For June 26th:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

In July of 2010, Scott received a call from a recruiter to interview for a job in Chattanooga.  He hadn’t been looking, but this was a great opportunity.  We decided we were tired of NY winters and the cost of living, and in September we moved the family to Tennessee.  We grew up in Goshen, New York, and moved back to that same small town to buy our first home and start a family.  We left family, friends, great neighbors, and a town where we had spent most of our lives, knowing that this was the right decision.  About 2 months into the move, I wasn’t so sure.  The kids were struggling.  I was homesick and couldn’t seem to make a friend to save my life.   We had some of life’s typical ups and downs, but things were pretty good in NY.   I trudged along day to day, lost and pretty much convinced that there was no way I was going to make it here.  It got so bad, Scott told me to take the boys and go back to NY at the end of the school year.  We weren’t leaving, so I decided I would just have to learn to deal with life here in the south.

Then, one day Christopher had one of his friends over to play.  He had on a Cub Scout shirt and I asked his mom where he went for scouts.  The boys hadn’t connected with the boys in their scout pack/troop.  Sam’s mother told me that lots of kids from the boys’ schools went to scouts at CUMC.  Not long after, the boys started going to scouts at CUMC.  That spring, Scott took the boys to Scout Sunday at the church.  He came home and said that he thought maybe we should check out Christ United.  Scott has never really been a church person, so if he likes a church, that is really saying something.  I was raised Catholic, and we were raising the boys Catholic.  We had joined a Catholic Church in Chattanooga, but something was missing.  I was hesitant to leave our church, but I knew that we had to do something if we were going to ever settle in here.  We met with David Hall and started attending services sometime in May.  As it turns out, Christopher’s friend’s mom is Christina Malone.

Danielle Brinkley