Our Father's Heart
These podcasts are intended to nurture, instruct, and help you understand what the Lord has said in His Word that you may walk in the manner worthy of your calling in Him. We pray that you are blessed, not merely in the hearing, but more so in the doing. Simply put, our utmost desire is to be in the Father's heart, to know the Father's heart, and express the Father's heart to you.
Our Father's Heart
The Lovingier Testimony (Part 3) | Ep. 155
Join us for an inspiring episode that delves into the transformative power of faith and the sometimes challenging journey of hearing God’s voice. Our guests share their deeply personal story of moving from California to Georgia, illustrating how faith shapes our life choices. From the tension of leaving a familiar community to embracing new beginnings, their narrative is one of trust, timing, and direction.
Through vivid anecdotes and heartfelt revelations, we unpack the importance of listening for divine guidance, especially during pivotal moments of life. Discover how personal relationships and community ties can influence our faith journeys and lead to unexpected, yet fulfilling opportunities. This episode serves as a testament to the couple's resilience and adaptability and offers profound lessons on spiritual growth and learning to follow God's plan.
If you're searching for clarity in your own life decisions or simply wish to reflect on the nature of faith and community, this conversation has something valuable for you. Don’t miss the chance to unlock deeper insights into your spiritual walk and be encouraged to trust God as your own path unfolds.
"Message Our Father's Heart a Question or Response"
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May God bless you and make you prosperous in Him as you listen and obey His voice!
The vision received was that of blood cells traveling throughout the body, supplying the much needed oxygen and other nutrients to the differing members of the body to fulfill their purpose. Once the blood cells are spent, they must return back to the heart to be refilled before being sent out again and fulfill their purpose and fulfill their purpose,
Scott Lovingier:you know
Patricia Ruiz:just wanted to say I'm so glad you said that, because we have close to us and not, you know, other people talk to you. Know what is God saying there? Well, I did all this and this door opened, so this is where God wants me to go, but yet you just had a revelation from the Lord that you could get the job. But that would be coming from your flesh and I think sometimes we tend to I think it's the unbelief part of us are not expecting that God really is going to talk to us or show us something, and we move and we start doing things, and then, you know, opportunities happen and I've probably been guilty of that myself. So thank you for saying that. But the other thing I wanted to say, I'm going to say the other side. I I met. I met carolyn and jim. 2021, 2022 22 I.
Patricia Ruiz:We started going to Meeting Place, or we were invited to Meeting Place, maybe 21, but go ahead. Yeah, it was after COVID.
Scott Lovingier:It was definitely after COVID.
Patricia Ruiz:So I remember I was drawn to her. Well, she came and prayed over us and sort of challenged us in the prayer, I think. But I was drawn to her because we were standing in the back. We had a little bit of church hurt or a little bit of not sure what God was wanting to do. So I was like I'm not jumping in here, I'm just we're just going to watch. And she came and prayed over us but as we started talking to each other, she was talking about y'all and she was talking about how much she was praying for y'all to come here oh yeah, I do remember.
Scott Lovingier:Do you remember that?
Patricia Ruiz:but it was like but you know, and I know, and and, because we were teachers, so every time she found out somebody was a teacher, it's like, oh my, my son-in-law is a teacher and yeah do you know of any positions?
Patricia Ruiz:yeah, and she really was, and actually we did. We did know of one that was coming up in our school. Um, I think we gave her the information to give to you, but I remember praying with her, like praying with her or praying for her, because she was so desiring, desiring, it was a longing in her but it wasn't God's time. So, in the right time, y'all ended up coming.
Scott Lovingier:I think they were out here 10 years before we moved. Well, yeah, she was still yearning at that time, in the right time y'all ended up coming, and they were out here 10 years before we moved.
Alycia Lovingier:Well, yeah, and then, like she was still yearning at that time yeah she told everybody yeah, and it's funny because, like after, like they left and think, like you said, things kind of settled down, I really actually had no desire to move out here. Honestly, I was like I'm not moving to Georgia, like no, I'm not going to the same church as my parents, like that's weird you know, like that's literally and it's like kind of now thinking about it's kind of like you know me being 19 all over again, like you're not gonna tell us.
