BURSTING With Big News!

We are BURSTING with excitement to share some wonderful news with you!!!

At the beginning of the new year as I (Jill) was dreaming with God about what His plans were for 2018, He gave me some words to stand on. One of them was LIMITLESS. He is a limitless God, so I can dare to believe Him for seemingly impossible things. Another word He gave me was JUBILEE. This July will be my 50th birthday, my year of Jubilee! I don’t recall ever asking God for a specific birthday gift before, but because He reminded me that He is limitless, I decided to ask Him for something really big! I told Him that my heart’s desire would be to celebrate my Jubilee birthday with family and friends GATHERED TOGETHER (Isaiah 60) at our Bursting Barns property. I could just see everyone there together, praying over the place, dedicating it to God for His purposes. Now, keep in mind we hadn’t even started looking for that yet, and still hadn’t decided if we should even START looking yet! We knew our current lease would be up right before then, but were still trying to decide if we should find a place with less rent or go ahead and start looking for our Bursting Barns property. Over and over God kept reminding me not to limit Him in any way, so we began the process of weeding through various properties on Zillow and realtor.com. We also asked our realtor (and dear friend), Paul to keep an eye out for us. We were looking for THE property! On a limited budget! But trusting our limitless God!!

Since this will be so much more than the place we call home, but will also serve as our ministry base, there are some very specific things we had on our checklist:-“Retreat” feel, like a country getaway
-No more than a 45 minute drive for Eddy to work
-Gathering space for worship and fellowship
-Guest quarters for nurturing sent ones


Those were the essentials. All along, we’ve had the mindset that whatever place we found would likely need updating, renovating, etc, so we were going into this with that in mind. Unfortunately everything that fit the checklist, regardless of how much of a fixer-upper, within Williamson or Maury counties was way beyond our budget. One day, “by accident”, I “just happened” to widen out the parameters on the map…

And would you like to know what our LIMITLESS God has done???

Drumroll, pleeeeease…………………..
He has led us to our Bursting Barns Ministries HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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It’s located on 2 acres in Lynnville, Tennessee, just a few miles south of where we are now. Lynnville is such a quaint little town. Check it out here: http://www.visitlynnville.com/
Here’s how it fits our checklist:
-Retreat feel, country getaway – ✅ The drive out there is gorgeous with the rolling hills of Tennessee out the window! You pass by the cutest little chapel along the way!
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The views from the property are simply stunning! It backs up to woods and is surrounded by beautiful farms. There’s even a big, beautiful, red barn that’s BURSTING with hay right across the road! Such a peaceful, picturesque setting! Can’t wait to enjoy my morning coffee with Jesus in that gorgeous environment.

No more than a 45 minute drive for Eddy to work – ✅ It’s just 5 miles from I-65 and should only take him about 40 minutes to drive to Franklin!
-Gathering space for worship and fellowship – ✅ There is a HUGE deck out front that will be PERFECT for GATHERING TOGETHER! It has electricity, so we’ll be able to bring out heaters or fans, as well as a keyboard when we have someone present to play it! During inclement weather, there’s plenty of GATHERING space in the living/kitchen area as well.

Guest quarters for nurturing sent ones – ✅ There is a big living area downstairs with 3 bedrooms. Each bedroom has 2 closets, a window, and just “feels” like a B&B! There is also a Jack & Jill bathroom downstairs, which will be perfect for guests! Eventually we plan to install a small kitchen down there as well for those who need a bit longer-term lodging.

This place exceeds anything I ever thought we could afford! While there are a few updates and renovations we eventually want to do, it’s not nearly as much of a fixer-upper as we thought we’d be getting! The kitchen cabinets are solid oak, Amish-built and the appliances are all brand new – still have the labels on them!!

