly in a pickle and wondered how this was all going to work out. The situation was clearly impossible but we felt strongly that God was in complete control. We knew that with God all things are possible but sometimes struggled to believe it.
We were living in a townhouse complex at the time, and started to pray that God would open up a three or four bedroom unit for us. Boy were we thinking small. We thought for sure this was going to happen and after all it seemed like it made the most sense. How easy would that be for the God who created the heavens and the earth with merely a spoken word to open up another townhouse for us? A few weeks into January and nothing. We were getting ever closer to Jenny’s 30 week deadline of February 12th and knew we were quickly running out of time. What were we going to do? Was God going to come through for us? We had lost three weeks and had no answers to any of our prayers. Why wasn’t God helping us with any of the numerous requests we brought before Him? Later that week, Jenny remembered a conversation she had over the holidays with one of her former youth leaders (she and her husband are very awesome people in our lives). She has mentioned that the small house out at Agapé Valley (they produce maple syrup and honey here and the proceeds from their sales go to support an affordable 8 week summer day camp for kids) was empty but quickly stated that it was probably too small for us and our soon-to-be three kids. Conversation over. But Jenny just couldn’t get it out of her head. Me (Shane), being the voice of reason kept saying to her she needed to forget about it because I knew it would be an incredible place to live and didn’t want to get our hopes up only to suffer disappointment. We all know what it’s like to get all psyched up for something and have it fall through. Whether it’s a job, a raise, a date etc... it sucks when we get carried away with the thoughts of what could be and it doesn’t happen, doesn’t it?
We’re now in the fourth week of January and still no answers to our prayers, be we pressed on and remained faithful knowing that with God all things are possible and He would work everything out. Faith can often be a difficult thing especially when we can’t see God. It would be fantastic if we could just ask Him to stop by when He has a free minute and talk things over until we find a solution but it just doesn’t work like that. Ok, back to week four. The maintenance man stopped by to change the toilet in our unit to a water efficient one. You know what that means, right?? Yep you got it! A toilet that you have to flush a zillion times or else it gets plugged. So he came in to exchange the throne during lunch hour, and I was busy in the kitchen making my preggo wife and son lunch. He came in and did his job and left. He usually took time to make small talk but this day was different and he seemed to just rush out the door with barely a word. I thought it a tad strange but I quickly brushed it off thinking he probably just had a lot to get done that day. A couple of days later we received a letter in our door from the office manager. You don’t want to see a letter in your door because the outcome usually isn’t good. We saw many people get them and they were always bad. So I rapidly snatched the letter out of the door lest the neighbours see and start gossiping and tore it open. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Things had just gone from bad to worse. It stated that we had to go before the board of directors because we were lawbreakers. Yep, that’s right, we broke the law. Apparently, covering the smoke detector with tin-foil for 15 minutes while you cooked lunch so the smoke alarm didn’t go off and wake up the sleeping child (like it always did because the oven hood sucked and didn’t work) was a crime and needed to be addressed. Would it have been so difficult for the maintenance man to just say, hey, you can’t do that. Perhaps, but he chose to report us that day. Jenny couldn’t believe it and grabbed the letter from my hands. I immediately asked her when the meeting was. She read the letter twice and saw no date, so in frustration she crumpled up the letter and threw it in the garbage. We figured we’d just get another letter or a phone call outlining the time and date of our “meeting”.
The search for an apartment was still on. No vacancies came up for the month of January, so Jenny decided to make a call about the small blue house at Agapé. Jenny was told it was still available, and we were welcome to come see it on Saturday. We were super excited and could barely get through the week. With each successive day our excitement was building up and by mid-week we were ready to explode. So much for the voice of reason.
Then Friday came and BAM another letter was placed in the door. I made my way to grab it and said to Jenny “I guess they’ve finally set up our stupid meeting, this is so ridiculous! We’re grown ups - why couldn’t they just talk to us about it?” I tore open the letter and couldn’t believe my eyes. We were EVICTED! Apparently, we missed our meeting with the board and on that basis they were sending us packing. And since Jenny threw out the letter which she couldn’t find a date on, we’ll never know if it was actually on there, just overlooked, or if God blinded her eyes. She read it twice so it just didn’t make any sense. How do you evict two people in the middle of winter who always pay their rent, are kind to their neighbors, never had any previous trouble, who have a young son, and are expecting twins in two months? It was a crazy scenario. We had until the end of February to vacate the premises. We sat back down at the dinner table and cheered and thanked God for a situation that was clearly bigger than us and rapidly spinning out of our control. We knew this was an answer to prayer and the next morning we were going to see the house at Agapé. It had to have been God because the whole situation made absolutely no sense in our human reasoning whatsoever! God’s ways are not our ways and how true this was becoming to us.