Alycia Lovingier:You're not gonna tell me where I'm moving, because that's not in our hearts for us to move.
Alycia Lovingier:At that time we were very much dedicated to where we were at our church we were growing in our church, I mean
Scott Lovingier:we had friends.
Alycia Lovingier:We had friends like we had a life, yeah, like we had a good.
Alycia Lovingier:It was a good life like we had no complaints, like we had you know
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:really.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Living in california, you had no complaints. I mean, I'm just kidding,
Scott Lovingier:COVID changed a lot.
Alycia Lovingier:But it was definitely at that time we were very like, we were happy, we had friends, like our pastor was mentoring us, like we were learning a lot from them. We're we're growing, you know, spiritually, obviously, in our relationship as well. Um, and being there during that time without my parents helped us grow both of us grow spiritually as well
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Which I think might have been sabotage if he would have gone with his initial inkling.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:I gotta save my wife
Alycia Lovingier:, yeah, yeah it would definitely not have played out the way it was supposed to. Yeah, because those were key moments in our lives, both of our lives, to grow without yeah, kind of relearning everything that I've been taught for myself um well
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:putting into practice for yourself, because it sounds like you and not in a bad way, but it sounds like you were living off the coattails of your parents for a time
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:and you had to get off those coattails and learn how to walk on your own instead of being dragged
Alycia Lovingier:right with my parents.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah, no, definitely yeah, um.
Alycia Lovingier:So yeah, I mean then, yeah, we like what two years we had, we would have like people like our pastor was very um. God used him in the prophetic yeah um, and so he, God, would always like be speaking our services and gotta be moving and stuff like that. And now there's very ample opportunity if, if God wanted us to move, that we know that he we were. We had ears to hear like if he wanted us to, we'd be like, okay, well, God tells us to, and they're going to like we don't question that, but God had never told us that.
Alycia Lovingier:Um, yeah, it was definitely a pivotal time. I don't. I don't regret yeah, we're going through I. Those were really good like learning moments for us in our personal life they're friends in church and like growing spiritually and how to be leaders, even though we weren't technically leaders at the time kind of learning all that when your parents moved.
Scott Lovingier:But over the 10 years we were kind of learning all that, not when your parents moved, but over the 10 years yeah over the 10 years we were kind of learning all you grew into being yeah, it sounded like they were.
Patricia Ruiz:You were discipled also yeah, yeah yeah, you were being taught and you know like yeah it was kind of like the cycle of end of ministry, like
Scott Lovingier:yeah, because by the time, you know, we advanced by the time that pastor, pastor which you can.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:By the time he left he moved to Texas, but I was the assistant pastor, you know so I advanced, you know yeah got to just number two, I guess you know yeah, no, I I actually uh, I probably would have jumped on board with what she said. I think it was very important that you mentioned that on the podcast because I think she said all of us have been guilty in our youth, out of desperation, to say, well, God is speaking to us because of the circumstance, rather than God actually spoke to me and said this. And when you look through the scriptures and you look at all of the testimonies of the patriarchs, God is always speaking something specific about what he wants you to do. It's not like this general vague thing. I mean, he tells Abraham specifically I want you to leave your father, your mother, your land, your family, and I want you to go over here, you know, to a land that you don't really know much about. Ok, well, that's specific enough that I can do something with it.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:You know, and sometimes in our youth, because we haven't developed and it seems like in that 10 years you developed a greater sensitivity for hearing the voice of the Lord, which is absolutely essential. I say that you know, I'm sure you you know. I say that's the most important thing for anybody is to be able to hear and discern the voice of the Lord, because that is what's going to get you through whatever is going to come in the future, Regardless of whether you believe in a tribulation or not, it doesn't matter. No matter what takes place in the future, you will get through it by the Lord's hand, if you're able to hear and discern his voice. But a lot of times in our youth, because we haven't developed that sense, that relationship, that communication, um we, we in our desperation. Well, if the Lord opens the door or if the Lord closes the door, that's the Lord and it's like or sometimes, if nothing happens, then I'm going to do this right right and and none of that is the Lord speaking to yo u.