The Ultimate Ultimate Update

One piece of advice writers are often given is to think of their audience.

I don’t like that advice.

When I do that, I tend to filter myself and give a very vanilla, standard view. I’ve learned that God uses our quirks, personalities, spiritual gifts, various strengths, and–Oh, my Lord, thank You!–our weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:9) on this amazing journey called life. Our family is about to embark on a new exciting chapter, and I really want to give an honest perspective on the many ups and downs that are in front of us.

This blog was formally used to showcase my fun, eclectic thrift store finds I sold online. Being a homeschool mom and pastor’s wife, life got busy, and the blog got neglected. In the meantime, our family got more curious about the Pacific Northwest and if God was calling us there. In January of this year, we all went to Oregon on a whim and road-tripped down the coast, along I-5, around Portland, and through the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood areas. We fell in love and preceded to go through the church planting process with the North American Mission Board and NW Baptist Convention. We explored much of the state of Washington with a focus east of the Cascades in June. Fast forward to right now where we have this moving trailer and (thankfully) five days to load our skimmed down possessions as we move our lives across the country to Walla Walla, Washington. What?! I know, right?!

I’ve always believed church planting was reserved for **superstars** especially at the well-equipping seminary and mission-focused multi-site church we attended for five years in North Carolina. Before this time, my husband and I have always felt on the fringe or “that doesn’t sound like us.” We didn’t come from a long lineage of missionaries. Our families have no “connections.” We were just nontraditional students with a growing family and trying to make ends meet. Specifically with me, I have never felt like I belonged. I have moved a total of 21 times within five states in my 34 years of life. It’s hard to establish belonging with numbers like that. Snippets of life where I didn’t feel “Hispanic-enough” in Miami, Florida, and “Southern-enough” in Savannah, Georgia, didn’t help. (To give more insight, my mother is a New York-born and -bred Italian-American, and my father came to the US when he was 11 from Cuba.)

But I do belong: I belong to my God. Through various hardships of different kinds, I have felt inadequate or pushed aside in the past, but, in fact, these reminders of living in a fallen world has actually made me more accessible to others and to be used by God in many ways. My identity is not in what brought me to the fringe but in who I truly am: adopted by God, a coheir with Christ. The fringe, the periphery, or whatever quarantined zone we feel pushed out to by this world of suffering becomes a way for God to be glorified (Romans 8:17). I hope to be a small detail in God’s story of making  all things turn out for good (Romans 8:28).

So are we ready for church planting across the country?! Sure!

In these surreal days where we are packing up our days in South Carolina, seeing family and friends in Georgia, driving across the country, and the upcoming challenges and triumphs in Washington, I hope my updates show a genuine faith that will never reveal perfection but will reveal willingness. I hope my updates show a crazy circus of kids growing into an understanding of God’s will for their lives. I hope my updates show what I’ve already been blessed to have a front seat to–God using my amazing, humble husband (with a horrible sense of humor) lead and help others grow into Christlikeness.

Thank you for joining me on this ride. Please feel free to comment below or contact us, and as always, your prayers would be awesome!

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To catch regular glimpses of our crazy, visit my public Instagram page. This can be accessed by:
– the Instagram icon at the top left of this page.
– by scrolling down to my Instagram picture roll at the bottom of this page and clicking on any pic.
– by going directly to my Instagram page at instagram.com/catchpennyambry.

As many of you know, I am not a fan of Facebook. In my opinion, it has become like the National Enquirer. In an effort to limit social media intake (read: be more present rather than a zombie scroller), Facebook easily did not make the cut. (I have actually turned off its notifications on my phone; I am still reachable via Messenger though.) I will only post my blog post updates on Facebook since we have many friends and family who use the site and will want to know if we are still alive, but please know I may or may not respond to comments on that platform. Thank you for understanding.