The Edinburgh Story

Raeleen and I started our marriage off completely stoked for God and for what He had in store for our lives. We lived our lives and our marriage charged with excitement and anticipation for God's leading and doing whatever He wanted us to do.
When we moved to Vancouver, our lives shifted. Little by little we started to feel like we needed to snuff out our passions, and just put our heads down and plow through life.
 Christians and non-Christians alike lived a mindset that “God helps those who help themselves”.
We bought into that hook-line-and-sinker, and therefore made our focus acquiring a mortgage, working jobs that we didn't necessarily want to work but that paid well and had good benefits. We focused on building our savings account, paying into an RRSP, and working however many hours we needed to feel like we were able to sustain paying into the former.

 I ended up working a job that had a horrible boss, made me work ludicrous hours, AND eventually presented situations that could actually compromise my beliefs, or force me to quit the job altogether. We couldn't make relationships, we couldn't find a church where we felt at home, and even with a dual income, we could never make ends meet financially. Every time we felt like we were getting ahead with our savings account, something would come along and zap it completely. From emergency dental bills to just stuff plain breaking down and needing repair, it always felt like our Savings account was one bad event away from being back at zero. We couldn't figure out why things were so messed up, when we were really just trying to do the right thing. The weird thing about this, was that we weren’t trying to do “the world thing”, we were trying to do “the Christian thing” and it wasn’t working.

 My health went extremely downhill, and stress levels skyrocketed to the point that I was living on meds just to exist. We were both at our breaking point.

 We ended up just saying "God, help, this isn't working, so something that we're doing isn't right. Please show us your way no matter what it takes." Dan (my brother) called us the next morning and simply said, "I am coming to get you". We knew we needed to go, and go then.

 Lethbridge became a time of healing, maturing, learning and growing for us. We really feel that we got back on track as far as the way God want us to live. Our whole lives shifted back to the mindset of following God, regardless of what society (Christian or non-Christian) says is the "right thing to do".

 We made amazing relationships that we know will last a lifetime. We began to think, well this is it, this is where we need to be and this is where we will raise our children. Life settled down and we both had jobs that we really enjoyed and all was going very well. We were in love with Lethbridge and the people there.
 Then we started to feel like God was going to ask more of us and that in some way our lives were going to change again. In April of last year we went away for a weekend (just the 2 of us), so we decided to use that time to pray, fast, and seek God. By the end of the weekend the only answer that we had was that we would be leaving Lethbridge. We didn't know when, where, why or how.

 We confided in our spiritual leaders and joined with them in prayer. Eventually this led to the reality that God was asking us to give up all of our comforts that we had found in Lethbridge- our belongings, our relationships, our financial security, all around stability, and simply put complete faith in Him. Many little miracles happened along the way to secure what He was asking of us. The "where" began as I turned to Raeleen one day and said, half jokingly, "Lets move to Europe" and she replied, "OK", and we looked shocked at each other and realized that that was actually what we were supposed to do. We had no idea how to get into Europe. Usually you would need to fall under the category of "Exceptional Talent" (eg: Surgeons, Doctors, etc…) to qualify for a visa to work there, which neither of us do. But then God brought me to the website about UK Ancestry Visas, and I found that Raeleen just happens to meet all of the requirements to be eligible for the visa.

 The UK Ancestry Visa is exceptional in the sense that it is the only visa that will allow both husband AND wife to work in the UK, as well as provide the full benefits awarded to a British Citizen including full access to healthcare, and free schooling for children. The only 2 restrictions are that we don’t have the right to vote, and we don’t have access to Child Tax Benefit. Also, it is a 5 year visa, which at the end makes us eligible for Permanent Residence, then full Citizenship. God provided the absolute best case scenario.

 Then the question was "where in the UK". We discussed different areas but didn’t have any peace about any of them. Raeleen one day ended up saying “I feel like we’re supposed move to Scotland ", and then pointed at the computer. A few months earlier I had put up a wallpaper of Edinburgh Scotland. We both looked at the picture and felt this deep sense of confirmation that yes that was THE place, and from that point on we had no further questions about where we were supposed to go.

 We then had a bit of a waiting period where we continued to meet and discuss with the friends and family we had confided in. We were trusting that God would give us the word as to when to actually apply for the visas. We know that “when” is equally as important as “where”. In February Raeleen felt God say "It’s now or never", so we prayed about it, took a deep breath and sent in our applications. We still have no idea how we had the money to pay for the visas, as they were quite expensive. A month later we had all 4 visas in our hands and it was suddenly very real.