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Yeah, when go into the scriptures, he's speaking constantly to his people and He's directing them, He's instructing them, He's telling them. You know, and a lot of times we might make a decision and the Lord puts us through something, but if we're honest, we can go back and realize the Lord didn't tell me to do that. Now, did good things come out of that decision? Yeah, so did a lot of bad things come out of the decision? Well, that what that means is that God is able, and above, sovereign over all the things that we do, to still work out the decisions that we make, even if they're not what He wanted for good. But it doesn't justify the decision that you made to go in that direction, and it's hard for young people to just discern that little nuance. It's so important, but it's so obvious throughout the scriptures that it's not about. Well, if he did it for Abraham that way, then he's going to do it for everybody else exactly that way. No, what you're missing is that when you see all the testimonies of Noah, of Abraham, of David, of all the prophets, He's speaking something to them and they are responding in obedience. That's the only commonality amongst all of it, and so that's what he needed to teach you. It's not about your parents' faith, it's not about your pastor, it's about you listening to me.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:And then are you going to respond? Because you could have responded and said, well, yeah, let me go apply to Georgia. It just makes sense, it's common, it's illogical, but you did it. You responded the way you needed to your, your, your development. You know the seven levels of maturity that I've gone through. That was a part of it. It's learning to hear the voice of the Lord and not doing it your way, because doing it your way is eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that you not. Usually, that always ends in you suffering now and you would suffer, not for righteousness sake. You will suffer because you made a bad decision and you didn't listen to the voice of the Lord when he wanted something else for you so I'm glad you said that.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, I'm actually terrified to make a decision that's not God's will. Yeah, like I'm very slow to make decisions, I'm not rash, I'm gonna. If you were to come tell me make a split decision right now, I'm just gonna say nope, no, we're gonna wait. You know so. So you're probably a good consumer shopper.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So you'll wait, you see the sale, but you'll wait and you'll see and you'll measure and you'll compare, yeah, so you know thinking about moving here.
Scott Lovingier:It's like I do not want to move out of my own self. It has to be from God I was just just absolutely terrified to to get that decision wrong because of what you said, all the ramifications that could happen you know. And he can still turn it and make things right after the fact, but you still gotta reap the seed that was sown right and so it was. We were very much. This has to be from God. For us to move has to be so those 10 years were great.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:That's what we gather 10 years of development staying California after your parents move were really great. And then God didn't really tell you initially to move on anywhere. He, he wanted you to grow where you're planted, not in a pot. Grow there with those roots and stuff. And so your faith grew. It's not about you being in a particular location, but that your faith grew and your tentacles really, uh, grew out and grew in the depth of the earth and then. But you did move.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, so what happened? So 10 years that would probably have been 10 years after your parents moved our pastor and his family decided to move to Texas and it was very out of the blue, very much like hey, I'm leaving next week. It was very, very difficult.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:These were the people that mentored you for 10 years.
Scott Lovingier:So the church we had a, I wouldn't change anything. We got a crash course of ministry. I mean we saw everything that they did, we followed them. I mean I would not be the leader I am today without going through. There's something about going through a small church where you can really get some real ministry experience real fast, and so I'm so thankful for that. But the church never grew. I mean, we stayed between 30 and 50 people for 10 years. Um, now we probably baptized 200 people, you know, but just nobody we just never, really stayed for xyz, every reason under the sun.
Scott Lovingier:And so you know he. We went out to starbucks one day. He said, hey, let's go get coffee. And here I am just thinking, hey, is this pastor and I going to go, you know, have coffee.
Alycia Lovingier:They did it all the time.
Scott Lovingier:They did it all the time.
Scott Lovingier:And he says I'm leaving, and I'm leaving in three days. Wow, I'm leaving in three days and I think you should take over the church, you know. So my whole world is just rocked. You know, like thinking I didn't have a desire to be a senior pastor, that wasn't what I wanted, and.
Scott Lovingier:But I said
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Certainly the Lord didn't tell me that.
