6 Ways to pray for our new home.

After months of working to get the house ready, and even safe, to have guests, we were excited to have a time of prayer and dedication in June 2015. This house is God’s, and we are grateful that friends who helped and prayed for us during these months of preparation were able to come and pray with and for us for Christ’s cleansing and filling of our new home.

As well as praying specifically for each room, here are 6 general areas where we are asking God to work in us, our home and all who visit.

  1. Seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness first. (Matt 6:33; Hebrews 13:14)

    • Truly walking in fellowship with Christ in daily life and all decisions

  2. Love, Joy & Peace at this home. (Gal 5:22; Eph 5)

    • Demonstration of His deep sacrificial love

    • Joy in drawing near to him as a family

    • Peace of spirit through faith in His presence and intimate work in our lives

  3. Growing wisdom in building a home (Psalms 127:1; Matt 6:21; Matt 19:5)

    • Spiritual growth in Christ and His word leading to life and discernment

    • Growing marriage as we seek to live in unity of purpose and action

    • That our children would not just perform and obey, but to have hearts after Christ

    • Financial Wisdom and Generosity to see everything as Christ’s

  4. Dwelling of His Spirit so the evil spirits will not have any strongholds. (Psalms 84; Phil 2:1-11, Matthew 12:43-45)

    • Freedom from any strongholds previously in this house

    • Moving forward in growth in Christ’s Spirit to make us more like Him

  5. Christ’s Spirit to be moving as we have guests at our home (Matt 18:20; Col 4:5-6; Hebrews 13:15-16)

    • Christ’s Spirit to touch lives and draw people to Himself

    • Connection among all who come to visit

    • Protection, that no one would have injury

    • Joy and Perseverance reaching out to others

    • Especially for currently planned group events

  6. Continued and growing Missionary perspective (2 Corinthians 5:20; Matt 28:19-20; Acts 1:8)

    • To live intentionally in all areas of life to walk with Christ and thus to have Him glorified

    • To be driven to see people discipled in Christ

Grass is cut finally:-)! See what it was like here.
Grass is cut finally:-)! See what it was like here.

A Record of the Golls’ Journey

  • It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Deuteronomy 31:8

  • Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. Exodus 40:36-38

June 2015 Home Dedication & Beginning to be able to practice hospitality
Oct. 2014 Move out of the house on Greenleaf Ave, Parma Hts.
Sept. 2014 Signed on our new house

We bought a house, debt free! God is so good!!
We bought a house with lots of “potential” :), but debt free! God is so good!! It was not a house you would fall in love at first sight, but a home you will grow to love with your loved ones day by day!!
May ~ Sept. 2014 Waiting on God’s timing and direction during uncertainty with the “Maybe house”.
May 2014 Isaiah was born
Sept.  2012 Move into the rental house, Greenleaf Ave,ParmaHts. This move blessed us with:

  • wonderful neighbors (with young children),
  • the ability to have Elijah run around outside
  • a place to grow our garden
  • an easier time having guests

We weren’t looking to move, but what a blessing that house became during the two years we were there.

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A search for a home for our garden has led us to a house! Third home!
Sept. 2011 Move into the apartment, North Church Dr., Parma Hts.

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We enjoyed our one-year stay at the apartment. No grass to mow, no snow to shovel, unlimited heat/air. Why the move? We thought we would stay there until heading back to China. God has a different, and always better plan in store.
Dec. 2010 Elijah was born
Sept. 2010 Move into the first house, Vandalia, Cleveland

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First home in the States! God provided a house fully furnished. What a gift!
July 2010 Departed China, arrived in America and stayed with Rob’s parents for a few weeks.

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Goodbye, 再见, China! No thrift store, no garage sell, no storage unit. Give it all away and it felt great!

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July 2006 Rob and Elyse married at Grace Church and started life together
Birth – Marriage  The above is a glance at our life journey together. Click here to read our engagement newsletter for the story of how we met, etc.

All in!