 There are hundreds of churches in Edinburgh, and we really had no idea where to start with finding the right one for us. We prayed about it and did some research, then contacted a church that we had a good sense about. We just emailed a general inquiry to the church, and asked if there would be someone there that might be able to answer some of our questions. The pastor himself replied immediately and then proceeded to assign a church leader to assist us. The church leader (his name is Carlo) then contacted us and told us that he wants to help us with every facet of our move as well as our settling in Edinburgh. Not only that, but he told us that he would take a day off of work to drive an hour to Glasgow airport to pick us up, AND he would find a fully furnished apartment for us and go ahead and do all of the arrangements for it so that we could move straight in upon arrival.

 It was the 3 weeks before our move and we still didn’t have our plane tickets. We had felt for awhile that God was going to miraculously provide the money for them, so we chose not to stress about it. That Sunday a close friend of ours offered to pay for our plane tickets, then we could pay him back once our vehicles sold. This sounded like a possible answer, but was it the “right” answer? Both Raeleen and myself felt that that wasn’t the way that God was going to provide the money. The way that God was going to come through was going to be in such a way as to be obvious that HE was the provider, and not man. That very night Raeleen was in Halo’s room sorting out her stuff, and she ended up finding $1500.00 cash in an unmarked envelope in a bag in her closet…. We bought the plane tickets the next day.

 Before I move on, let me tell you about how we found the deal for our plane tickets. I had spent hours looking online at different aggregate sites comparing ticket prices. What I had found was that we were going to be flying to London, and making at least 1 if not 2 stops on the way. On top of that, once we arrived in London, we would then have to jump on a train and ride 4 ½ hours north to Edinburgh. One day I took my van to the dealership to get a couple of things fixed, and I noticed right away that the secretary had a British accent. I was of course excited, so we started talking while the Parts Department was sorting out some of my paperwork. I told her that we were moving to Edinburgh and that we were trying to find the best ticket prices. She immediately suggested a website to me that I had never heard of before that deals exclusively with flights between Canada and the United Kingdom. That lady was a God-send as this website not only provided flights $1000 cheaper than their closest competitor, but also had a direct flight from Calgary to Glasgow Scotland, only an hour away from Edinburgh.

 Now the vehicles…

 Raeleen and I drove to Calgary for a weekend to visit family, and that Sunday we went to the grand opening of a new church there that my brother is a part of. We had almost made it to the church (we were on the highway beside it) when our van died. The gas pedal went right to the floor, and all the dashboard lights went out. Then suddenly 2 seconds later everything turned back on again and the van kept going. Raeleen and I of course were very alarmed, but we were very close to the church, so we just finished the last 2 minute drive and parked the van in the church parking lot. We decided to leave the van and deal with it after the church service. We tried to start the van afterwards and it wouldn’t even turn over. There was no sound whatsoever.
 I talked to a few mechanically inclined people and they all agreed that it sounded like the alternator. So I went to work calling companies that could fix the alternator. A lot of the mechanics shops in Calgary are closed on Sundays, or they didn’t have the necessary part available. I found one place that was open that had that part, but they told me that the technician that could install it wouldn’t be in till the next day. This was problematic as we had to get back home for work that next morning. On top of that, parts and labor were going to be $700.00. We ended up calling a mechanically inclined friend of ours who just happened to live within 10 minutes of the church to come take a quick look at the van. He brought a few different machines with him and discovered that the alternator was fine, and it was the battery that was completely dead. He just happened to have a battery in his van that he installed and gave to us for free, then our van was running perfectly again! If our van died anywhere else but that spot of Calgary, I would have had to have paid a whole bunch of money for a diagnostic, and for parts and labor to get our van fixed. We would have been stranded and would have had to wait till the next day for our van to be fixed, AND we would have had to miss work. God provided the solution exactly where we were at for free.

 We owned that minivan and a car, and by the time we had purchased our plane tickets we still hadn’t put either of them up for sale (remember this was only 3 weeks from our flight). We fixed up and cleaned both of our vehicles (thanks to much help from a close friend), and then posted our minivan for sale on Kijiji first. The van had been for sale for 3 days when I had a discussion with the friend that was helping me sell the vehicles that we would drop the price of the vehicle by $1000.00 the next day if no one had given us any offers. We were on a time budget after all. We overpriced the vehicle quite a bit in preparation for lowball offers. Two hours after that conversation a man called and said that he wanted to buy the van for the exact price that we wanted, AND he made the decision before he had even taken it for a test drive. He paid cash and the van was gone.