Scott Lovingier:But I said you know God, if this is what you want for my life, then I will do it. So, you know, you know. I actually got up and just walked out of the Starbucks because I just started crying. I'm like I can't just sit here in Starbucks and cry and sob, you know, in the middle of Starbucks. So we didn't even really have a full ending to that meeting because I'm an emotional person.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Were you more crying because he was leaving or because of the weight of the responsibility?
Scott Lovingier:No, because he was leaving. We were close.
Scott Lovingier:This is my mentor.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Did he have the same feelings?
Scott Lovingier:I don't think so. As far as being heartbroken that he was leaving, I don't think so. I think largely too we were so close to their kids. They were like our younger siblings. I think Mikey's like 10 to 12 years younger than me, you know, and Mara's same for you 10 to 12 years younger than you.
Alycia Lovingier:I never had a younger sibling. She was like my little sister. So that part rocked us pretty hard too.
Scott Lovingier:So we were just like oh my goodness, you know, our, our, our kids aren't gonna they're not gonna grow up with them. You know like they're not gonna grow up with them. You know like they're like we're just our whole world's rock. So she gets home and usually I'm like we're gonna have dinner ready.
Alycia Lovingier:No, dinner's ready, I'm just sitting there on the couch I literally walk in the door and I'm like, and he said it's like dark too. So it's kind of. It's kind of creepy really and I.
Alycia Lovingier:I walk in the door because I came home after him, because I was at that time I was working like retail. So I was looking home a little bit later and I just he's just like staring at me, I'm like and like did someone like die? Because it felt like that kind of like mood was in there. I'm like, and he told me, and you know that they were leaving, and I was like what, and it's kind of like you know, ptsd from my parents leaving.
Alycia Lovingier:I'm like well, now, now they're leaving I'm like, who's it like I you know spiraled you didn't drill them with a bazillion questions.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Why, what happened?
Alycia Lovingier:what's going on at the time, I think we're just.
Scott Lovingier:I was shocked because we never thought that was going to happen. So and then the other part was he kind of left it, as I want you to go to church and you kind of need to tell me within the next two days if you'll do it wow, you know like, because we have to tell the other leaders of the church. We gotta tell them we gotta, we gotta make we gotta have a plan moving forward.
Scott Lovingier:So it was probably the next day that we just kind of calmed down a little bit and we're like, if this is what God wants for us, then we're in, we'll do anything that God wants us to do, we're gonna do, right, that's always been our mentality is okay, we'll do it. And um, we went and had a meeting with other leaders at the church and, um, they all were like, yes, you can be the pastor. Like we, we will follow you and this is this is you know.
Scott Lovingier:You know, um, this is fine and you know we kind of had a jolt of like okay, yeah we have some ideas on how we would want to, you know, proceed do some things different at the church, and we were kind of going through the steps and so he left. But his family stayed so for a couple months, right. So he got a job in texas. So they had to. She was a psychologist for a school, she's a psychologist so she had to fulfill her contract so she had to stay.
Scott Lovingier:Her kids were in school, so they had to finish a semester. They had to sell their house, so they had to go through all the steps, while he left and started his new job in Texas, um. So during that time period, we're going through the transition of you know them showing us, you know how this is how the church finances work. This is how X Y Z here's. You know how to pay the rent, and so that lasted for a couple of months, and then pretty much, I'm preaching every Sunday.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, but I mean I had I had been preaching a lot.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, at that point I mean, I that wasn't like it wasn't a crazy thing for me.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Okay, so you could balance that out with teaching.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah.
Scott Lovingier:Okay.
Scott Lovingier:Our closest friends who were going to basically take over the worship department because his wife was the worship leader, so obviously, and then both of their kids are on the worship team, so we're losing three worship people at a small church is a huge deal. So the our friends who are going to take over the worship, they decided they didn't want to do it, that they weren't, they weren't gonna, they weren't gonna stay. So now we're just like man, what are we going to do? Like this is a big deal. And we just or maybe me first, I think it was actually both of us together I just felt Jesus say it's okay, this is not your burden to bear, you don't have to like, you don't have to hold on to this dying church. Essentially, you know it's, it's dismantling. You don't have to. I mean, it would have, we would have been sacrificing a lot you know,
Scott Lovingier:when it wasn't on our hearts to be a senior pastor. You know, like, like, take pastor joe, it was his heart to be a senior pastor you know, like that is, that's what God put on his heart. God did not put that on my heart, so you know I really do think he did see our willingness that we're going to do whatever he wanted, and then he just really spared us of having to to go through that.
