Out of Ur… Part 2

Looking at Wilmington from just outside of town

By: Ben Presten

Four months had passed since the morning that God made it clear to Tiffany and me that we would one day plant a church in New England (see Tiffany’s post telling the first part of our story) We were spending every spare minute in God’s word and reading books about starting a church. My internship was going well and our faith was growing quickly. As we studied church planting we began to see a common thread throughout every story of a couple being called to start a church. Every church planter’s story included a broad calling to begin a new church, and then a specific calling to a specific city in which to begin the work. As we read of account after account, we started to realize that the Lord would clarify for us where exactly he had in mind for us to go. We had already experienced the broad calling to church planting, and now we knew we needed a specific calling to a city.

In December 2010 Tiffany and I talked and decided to begin asking the Lord in faith to call us to the specific location he wanted us to plant a church. To be honest our praying was not very fervent. Perhaps we still felt as if it would be quite some time before the Lord would answer our prayers. On December 11th my brother told me that he and his wife were committing to pray for us for the next few days. They would be praying for God to reveal to us the city to which we were called. Still thinking that God would wait until a later date I honestly didn’t think much of it.

The next day, December 12th, I was at work. I’m a firefighter and work 24 hour shifts. Evening rolled around and I was anxious to read my bible. The evenings tend to be our down time when we can start to relax and do our own thing. I retreated to my bunk to spend some time alone in the word with the Lord. I was studying Psalm 32. God’s word was especially refreshing to my soul that night. I read the first verses of Psalm 32 which spoke of the one whose sins are not counted against him.

 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,

and in whose spirit there is no deceit.    (v. 1-2)

 The chapter then goes on to talk about the importance of confessing our sins to the Lord.

I acknowledged my sin to you,

and I did not cover my iniquity;

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.   (v. 5)

 I began confessing my sins to the Lord and enjoying a time of great fellowship with him. I continued to read. I was stopped in my tracks as I read a verse that I believed spoke directly to our situation.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.  (v. 8)

As I read it was as if a light was being shone into my heart revealing to me some real error in my thinking. I suddenly saw very clearly that I was placing a great weight upon my own shoulders. I was assuming the responsibility of hearing from the Lord about where we were to plant. The problem was that I was having to put my trust in myself instead of God. I began to thank the Lord that he would instruct us as to where we should go. I felt a great release as I laid the responsibility at the feet of Jesus believing that as long as we were truly surrendered to go where he told us to go, the Lord would see to it that we would have direction.

In that very moment, alone at my desk, head hung over my bible, the Lord spoke to me. I was not asking him to speak to me right then… I was not expecting him to speak to me right then… but he did. He didn’t speak to me in an audible voice. In fact it was clearer than an audible voice. Everything in my mind came to rest and my thoughts were stilled.

Then he spoke.

“WILMINGTON”

Wilmington? I’d never even heard of a Wilmington before.

“Lord, are you telling me where we are to go? WILMINGTON? Lord, where in the world is Wilmington?”

My eyes were closed, my head bowed, my heart racing. Then I saw very clearly a city in a valley. I was nearly in a state of shock. The God of the universe was speaking to me! He was fulfilling his promise in Psalm 32:8.

“Lord, you want me to go to a place called Wilmington in a valley?” I sat there for just a moment repeating the word “Wilmington” out loud over and over again. If anyone had walked in on me right then they would have thought I was crazy. I was very curious to find out just where this Wilmington in a valley was located. I made my way over to the offices so I could do some research. I googled “Wilmington”. A few cities named Wilmington popped up as first on the list that were not located in a valley or in New England. Then as I got to the next Wilmington on the list my stomach sank as I saw that it was located in Vermont. My mind was spinning.

I had to find out if Wilmington, Vermont was located in a valley. I clicked on one of the search results. The first sentence almost knocked me out of my chair. “The town of Wilmington, Vermont nestled in the heart of the Deerfield Valley…”  My eyes were fixed on that sentence. Now I knew where I was going. I spent the next half hour researching Wilmington, Vermont. If the story ended here it would be an incredible story… but it doesn’t end here.

It was almost time for bed, and my shift wouldn’t end until 7:00 the next morning. I called my wife and told her that the Lord had given me the name of the city where we would start a church. She was dying to know what I’d learned. However, I decided not to tell her right away. Instead I asked her if she would be willing to wait and pray and ask the Lord to reveal it to her as well. She agreed and we said our ‘goodnights’ and got off the phone. The next morning my drive home seemed to take an eternity. I was talking to the Lord about Wilmington and asking him to tell Tiffany just as he had told me.

As soon as I walked in the door I asked her if she felt like the Lord had revealed anything to her. She looked discouraged when I asked and explained that after we got off the phone she was praying and really thought that the Lord had impressed the name of a random city on her heart. Excited and hopeful she immediately looked the city up online. She was discouraged when she found that the city she believed the Lord put on her heart was not located in New England and assumed that she was just confused and had not actually heard from the Lord. Curious, I asked her what the name of the city was that she’d thought she heard. “Wilmington,” she said awkwardly, and looked at me with a look that said, “how random is that?”. I fell on my knees and tried catching my breath. I felt like someone had just hit me from behind. Tiffany stared at me with her eyes opened wide and her mouth open. “What?” she asked. “It’s Wilmington?” I could only nod as my eyes filled with tears.

I went on to explain to her that there was in fact a Wilmington in New England, and that it was a small town in southern Vermont. We tried to soak in the wonder of what had just taken place. We worshipped. We cried. We surrendered afresh to this calling to a town in a valley, 1,000 miles from home.

Please pray and ask the Lord if he wants you to partner with us in some way as we move forward in this journey to take the gospel to New England.

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