 Of our two vehicles, we projected that the van would probably be harder to sell then the car. My friend had owned his own car dealership for 25 years and he said that it was DEFINITELY God that the van sold that quickly, that easily and for the price we wanted. The situation with the car was more complicated for 2 reasons: 1) We would need the car until the day that we would fly out since our van was sold and we were down to one vehicle. So whoever bought the car would have to be willing to agree to wait until that time to acquire it. 2) Being that we live in Lethbridge and our flight was going to be out of Calgary- either we were going to have to sell the car before we left Lethbridge and have someone else drive us around, or we were going to have to keep the car till after we flew out and have someone else pick up the car and sell it for us. Both options would put someone out and we had no idea what to do. I was just about to post the car on Kijiji when Raeleen texted me and told me of a friend of ours who’s wife had just been in a car accident (she was fine), and they now needed a second vehicle. I messaged him with the pictures and info on our car and they decided that day that they wanted to buy it. He said that he’s fine with acquiring the car on the day that we fly out, and funny enough, he lives in Calgary. So we can just make the exchange and then fly out. God worked out every detail, and we didn’t even have to put that car up for sale.

 The friend that I was talking about before that was helping me out with prepping and selling our vehicles had a truck that he was wanting to sell. It just so happened that he had offered to lend us that truck a little while back since we no longer had a van. 2 weeks before we moved out of Lethbridge he decided that it was time to list that truck. So I posted that vehicle on Kijiji, and within days the truck was spoken for by the first person that showed interest in it, and for my friend’s target price. Not only that, but my friend told the buyer that he didn’t want to do the official sale until the day before our move so that we would still have a second vehicle as needed. He told the buyer about our big move, and the buyer in response (not knowing us from a hole in the ground) said that he knows what it’s like to do big moves with family, and that he wanted us to keep the vehicle for as long as we needed it.

 Now something completely different…

Months prior, Raeleen and I realized that it would be a huge burden off our shoulders if Ryder (our 2 year old at the time) could be completely potty trained before we moved. We had countless other details to think about, and very limited space to deal with regarding our luggage. We put the matter to prayer, then tried our hand at potty training him. It did not go over well to say the least. He hated every minute of it, and then on top of it he became quite sick. So we felt like we were striving and that we just needed to stop trying and wait. One day Ryder came up to me and said “Daddy, I want to go on the big boy potty”, so I took him and he went. From that point on, it was 1 month in total from him being 100% in diapers, to skipping the pull-ups phase altogether and being 100% potty trained, sleeping through the night and doing long trips in his big boy underwear. Diapers are now a thing of the past, and just in the nick of time!

 This last Saturday (a week and a half from go time) I received notification that plans had changed regarding our damage deposit for the flat we will be living in. We can no longer pay all of the money on the time of arrival, but we needed to pay the damage deposit right away. Since it was Saturday, my bank was closed for the weekend, so I wouldn’t be able to wire the funds until Monday. Also, because of the time difference, if I wired the funds first thing Monday morning, it would be the end of the work day already in the UK. The landlord agreed to that, but that was as much time as could be spared. On Monday I called the bank, which was 40 minutes away (I was visiting my mother-in-law who lives in the sticks) and asked them whether the wire information that the landlord provided to me was sufficient. The representative told me that that information was not sufficient, and that I needed almost 3 times that info to be able to send the wire. And the wire had to be sent by 1:30pm our time. But my landlord’s bank would have already been closed so he wouldn’t be able to acquire the banking information till his next business day, which meant that because of our time zone difference he wouldn’t receive the money for an additional 2 business days. I was quite frustrated, but I just prayed and decided that if this place was God’s will, He would work it out. And if it didn’t work out, then God would have something even better. It turned out that I had to drive into town anyways to go see the doctor as I wasn’t feeling well. When I got into town I felt like God said very clearly that I was supposed to go to the bank and try and send the wire anyways with the info that I had. So I went straight to the bank and put the paper on the table and requested the wire. The lady said “no problem” without even a second look and proceeded to process the wire. I was given a wire confirmation, and the landlord confirmed the next day that everything was squared away.

 It is now 1 day till go time and all of our needs have been provided for way over and above any of our expectations! God is amazing!