Scott Lovingier:So, um, you know, the church dismantled um in like may, and then we started going to another church. Was it an independent church or yeah?
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:we another church was it an independent church? Or, yeah, we were independent, yeah, yeah, we were part of an organization, so they weren't going to send us so you were renting, nothing was owned, correct?
Scott Lovingier:yeah, yeah. So yeah, it's really in.
Scott Lovingier:We just we had a last sunday and then most of us went together to another church.
Alycia Lovingier:They actually like a lot of people from the church like, well, hey, where are you guys going?
Scott Lovingier:because they trust me. They're trying to find a place. Well, we're probably good if we're going to where they go.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah. So we ended up going to another church, which is that's a whole other story. But I knew from family experiences. I knew who the pastor was, like I'd previously. There's ties between us and their family, so like we literally I remember going to our room and like sitting there and just like looking up at all the church, looking up all the Pentecostal churches you know in the area, like ones that we knew believed, kind of what we believed, and I'm like being there my whole life, like we knew a lot of churches, like we knew a lot of people who ran churches and we're just like this is not. This doesn't seem like this is the type of church that we would belong to, like just things that we kind of started can we need out like the different churches? There really wasn't very many options at the time. There was like there's a big church there which was never going to be an option for us because they were very just like super fish.
Alycia Lovingier:They're very mega church type status, like that type of feeling. There are a couple of smaller, smaller churches, but we're like we weren't we weren't opposed to going to a small church, because that's what we've been raised in.
Alycia Lovingier:I mean, it's my, my family like I've been raised in small churches my whole life yeah really so trying to find one was like, okay, well, I'm like well, kind of funny, because at that time I worked, I kind of established my career as working in a vet hospital and someone who was a part of actually a couple people who went to go, went to that church that we ended up going to.
Alycia Lovingier:I knew previously, when I was a kid, like they knew me as a kid and they would come to like they bring their animals so I like run into them fairly often. Um, and then one of them was really close to my mom and she's like um, because I mentioned, you know, hey, our church is kind of dismantling, we're just trying to find a place to go and she was like, well, hey, um, you know, come, sir, to come to the church that was called city grace. Um, I was like I mean, we'd have, we'd looked at, we'd looked at it. You know, we're kind of, before making any decisions, obviously we pray about, but we also like research things, so we want to look up and see what their beliefs are.
Alycia Lovingier:I kind of knew what their beliefs are, but making sure everything lined up with what we were looking for and I'm like, okay, it was the only option.
Scott Lovingier:It was really the only option. It really was. I was like it was the only option. There was no other church.
Alycia Lovingier:There really was no other place that we felt like would be a place that we would fit really at that time in our lives Like it was definitely.
Scott Lovingier:Because we didn't want the really strict standards church, but we also like baptism in Jesus' name was incredibly important, you know, because if I'm bringing somebody to church and they're not baptizing in Jesus' name, I just I couldn't sit well that it's just so um and so the mega churches? They weren't, they weren't gonna hold to that. Yeah, and the super conservative churches we just had just didn't align with that, and they were the only one in the whole area, yeah, and we're talking about like 40 miles, like 40 minutes around where we lived like we looked everywhere.
Alycia Lovingier:And this was the only one that kind of fit what we were looking for. So, yeah, we went there for two years. Yeah, about two years, two years before we moved out here. Yeah, I mean it's kind of interesting because being in like as an adult, like I'd been under that previous pastor for 10 years, right, so going to like a new church even though, like I'd been, under our previous, that previous pastor for 10 years.
