New home. Boxes unpacked. Dining on home cooked meals. Life had found its rhythm. Sort of. We were also experiencing hard things back-to-back. 

ER run #1: Oldest had a hard time breathing. Asthma. 

Both girls and I got lice. Twice. 

I battled horrible dreams. Evil dreams. 

Then my husband left in the car for a four-day work trip. 

I heard a thud on the staircase. Our daughter with intellectual disabilities had fallen down the stairs and busted her lip. She was going to need stitches. My husband turned the car around and came to take us to the ER. 

Life was really hard those first few months in the new city. We soon found out that the neighbors that shared a wall with our townhouse were the keepers of the very active temple just 500 meters from our home. 

Our pastor from one of our sending churches asked if we had prayed through our home. I can’t remember why we had not. It had been a busy few months and my husband had traveled a lot. We knew we should, but we kept putting it off. Maybe we were thinking,  

“Our faith is strong.” 

“We can’t be shaken.” 

“I am a strong believer.” 

“We’ll be okay.” 

I honestly do not know why we kept putting it off. Ephesians 6:10 says to “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” The verb “be strong” is passive, which means that we are not the ones doing it. It is God through the Holy Spirit making us strong. I feel so many times we try to do more, be better, be stronger, etc. When really, we are to just go to Him and put on His full armor - which is really the only way to fight a battle, especially a spiritual battle.  

We prayed through our home. And we became intentional with Ephesians 6:10-18. 

The asthma disappeared. 

The lice didn’t come back. 

My daughter’s lip healed. 

I still sometimes battled evil dreams and felt fear. But every day, I knew that God was making me stronger in Him. I knew that His armor was what I needed “so that when the day of evil [came]” I would still be standing afterward (Eph. 6:13).