CHRONICLES OF AN ALIEN (Part 6)

Moving to Colorado Springs was easier said than done. Making the decision to move was not the hard part though. You see, I had read Ted Haggard's, Primary Purpose and became convinced that Colorado Springs was where I needed to be. In November of 1996 ( as I'd previously stated) I was praying and fasting to get some real clarity concerning what our next step would be. I began to sense that we were supposed to relocate from South Bend, IN. The problem was that I had three places I was considering, of which Colorado Springs was one, and I needed to have something or someone tip the scales one way or another.

I had really loved my first trip to Colorado Springs in 1994, and Ted Haggard's book certainly weighed in heavily in favor of our moving there. I loved the fact that there was someone who believed that a city could be transformed through love, prayer, communication and relationship. Ted's book was like water in an arid desert. To know that what I had always believed about city transformation was not only documented in print, but was actually taking place in Colorado Springs through New Life Church, convinced me that I was supposed to be a part of that. I spoke to a couple of trusted confidants and they had nothing but positive encouragement for me in my desire to relocate to Colorado Springs. In fact, the Dean of my college said, "I can't see anything but good coming out of a move to Colorado Springs." (Years later he would move there himself).

With all of that positive affirmation in the "bank" as well as my wifes hearty support (and nothing else in the bank), we packed up all our wordly goods into a 24 foot Ryder truck (we had sold most of our entire household furniture for $750.00 wholesale), hitched my SAAB 900 turbo to the back of the truck, and my six year old son and I set off on the journey of our lives. My wife had some professional exams to take and so she remained behind with our two daughters, one of whom was just three weeks old, for three more weeks. My first clue that we were headed in the right direction was when the brakes locked up on the trailer hauling my car, somewhere on the border of Illinois and Iowa. It took over five hours to finally get a replacement trailer from Ryder, and we finally made it to Omaha, NE at the ungodly hour of 12.30am, having left South Bend at 7.00am. the previous day.

Our inauspicious arrival in Colorado Springs was marked by a deluge of rain, and so I didn't unload the Ryder truck for two days. Finally I contacted Ted, whom I had met a couple of times, and had discussed the possibility of coming to work for New Life Church. He expressed joy at hearing from me and mentioned that he had tried to reach me back in Indiana a couple of weeks earlier to encourage me to consider moving out to The Springs and working for New Life. I was shocked, because I had actually picked up from South Bend with no guarantees of employment, and since I hadn't heard from him, I assumed he wasn't interested in hiring me. Apparently, at the time he had called, my phone had been disconnected (for a day or two) for non payment of my bill, and of all the times he could have called, it was then.

I guess God really wanted to see if I would be obedient and move even when I didn't know that I had the guarantee of employment. If the truth be told, it never crossed my mind not to move even though I hadn't heard from Ted. In fact, I was willing to take a customer service job answering the phones at MCI (at the time, the largest employer in The Springs) in order to ensure that I was in Colorado Springs. I set up an appointment to meet with Ted four days after arriving in The Springs, and that was the day I began working for New Life Church. Ted had the administrator cut me my first paycheck and I couldn't contain my excitement at what God had in store for me. The next five years would prove some of the most memorable and rewarding years of my life.