Alycia Lovingier:Right, so going to like a new church, even though, like I knew some people, it still still felt like weird. I'm like, as an adult, like this is kind of like our first big like experience of going somewhere else other than um where we previously gone.
Alycia Lovingier:But, it's kind of like we went in there and like I mean, for me it was like fairly immediate. I was like this is, this is where we're going to be right now. Like this is like I felt God moving, Like it was definitely a confirmation, like this is where we're supposed to be.
Scott Lovingier:And you still felt like God, I should stay in California.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, at that moment, yeah, we still I mean we connected immediately with the church. Okay, the pastor, yeah, you know, and it wasn't even very long until they brought us on board in leadership roles Like months like three months.
Scott Lovingier:By the time we left.
Scott Lovingier:I mean I wasn't officially a board member, but I mean I was pretty much there. I mean I was and the pastor went on sabbatical like I had to do a lot more stuff and you know and so um, so yeah, like I mean it was, it was home and we had a lot of friends and really liked it and um, and so the catalyst.
Scott Lovingier:I mean so all of that at the catalyst. Okay, why are we in Georgia? Was, um, so all of her family's gone and little by little, my family was leaving California. So my brothers had both moved to. One was in Idaho, one was in Washington, so they had left. So then it's just my parents. They're only ones in northern California, I don't you know everyone.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, I still had another brother, but he's living in.
Scott Lovingier:Northern California Everyone, yeah, I still had another brother but he's living in Southern California. Okay, and so in Northern California it's just my parents, and then they gave us like an 18-month warning. They're like, in 18 months we're moving and we're going to be moving up to Spokane, washington, and of course they're like we'd like you to come too, washington, um, you know. And of course they're like we'd like you to come too, you know, um. So that was that was the moment where we then felt, okay, god is gonna move us.
Scott Lovingier:we knew for 18 months that we were gonna move we kind of, but we didn't really at the time, know, okay, are we going to Washington or are we going to Georgia? And we went in, we went to Washington, we went to a church in Washington, we I was looking at schools- in.
Scott Lovingier:Washington. We were researching churches, we were talking about houses. We looked at houses like we were going through neighborhoods, like we really were leaving it up to God, like, okay, we got two options. Where do you want us to go? You're gonna have to tell us. You're gonna have to, like, turn our hearts and you know because, uh, California at that time again, covid just changed the whole landscape is very toxic to live in California. I don't want to get all into that.
Scott Lovingier:I think everybody listening to the podcast can probably understand that that that road like shut pretty fast as far as options, we just knew and we were never going to buy a house Like never.
Scott Lovingier:As a teacher, there's no chance I was ever going to buy a house in California, right, um, but we could in Washington and we could in Georgia, and we had family in both places.
Scott Lovingier:So then, is it my family or is it her?
Scott Lovingier:family.
Scott Lovingier:And we're very close to my family, you know.
Scott Lovingier:like you know, we lived with my parents for the last two years of being in California. And there's a bond there and you know, and obviously you know, my brothers are having kids and I'm close to my brothers and I mean it would have been family wise, would have been great church wise. There is nothing up there. I mean there's churches.
Scott Lovingier:Obviously you go anywhere, there's churches yeah, but it was super conservative or mega church that had some pentecostal vibe to it. Right, because obviously there's. There's all kinds of churches everywhere. But if we're talking about just spirit-filled churches, uber conservative or we're a big mega church and we kind of allow a lot of stuff to happen, yeah, and there was just what we fit in, was not there at all yeah, they just had the extremes, no spectrum in between.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I mean, even when we went to go visit his brother. Um well, brothers, we went to go, we went, stayed there specifically to kind of kind of get a landscape of everything.
Alycia Lovingier:And I at that point and that was, uh, was it like fall? It was like fall. I'm like I kind of God had already been like working on me, because we went and visited my family this summer before and I'm like we're that sounds corny, but we were actually at on the boat and we were kind of out in the lake just kind of hanging out. I was just kind of, you know, just hanging out in the water and it's like kind of like a weird, like like a peace, so like this is, this is where you're going to be. And I was like what? Like that was not what I was expecting. So I was like, okay, well, I didn't.
