I loved every place I lived, but there was always one thing missing, our family. Ever since we got married I wanted so bad to be close to our family. My mom and sisters are my best friends. Every week they would meet with my grandma for lunch and it killed my that I couldn't be there. Once we moved to Lakeland I would venture down every once in a while, but it was a big pain because of the traffic in Tampa. I had to make sure I left early enough to beat it which meant practically turning around as soon as I arrived.
Anyway, a job offer opened up for taking care of an older couple. It was 3 days a week from 2pm to 7pm and it paid $25 an hour, but it was in St Pete. This was when I knew that it was time to move back. I didn't know how we were going to do it, but I knew that this job was from God which meant that there would be a job offer for Jacob in St Pete coming soon. At the same time my dad had an offer at a gated community as the head maintenance man and he needed an assistant, so he offered the job to Jacob. There was only one problem it paid about $2 less an hour, so money would be really tight. Also at the same time my parents church was need of a worship leader, so we met with the pastor telling him that if he could provide a place for us to live, Jacob would do the worship. Again, at the same time his youth pastor was moving out of town and out of his apartment right on the church grounds. Funny how God works. So in March of 2008 we moved into the church apartment. The arrow points to our front door.
Living on church grounds is probably best described as interesting. Our apartment was an old office that had been turned into an apartment. It was connected to Salt and Light a ministry for the homeless and hurting families. There were connecting doors in our kitchen and in our office. We had to walk through it to get to the laundry room. The outside of our apartment didn't look like an apartment, so we got a lot of knocks on the door. People were always looking for the church office or wanted to be let into Salt and Light. It was frustrating. Once a month on a Saturday Salt and Light was open to the public. They handed out free food, clothes and household items. They opened at 9 (I think), but people started lining up at 5 or 6. They liked to park their bikes right outside of our bedroom window and talk super loud. They would form a line in front of our front door. Also VERY frustrating! On these mornings we reminded ourselves that we had free housing.
We stayed there for a little over a year. It was around April of 2009
that we decided to leave due to disagreements we had with the pastor.
That's all I'm saying.
Our living room
