SQUARE ONE

August 12, 2014:

Written over 3 years ago, a month before we moved to NW Montna, I had originally intended to make this my very first post on this blog.  It's a little late being published, but... Well, maybe someone will find it encouraging.

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June 20, 2011:

"You're going Where??  You're doing WHATT?!?!?"

This is the response I'm expecting to receive when I tell my friends and co-laborers in ministry that our little family is actually relocating to the Northwestern Montana region to build a homestead in the woods.

A home-what?  You mean like Little House on the Prairie?  Why in the world would anyone want to do that?

Well, most of you know us fairly well, and have already gathered that we are of a slightly different mindset than just "anyone".  For many years — even since the beginning of our marriage, 18 years ago — Jenna and I have longed for wide-open spaces.  Yet, since we were both raised in Southern California, it was hard to imagine actually pulling up stakes and doing life much differently.  So we stayed in the Golden State and proceeded to make some very counter-cultural decisions about how we were going to spend our time and energy:

• We've been a 1-car family since 1994
• We've been a 1-income family since 1996
• We passed the national birth rate 3 children ago
• We have been Home-Educating our children since 2002
• We don't have cable TV (but yes, we do own every season of LHotP  :-)

 However, after all of those "roads less-traveled", that calling toward even greater simplicity would not leave us alone.  Providentially, and as part of our home education — which has unbelievably strengthened and prioritized our family unity — we began consuming a bunch of material that began to fan into flame the possibility that we Calvi's might not be best suited for life in a large population.  In addition to taking the Scriptures to heart (Old and New Testaments), we started really digging into things like our government's history, leadership and economy, our rampant consumerism and globalism, how the public education system has "dumbed-down" the nation's children, etc.  The conclusion that we are coming to is this: we are being called to leave what we considered a "broad road" in favor of a "narrow one".

It has been recently brought to my attention that choosing this path will have a cathartic effect on our relationships with others, particularly other Christians.  By the time you read this, we will have begun the conversation with you, and we hope to be able to share more and more with you as the days turn into months turn into years.  As we have said before, we have more questions than answers, but we are ready to trust the leading of God's Spirit into the unknown, as Abram and Sarai did.  We have the promise from Jesus that our Heavenly Father will take good care of us.  He is, after all, already on the "other side" of this trial, and the outcome is firmly in His grasp.

Stay tuned for pictures, ponderings and prayers.  Also, please send your (encouraging) comments and support... it strengthens us for the journey.