Alycia Lovingier:I don't think I told you right away that that happened you're afraid to tell me I was scared, I mean honestly, because we're very, we're kind of two kind of different people how we see things.
Alycia Lovingier:He's very like I need to deal right now, like right here, and I was kind of like well, well, what about this? What about? You know? Things down the road, like I was kind of thinking ahead of time um, which is fine, because we had a lot of there's a lot of decisions that were having to be made in that time.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Um, and then when we went to go because you're very odd and unique in that sense you're just like you're. You're the opposite stereotype that I'm expecting. Every time you say it's like really, uh, yeah it's definitely that's.
Alycia Lovingier:We get that often, okay, um, but when we went to go visit his brother in fall, like I in my heart knew I'm like this is this is not.
Scott Lovingier:This is not it this is not what we're going to be, and I love his family.
Alycia Lovingier:His family is awesome like I have.
Alycia Lovingier:They're perfect, they're a great family, I love being around them, I get along with all of them super well and so, like that was like I'm not, I'm not going to tell him this, because I know that would be really hard for him to not be around his family. So I was like, nope, I'm, like I'm not going to say anything, we're still gonna like God, you're gonna have to make it obvious, basically as far as more so for him. So at that point my heart started kind of turning to where I'm like, well, the idea of going to Georgia is not that big of a deal. It doesn't seem that bad if I go to the same church as my parents.
Alycia Lovingier:Like all those like things that I was like not going to happen.
Alycia Lovingier:You know, started kind of changing again. I was like really, Like, just kind of like that's how God was like working with me pretty much my entire life, um, but I I kind of I knew, even when we're in Washington that that's not where we're going to be, yeah, um, and I just kind of let the process kind of like work itself out with Scott because I knew I'm like wherever he go, that's obviously that's where I'm going, whether it's God tells him this is where we're going, okay that's where we're going.
Alycia Lovingier:Like you know if it's Washington, it's Washington. If it's Georgia, it's Georgia. If that's you know, I'm trusting God speaking to Scott about making you know these decisions, cause he's always he's always gave us direction, yes, like the last minute, but I've always trusted that he was going to make God, was going to speak to him and lead us in the direction that we were supposed to go, so I had confidence in that. It's just like any time now he could tell us, you know, not make it to like the last minute.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So when did he say what?
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:did he say
Scott Lovingier:I think it was probably December or January is when I just felt I was like, okay,
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:this is the middle of the school year.
Scott Lovingier:Middle of the school year.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Okay,
Scott Lovingier:and you know you start gearing up into February and March that's hiring season for the next school year.
Alycia Lovingier:So you got to make a decision.
Scott Lovingier:You know. You got to get your letters of recommendation ready. You got to make sure your credential transfers. You got to get all your ducks in a row and find where we're going to live, you know, and so and I just felt in my heart that it was going to be Georgia, I called Joe on the phone, pastor Joe, and asked him questions about church. I had met him because we'd come out and visited.
Scott Lovingier:But, now I'm looking at it. You know the meeting place as being a possible church for us, so I had some questions for him. X, y, Z. He answered all of them. Great. I was like, okay, we align on our thought process and I knew scripture that we aligned. But there's some other things. I was like, okay, you know, like hey, my wife wears pants. Um, you know, I have a beard, you know, are we okay?
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Was he giving you the recruiting pitch?
Scott Lovingier:Not really. He didn't To come to Georgia or anything, he didn't. No, I think he was letting God play that out. You know, obviously he was encouraging yeah, come out here, be part of the church, we'd love to have you. All that kind of stuff.
Scott Lovingier:But he wasn't laying it all thick or anything.
Scott Lovingier:Okay, not yet so, because I'm surprised but yeah, I know eventually well, because we didn't know him very well either, you know, and uh so in january.
Scott Lovingier:Then that's when you know we told my parents which was that was very difficult to tell them you know, like we're going to Georgia, we're not following you, so that was that was very tough. And then obviously I had to tell my school, which I taught there for 11 years very connected, you know, I was the leadership teacher, I was the activities director, I had really close colleagues and very connected to the school and so that was heartbreaking to tell them that I'm leaving and that came out of nowhere to them that was not on their radar.