The next morning was beautiful. There was fresh snow on the ground and the sun was just glistening as it ascended up into the sky. We arrived at the house and the view was breath-taking. We hadn’t even gone in yet and were pretty much sold. We marveled at the landscape and scenery around us. We had been here many times before but never noticed the small blue house (now grey) with the million dollar view. Our lovely tour guide arrived and opened the door. We walked in and could barely contain our excitement. It was beautiful! It was open concept and had massive windows on every side. She immediately said “I know it’s small”, but to the guy who had never lived in a house (that was all his) before couldn’t believe how big it was. To me, it was huge and felt like a palace. We quickly expressed how much we liked it and said we’ll take it if the board will allow us to live here. We left the house that day feeling anxious. The board was meeting on Monday night and that’s when the decision would be made. It was a long nail biter of a weekend. We finally got word on Tuesday... WE GOT IT! We cheered and danced around our townhouse praising the Lord for answering our prayers. We couldn’t believe it! It was truly our own little miracle and our joy was uncontainable.
Our faith was increased and we continued to petition God with our never ending list of problems that needed to be resolved. Ok great! We got the place but there is one little problem... we didn’t have any money, especially not enough to live there because it was going to cost a bit more. On a good note since we got evicted we didn’t have to give sixty days notice. This meant we could move into the new place fast and beat the 30 week deadline Jenny was given by the doctor. We were given permission to move in early so we officially moved on February the 10th, two days before Jenny reached 30 weeks. WOW!
So amazing, isn’t it? We spent the next two days frantically unpacking and setting everything up and now all Jenny had to do was worry about relaxing and growing herself some babies. Whew! Ok, so back to having no money. It was winter and it wasn’t a prosperous time for my photography. In fact, it was dead! And Jenny had reached her 30 weeks-no-more-work-for-you deadline, so this left us in financial disarray. We now have all of our stuff in the new place and no money. EEK! So we pray, and pray and pray. A letter came in the mail back in the fall from the government explaining that they owed us a great deal of cash, so we thought. We didn’t know how much but we hoped it would be enough to get us through the winter. You see the year before Jenny made the horrific mistake of taking her taxes to H&R Block. During her consult with the tax associate she called me from the lady’s desk to get some info from me. Despite this, the lady make a tragic mistake and marked Jenny as single on her tax report. This messed everything up and we got letter after letter from the government. These letters ranged from telling us we owed large sums of money we didn’t have, to them owing us money. By November they froze our baby bonus and gave us a list of things we had to provide before they could reinstate it. We had no clue when the money would come in, so we prayed. We called them again and again seeing if they got our information and had come to a conclusion. They said they had sorted the mess out and they did owe us money but didn’t know exactly how much or when we’d get it. It was the government after all and they don’t usually work that fast, especially when they owe you money.
A couple days before March first when our rent was due we got a direct deposit. God’s timing is perfect. It’s amazing that He had the situation all worked out a year in advance. All by allowing or directing that nameless lady to click her mouse one time and make a seemingly tragic mistake that would prove to bless us almost a year later. We paid our rent for March, and over the next couple of months the direct deposits poured in. They kept coming and coming and coming, and they sustained us for the next few months. In that time, we also booked a couple of weddings which was helpful.