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. – Col 3:17

Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” – Matt 8:21-22

I like sports but am not a fan by any standard. This ignorance of what game is going on can be embarrassing at times. For example, I would never consider the sports season when dressing my baby before coming to the States. Culture shock is an interesting thing, while the culture can seem like the air you breath when it is what you know.

When I was at college studying English in China, one of the professors strongly recommended us to read the Bible and Shakespeare’s works to have more language sense and culture background. God definitely used her recommendation in my spiritual seeking of the Truth. However, she didn’t mention another very important element in the American culture, that is, … You guessed it, GAMES.

Being culturally sensitive, we do see sports and games as a great outreach tool in the U.S.. There is always some sort of game going on, football season, basketball season, baseball season, the seasons of the year. It makes a natural conversation starter, ice breaker. A lot of idioms and popular phrases are based on games, such as “home run”, “have a rain check”, “touch base”. Feel free to share more for my English improvement. As it is right now in the Cleveland area, it is definitely “ALL IN”!

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This passion to support the local team or a favorite star is contagious. Commercials are everywhere and you can’t miss the message. People feel excited to be a part of a great event. No matter the outcome, they are “ALL IN”. We are created to follow, to have a purposeful mission, to be fulfilled in something bigger than ourselves. What if there is a greater game? An invincible star? A guaranteed victory? Am I in? Are you in?Are you all in? Not only in the spectators seat, but actually playing game? The game is on! Again, am I all in? Are you ALL IN?

Why “no comments”?

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. -1 Corinthians 6:12

“Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.” – Eph 5:4

Rob and I decided to turn off the “comment” function for our blog pages. Anything pulling me away from worshiping my Lord should be removed. This can mean different things to different people at different seasons in life. For this season of my life, I simply don’t see myself having the time or energy to manage people’s comments in a second language. As a people-pleaser, I also see the potential distractions and temptations the “comments” can bring to my life. Positive or negative comments can feed my mind with people’s thoughts or fluctuate my emotions due to dwelling on what others are thinking. Instead of turning off this feature when we have to in the future, we decide to choose to set the boundaries from the get-go. The older I get, the more I appreciate various boundaries in life as a protection and wisdom. We started this blog not for high hits (read “Why this site“).

However, this does not at all mean that we are shutting down communications. We would still love to hear from the readers through the “Contact Us” page, other forms of social media, or even better in person. The “comment” feature is like allowing strangers into my house. We will either have no control over what people might say, or need to spend time managing messages that would be more meaningfully invested elsewhere. We know most comments would be delightful and encouraging. However, it’s the minority that is hard to predict and even positive comments can bring distraction. Another blogger can always link to us as a way to bring more thought-provoking discussions on topics of interest.

In conclusion, we see “no comments” as a way to encourage more meaningful communications rather than monologue.

Budget Your Money… Free Yourself to Give, Save and Spend with Joy

Do ANY of the following sound appealing?
  • Having the freedom to give more!
  • Being able to spend without worry!
  • Having the ability to save more!
  • Having less stress!

Another question…

Which word best describes a budget?

A. Limits
B. Freedom

This post is being written to myself as much as anyone. Having a budget is not always fun and can seem limiting… at first, but once the budget is there (the fast part) and the habits are formed (the slow part), a budget is incredibly freeing! This is true for anyone, not matter their income (though some may notice the benefits more than others.

What about the rich?

The question you may be thinking is “What about the very rich? They don’t need a budget. They never run out of money.”

Since most people don’t consider themselves to be very rich, though if you are reading this in the U.S., you are in the richest 5% of the world, I will only address this briefly. While the rich may be able to spend and give without much worry (though they do worry), having a reasonable budget would free them to have the joy of giving more, even much more, instead of needing a large buffer to make sure they don’t spend too much. A budget, even setting self imposed spending limits also creates the fun of working towards something. I heard an interesting “fact” (I did look into it enough to be convinced it is true, but don’t know the exact statistics), that many pro-athletes end up filing for bankruptcy after they retire since they have gotten into social groups and a lifestyle of high spending and those lifestyle habits continue when the income is no longer there to match it.