Scott Lovingier:That.
Scott Lovingier:I was leaving um and um. So then I started applying to jobs in georgia and had zoom interviews and um, we bought a house without ever stepping foot in it. You know, we just just threw videos and we literally we called brooke.
Alycia Lovingier:We're like because when we, when he accepted the job, we found out we didn't tell my family this was not planned. He found out, like march 31st, that he got the position right over the last day, march. I don't know if march is 31 days but, anyways.
Alycia Lovingier:So we text my family april 1st you know just being oblivious to being april fools, right? So we text the whole family saying, hey, we're moving to georgia. And I was like this is not an april fools joke. So I want to be specific, like we weren't like messing with them or anything like that. And of course they were extremely excited. Um, my parents kind of knew, probably a little bit before that they were going but they knew we were applying for jobs and stuff, because we couldn't move without getting a job.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, so like when we, yeah, we call carolyn knew 10 years before yeah, we were gonna, we were to stay in california if I wasn't able to find a job.
Scott Lovingier:I was confident I was going to find a job. My resume was pretty strong at that point and there was beginning to be a teacher shortage. I was going to find a job in Georgia or Washington. That wasn't going to be a problem.
Alycia Lovingier:As soon as he found out where he was going to go.
Scott Lovingier:That's when we were like we always knew, even before meeting place.
Alycia Lovingier:We always knew, even before meeting place, anything like that. We always knew we liked, like the lawrenceville area, even when we came to visit my brother, since we'd come here once a year, probably once a year to come visit, you know, stay with parents, whatever.
Alycia Lovingier:But we always knew we liked the lawrenceville area. That's always a place that we kind of were drawn to before even moving here, before even contemplating buying a house, like we knew we wanted to be in that area. And then once knew the churches in lawrenceville, like stuff kind of started playing out. We're like that's, that's perfect, that's where we want to be. Um, but then we called I remember either calling or facetiming brooke, because brooke was, you know she's a she's a real estate agent so she pretty much was our feet like on the ground finding us houses.
Alycia Lovingier:People thought we were insane to buy a house without even stepping foot in the house, like we were literally. She was seeing his videos of the house well, that's news to me.
Alycia Lovingier:I didn't know you um yeah, well, we had like a process. We had her go, she like took videos of it and then, um, then my parents who who knows more personally? Would come like yeah, this is this, this is this, and we're like you know, we're not buying the house until you guys both agree on a singular house. Um, so it was. Yeah, people and people back in california thought we were insane.
Patricia Ruiz:It's pretty crazy yeah, like that's probably not. It's not a normal.
Scott Lovingier:Thing were you saving up the whole time to be able to purchase the house?
Scott Lovingier:yes, so that was. You know we paid off all of our debt, had a chunk of money. You know I went through all that went through day ramsey, essentially you know, like that's, that's who we were following yeah, did through all three steps and you know, pay off debt and got her deposit and had some help from family and all the things that allowed us to to buy a house I mean literally like everything, just like lined up perfectly as far as, and she got a job without like I had like seven people, seven, seven places, without physically being she did all of her interviews on Zoom and stuff too, and so we both got jobs and a house before we even moved.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah, yeah, Everything just like. And then my job wasn't far, you know. And that's how God works too right, Like when it's his will.
Scott Lovingier:Things are going to be easy. Yeah, and it's his time, it's his timing right like the process leading up to it sometimes can be very challenging. It can can really test your faith.
Alycia Lovingier:But when it's go time it it should be pretty smooth going together, just everything, just lines up perfectly everything up until us moving here and, like the day that we got here was, our pods came the day before, so everything was pretty much at our house, ready to be unloaded.
Scott Lovingier:You know yeah.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah, it was pretty crazy how that all I mean it played out pretty seamless really. It was not fun driving across the country in the middle of the summer. With three cats, with three cats at the time. But you know, I mean we've always been like. You know God's going to open the door if it's the direction he wants us to go, and if he doesn't, then that's not where we're going to go.
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