April arrived and so did the twins. They were born on the 12th and my birthday is November 12th so we share a day. And ironically Gavin’s birthday is July 5th and Jenny’s is Dec 5th so they share a day too. That’s good to know if there’s ever a Reed trivia challenge. So stay tuned! Ok back to the twins... They were spectacular! And once again we felt so blessed. Backing up a little bit to February and March. We had that dilemma of how we were going to afford all of the baby stuff we needed like car-seats, double strollers, cribs, clothes etc... We knew that the unwritten rule is that you only get a shower for your first baby and then you’re on your own. We were fine with this but then another blessing came. Thankfully since we were having twins some amazing people from our old church threw us a ginormous shower and we were truly humbled by the kindness of others. We received the car seats, double strollers, and abundance of clothes, bibs, blankets, toys, and more. A couple weeks later, our close friends and some family threw us a second surprise shower and in God’s goodness the blessings just poured in like the rain. We were speechless and marveled at the site of these massive gift piles. Now we wondered where we would put all this stuff? That’s a good problem to have isn’t it? It was great we had all of this stuff and we were so thankful but we still needed cribs. After all you need somewhere for the babies to sleep when you bring them home right? It’s sort of a key thing. So we prayed and wouldn’t you know it God sent two angels to our door with brand new in the box beautiful deluxe convertible cribs and more. We were shocked to hear that they came into some money and God laid on their hearts to take their tithe money (how ironic) and buy us this stuff. WOW!
So back to the babies. They arrived in gruesome fashion via c-section (read an earlier post for more details) but nevertheless they were gorgeous and healthy. What more could we ask for? Well it was still early into the year and the government raining money on us wasn’t going to last forever so we still needed God to come through for us in a big way. And He did! From May until September I got work every time we needed money and all of our bills got paid. In the summer we hit another bump in the road and one of my cameras was experiencing issues. I was very frustrated because due to Jenny not getting mat leave my business and the baby bonus were our only sources of income. I couldn’t go and shoot weddings without a backup camera. What if my camera broke? What would I do? It could ruin me. My thoughts raced, and before worry got it’s evil clutches on me I prayed and it wasn’t long before I was holding a new to me pristine Canon 5D mark II which I got for an amazing price might I add. I love me a good deal.
So we’re now going into fall and we are very cramped in the Focus wagon and desperately needed something bigger. Everything was starting to break on our car and we cried out to the Lord again. Once again, He is faithful and before long we’re driving a Dodge Caravan we bought from my cousin for a steal of a deal.
You may not even be a believer in Jesus Christ but you’ve just got to be praising God by now? This definitely didn’t happen by random chance or blind luck. Too many things fell into place too many times for that. So to finish the year off God blessed us with the money to go into our first wedding show (which was a flop, c’est la vie) and buy our first studio sample album which we love. Not to mention that almost everything we needed throughout the year seemed to just happen to be on sale the day we arrived at the store. Like for example we needed Quickbooks for the business but couldn’t afford $80, so we left Best Buy and went home. We prayed about it and a decided we were going to buy it and just trust God to make up the difference. Wouldn’t you know it, we got there and it was on sale for $30. This happened more times then I can count last year. I could add a few more pages of the remainder of the little miracles and blessings that came along the way, but at this point it would probably be redundant. We were even blessed at our new home this year with a new furnace, new windows and doors, and new siding. The place looks stunning! On top of this we’ve made some amazing new friends and were lead to an incredible new church (
harvestniagara.ca). You should come check it out! We also enjoyed some awesome moments like Gavin’s 3rd birthday with the appearance of Spiderman, some fantastic weddings and portrait sessions with some incredible people, and watching our two beautiful girls grow (and puke on us). And even more amazing we’re now at the end of the year and all of our bills for 2011 are paid. God met EVERY need ALL year long. On top of all of this we were able to faithfully tithe (take 10% off of every penny we made) and use it to support our church and help others we knew were struggling and had various needs. We are humbled to help others and are likewise humbled when people have helped us. I say all of this stuff about tithing not for the propose off bragging or to convince you to give your money to a church, but so God’s name would be praised for His faithfulness. Malichi 3:10 says “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need”. WOAH! How incredible is that? I will never forget the words in that video we watched on tithing... “90% with God is far more then 100% on your own”. How true it is! Long gone are the days of scrambling looking for things to sell in an effort to try to solve issues on our own. And we look forward to giving until it hurts in 2012 because God is good and will supply all of our needs. It’s funny, I had a conversation with a great fried earlier this year... it was actually back in January I think. He isn’t a Christian and he was a little worried for us and skeptical of our plan. I must’ve looked like a crazy person when I explained to him how God would work it all out and the plan was simply to trust God. I made him a promise, a very bold promise. I told him that by the end of the year all of our bills would be paid and all of our needs met. I also told him we would have a van, and I would do this all by depending on God to bless my business enough to make it through 2011. Well, my friend, God did it!