My God is limitless! He loves to lavish His children with good gifts! He delights to give us the desires of our hearts when they are aligned with His desires. Looks like I’ll be getting my Jubilee Birthday Gathering after all! WooHoo!!!
Isaiah 60
Oh! And the icing on the Birthday Cake? There are so many things from Isaiah 60 (our main ministry Scripture) we can apply to this place!
-It sits atop a hill! (Lift up your eyes round about and see; They all gather together…)
-It’s not exactly the sea, but there is a creek that runs along the front of the property! (the wealth on the seas will be brought to you)
-There are goats, cows, and horses all around us! (flocks will be gathered to you)
-It’s on Fowler Hollow Rd. A fowler is a bird hunter! (Who are these that fly along like clouds, like doves to their nests?)
-There are woods in back and on one side, plus there’s a cedar-lined closet that makes me think of my Grandpa! (cypress, the juniper, and the cedar together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary)
Sowing Kingdom Seeds
We know that we are not orphans, paupers, or beggars. We have been chosen, adopted, grafted into God’s family, and that makes us His children, and gives us access to His resources. God could have simply GIVEN us this property, but often what He likes to do is give us an opportunity to partner with Him in seeing His plans come to fruition. Jesus could have fed the 5,000 with a simple word and food would have appeared out of thin air. But He chose to use the gift of the boy’s lunch to feed the crowd that day. He could have caused denarii to overflow from the offering receptacles in the temple, but instead He chose to praise the widow who gave the mite, because He knew what it cost her AND He knew the Kingdom rewards she would receive in return!
My point? We don’t want to come to you begging for money! But we DO want to extend to you an invitation to sow into a ministry that will help us bless those who bless others.
While this place is definitely incredible, there are some things we’d like to do in order to make it the place we’ve dreamed about for so long; a place for sent ones to find rest, refreshment, renewal; a place of beauty and restoration. We want to steward our resources well. We will need to be able to pay the mortgage, renovate and update, cover daily maintenance, and still have a surplus, so that our BARNS will BURST and we will be able to bless those who we nurture.
This ministry is based on Isaiah 60, but it’s also based on Proverbs 3. Verses 9 and 10 say to Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce; so your barns will burst! (NASB and MSG)
We trust God to provide ALL that’s needed, and we know that sometimes that means inviting others to partner with Him through giving. If you’d like to sow tax-deductible financial seedsinto the updates and renovations for our Bursting Barns property, you may do so by clicking the DONATE button on this site.

We are praying that He multiplies every dollar, just as He multiplied the fish and bread.
Another way you can sow into this ministry is through seeds of time, talent, and sweat!
Perhaps you are someone who is skilled in a trade that might be necessary during the renovation process. Or perhaps you, your family, youth group, small group, etc would like to donate some good ol’ fashioned hard work to help us knock out some projects. Are you a spirit-filled worship leader who takes joy in ushering in the Presence of God and inviting a GATHERED group to join you? If any of these describe you, and you have a heart to pour into those who pour into the nations, we welcome your help, and of course, will feed you well in return!

Some of the more pressing NEEDS are:

• Get a nice, roomy storage shed (There is no garage and no storage for larger items)
• Get a “hill-friendly” mower!
• Design and install a kitchen for downstairs (“Be & Be” area)

Some of the things that will NEED to be taken care of in the near future are:

• Put in new HVAC
• Put on a new roof
• Replace termite-damaged railroad tie retaining wall with stacked stone (preferable) or other good quality material
• Add outdoor furniture to deck for our gatherings (ideally something that can be folded and stored when we need more open space, but that also has a farmhouse aesthetic)

Some of the WANTS we’d eventually LIKE to do are:

• Install hardwood or laminate flooring for ease of maintenance and a more cohesive look
• Blacktop the driveway to make it more user-friendly
• Reconfigure the master bath to make it more user-friendly
• Change out some of the light fixtures (especially outdoors) for a more updated look
• Change out hardware on doors for a more updated look
• Paint kitchen cabinets to brighten up the space
• Add tile backsplash in kitchen for ease in cleaning and to update the space
• Add stairs to deck for easier access
• Update bathroom vanities
• Furnish/Decorate in modern farmhouse style (Think Joanna Gaines!)
• Add window dressings
• Landscape
• Plant veggie garden
• Add cabinets/shelving/organizational tools to mudroom to make it both functional and pretty!

I’m sure these lists will evolve once we actually move in and get a better feel for what we’d like to do.
We believe God has Divine Connections all along this journey, because there are so many He wants to bless – both the Giver and the Receiver! Every seed of money, time, talent, and sweat sown into this ministry will be poured into the ones who are going into all the world with the Gospel…the beautiful feet of the body of Christ. When we nurture them, they’ll better be able to nurture those in their host countries or states. What a beautiful thing to be called to do!
Thank You!

​I cannot hope to adequately express to you the excitement and anticipation we are feeling as we get ready to see this dream move from our spirits, paper, and Pinterest to brick, wood, and people! We are so incredibly humbled and grateful to each of you who have prayed with us, believed with us, cried with us, and celebrated with us each step of this journey. We truly could not think about doing this without you!

If all goes according to plan, we are set to close March 15! That gives us 4 months to settle in and prepare for my best birthday EVER!!!
God is GOOD! God is FAITHFUL! God is LIMITLESS! All glory to Him from hearts BURSTING with JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!