So how about the rest of us?

Click here for a copy of our budget (cleared of our details) for you to use.
(Note: This budget has many different items listed. You likely won’t use all of them. We have combined the lists from several budget plans and added some of our own to have as complete of a list as possible, but you still may need to add more depending on how you spend your money.)
 
Example Budget (Quickly done, so the numbers may not seem reasonable)
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Other Budgeting Help
  • Dave Ramsey (www.daveramsey.com) has great info about budgeting, getting rid of debt, etc.

Welcome to 3rd Culture Living

As Elyse’s husband and the tech guy behind the site, I welcome you to 3rd Culture Living. My wife has a more meaningful welcome here. :)

We are excited to launch the blog for each other, for our children, and for anyone else who may want to join us in journey of “3rd Culture Living”. More posts and topics will be coming as we live intentionally and see where life leads and the lessons it will bring.

Welcome to the journey!

What you see now gives an idea of “What is 3rd Culture Living“, the reasons for “Why this site” and “Who we are” so you can have an idea of what to expect. You can read all the posts below (on the home screen), read my wife’s welcome for an intro to the site, or click on some of the tabs above (which still have limited content at this point).

Thank you for joining us at the beginning of this new journey. We look forward to growing together!

Blessings,
Rob

First Birthday Party, First Blog Post!

Happy Birthday, Isaiah Tiancheng Goll! 高天成，生日快乐！

Mama and Baba (Daddy in Chinese) have been working hard to get this blog running so we can start writing and leave a “simple abundant legacy“. What a joy that our first post after we are done with the blog construction pages is to celebrate our 2nd son’s first birthday!

His birthday this year has fallen on a Monday, free zoo day, also the first day my husband is done with Monday classes for the semester! With the beautiful weather, we can’t think about a better way to celebrate Isaiah’s birthday but to a zoo visit!  To make the event merrier, grandparents also joined us! Yeah for grandparents living nearby!!

Let’s get to know our little buddy a little more:

10 fun facts about Isaiah:

  1. “Happy Feet, Isaiah!” Since he was born, he likes to move his feet and toes. At first I thought it was a baby thing, then I realized it is an “Isaiah” thing. Not sure how long this is going to last but we surely enjoy watching his movement.
  2. Adores his big brother, Elijah. He is watching and interested in what his brother is doing and where he is going.
  3. Loves music. As soon as music starts, so does his rocking.
  4. Born at home on Mother’s Day in 2014.
  5. “In Christ Alone” is Isaiah’s bedtime hymn.
  6. Loves people and would rather happily play with people even when naps/meals are missed.
  7. Blocks are not to build but to throw, the further the better.
  8. Two bottom teeth like to chew a lot of real food, especially food from mama’s bowl.
  9. Uses a lot of clicks in his speech (a great potential to learn African languages with clicks).
  10. Loves sitting position the best as he discovered all the potentials by being super flexible.

Isaiah’s 5 Major Events 

  1. He watched us gutting the house so patiently and joyfully.
  2. Two road trips: Chicago, Memphis. Lost some hair in the back while laying in the car seat, but did amazingly well with the trip.
  3. Attended BSF infant program.
  4. Got to be with Gonggong (mama’s dad from China) for six weeks.
  5. Attended Sunday services with us as a family.

5 Things Isaiah didn’t do for the first year: 

  1. No fancy themed birthday party.
  2. No sick visit for the first year.
  3. No hair cut.
  4. No baby story time at the library but attended pre-school programs with his big brother instead.
  5. No walking, which worked out great with the house construction going on.

Quiz: Should a fresh egg float or sink?

Answer: The Bad Egg will Rise Up and Shell Itself

Elijah and I learned an egg-citing new trick from Elyse today: How to find an old egg (before it’s too late!)