We have arrived to the end of a year filled with blessing and a lot of trials. We found out when we are weak, He is strong. We found out who our real friends were and we thank you for your help and encouragement along the way because it’s been an exhausting year and we needed it. We also found out who didn’t care about us so much this year, and as hurtful of a lesson as it was, we’re thankful that God is good and His name is worthy to be praised! We also learned that being in the red isn’t always a bad thing. God knows where you’re at, and you’re exactly where He wants you to be. You see being in the red is actually awesome because it forces you to lean and depend on God and allows you to enter into the privileged arena of seeing God work in your life. So often when we have an abundance we forget about God and trust in ourselves (and our money) and think we’ve arrived or made it. We forget that all things come from God whether it be blessing or tribulations, and either way His name is to be praised. So many people enter into trials in their life and all of a sudden start praying. They don’t love God or even go to church but they start to pray and make promises to God. Empty promises. Their faith is great only until they get what the need and then it’s bye bye God. There is a song by a band called I Mother Earth that has lyrics that put this concept into words better then I ever could. It says “I’ve always needed faith to get to shore then break all the vows I’ve made”. I hope your faith is deeper than this in 2012. You are loved and may you find God’s undeserved grace found only in Jesus Christ in 2012. Call upon the Lord in the day of trouble and He WILL deliver you! AMEN to that!
Why did we write this? Really how could we not? It was such an amazing year of blessing and we hope you find encouragement from our story. For us this will be an alter to look back on when we’re tempted to doubt the faithfulness of God. The bible says that God is unchangeable and is the same yesterday today and forever. It’s great to see the checklist of needs totally fulfilled by our God.
And Lastly please do not read this the wrong way and waste any of your time feeling sorry for us. We are not looking for pity, charity or any handouts whatsoever. That is so not our intention at all, and we would be very offended if you’ve misinterpreted it in this way. We simply want to openly and honestly share our joy with you in God’s abundant provision. We are great and will continue to be because God is in control of our lives, and He is faithful. We may not have a lot compared to some people’s unrealistic standards, but God has shown us that we are abundantly blessed and our joy doesn’t come from material things, but from a God who loves us. We aren’t trying to keep up with the Joneses (whoever they are) and hope you aren’t either. We’ve realized that getting the next latest greatest gadget, toy, whatever it is for you, is nothing but vanity. It never delivers what it promises. It seems you no sooner buy something you thought you couldn’t live without and BAM, you’re disappointed with it. You’re bored with it. You’re unsatisfied because it didn’t live up to your expectations and do for you what you thought it could. Now guess what? You need to buy something else because you’re sure it will fill the void that the last item couldn’t right? Well think again, only God can satisfy you and until you see your sinfulness and fall at the gracious feet of Jesus you will relentlessly grasp at the wind looking for satisfaction that cannot be attained. People try everything to fill that void... drugs, money, partying, success, sex and even religion only to eventually find that it just doesn’t deliver. Yes I said religion because God doesn’t like religious finger-pointing people who outward pretend they’ve got it all together and are inwardly as dirty as us and desperately need to be made clean by Christ’s blood. So many have climbed to the top of the ladder only to realize they’ve wasted their whole life on something that didn’t satisfy. I pray that isn’t you. Jesus came to save dirty rotten sinners so we all qualify, and change then from the inside out. Isn’t that fantastic?
Here are a couple of our favorite passages from God’s word.
Jeremiah 29:11 - I know the thoughts I have for you says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Romans 8:28 - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Psalm 103 is incredible too...
1
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
2
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
3
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
4
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
6
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
7
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
8
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
10
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
15
As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
17
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children,
18
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
19
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.
20
Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word,
obeying the voice of his word!
21
Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
his ministers, who do his will!
22
Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
And the list goes on... I’m sure you have a bible of your own so make this the year you actually read it. If you don't have one go here
youversion.com.
I hope you made it this far and thanks for sharing in our story. We enter into this year again in the "slow" (whatever that means) season, with a few other small problems. But God is faithful and we look forward to seeing the marvelous ways He’s going to work things out this year. Our list of problems certainly seems very miniscule compared to last year.
All the best in 2012 love the Reeds! If you want to see our favorite images from the past year please check out our Reed Photography blog
www.reedphoto.ca/theblogPEACE OUT!