  1. Take the eggs you want to cook and put them in water so that they are submerged.
  2. Do they float, or do they sink?
    1. They should sink. If they float to the surface, you may want to consider passing on that omelet.
    2. Those from the same batch that sink will likely be very easy to peel.

Disclaimer: A sinking egg may have other issues, but it is fresh.

Explanation

  • Fresh eggs have very little (if any) air in the shell.
  • As they age, air gets through the shell into the egg.
  • A floating egg indicates an old egg to the point that enough air has entered in to allow it to float.
  • The other eggs from the same batch, may not havequite enough air to float, but likely have enough to loosen the shell and make them easy to peel.
    • The easier an egg is to peel, the older it likely is.

Placed into full dependence on Christ

The thrilling, terrifying experience of being called to something where I feel totally inadequate, asked to lead others who are likely older, wiser, more experienced, with questions for which I have no answer. Yet at the same time shaking with excitement at the amazing opportunity and accountability to meet the Lord in new ways, with greater depth than I likely ever have before. The broken joy that comes in feeling absolutely inadequate within myself, with the expectation of seeing the work of the Spirit of God in me, in our group, through His word. This comes with an amazing freedom. It is not my doing or responsibility. It is the Spirit of God, working through His word, that accomplishes his will. I just have the amazing joy and privilege to come along, to experience Him work, to pray like I have never prayed before. To draw near to him. To see him, not myself, as the one who will work to change lives. I have always felt that I can do it. Now I feel the amazing joyful freedom with trembling, of being beyond myself, where only God can work.

I have been asked to join the leadership for an amazing Bible Study, which is truly focused on the Word of God. The first choice was whether to move in this direction at all. Christ gave clear leading that this was the direction to pursue. The second choice was whether to be a group leader for men or a children’s leader for a class somewhere from 1st grade through high school.

Much of my life experience points in the direction of children’s leader. It also may just be me, but I am thinking that is where the leadership was somewhat thinking I may go. I even am excited for that ministry and the ways it is leading kids not just to hear about Jesus, but to really know Him, be excited for his Word, and draw near to him. Perhaps in the future, this will be where I go, and joyfully so, though also with a tremendous sense of great responsibility and the fearful joy of knowing that the power of God is the only one who changes lives.

However, as Elyse and I had time to pray and seek the Lord in this decision for the time being, his clear leading was to move in the direction of Group Leader. For this job, I feel utterly inadequate. The men who are leaders are an amazing group of deeply Godly men. As far as I know, I will be the youngest. I have seen such godly character, deep love for the Word, wisdom, leadership, and so many other amazing characteristics in these men. I feel utterly inadequate and amazingly grateful to gain from their wisdom.

How am I going to lead the men who God places into my group who I have the privilege and responsibility to have in our study of God’s Word and in my life?

I am shaking with excitement, knowing how much this will be a time to grow in depth of relationship with Christ, in maturity, in the ability to lead a group of men, all things that are deeply on my heart, yet I am terrified all the same.

I am so grateful for the text that was presented today in a seminar before the Bible Study.

And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:3-4) 

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you… (Exodus 3:11-12)

But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” (Exodus 4:10-12)

God is the one who calls. I need only to listen and obey. I don’t need to be able. I don’t need to have fluent words. I don’t need to think about me at all. To be sure, I will grow as I experience God, but it is God who does it all though his Spirit and his Word. I need to fall desperately at his feet in prayer and fasting and be ready to be humbled as I experience him work. Even if it means my complete brokenness and humiliation, that is a price to be joyfully paid to draw near in intimacy with my Lord and to see him work to draw men to himself.

I can feel a renewed excitement for life, for family and most of all for Christ and His Word bubbling up inside of me. I feel a renewed passion to be in His Word and to help to lead others to these words of life! This life is all about Christ and His kingdom!

To God be the Glory for ever and ever! Amen!

If you would like to join us on this grand adventure, talk to Elyse or I or locate a class near you!