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Michele & Gordon Winston

Alert for What God Will Do Next

People who hope never know what’s coming next,” writes theologian Eugene Peterson. “They expect it is going to be good, because God is good… A person with hope is alive to God. Hope is powerful. It is stimulating. It keeps us on tiptoe, looking for the unexpected.”

Michele and Gordon Winston are certainly people of hope. Their year-round nomadic spirit is in tune with Advent — a season when we try to be particularly alert for what God will do next.

In Advent worship, enter John the Baptist with travel directions for an Advent perspective: “Change your life,” he shouts. “Make the road smooth and straight! Make a clean sweep of your lives.” (Matthew 3:1-12)

A bit like Abraham and Sarah, desert nomads of old, these two pick up and move with relative adaptability — from Los Angeles to tiny Sandpoint, Idaho, to Spokane to Las Vegas to west Davenport. In the most recent move, they followed daughter Kendra here, then she was transferred to Boston. Gordon and Michele liked the Quad Cities so much they decided to stay.

Gordon chuckles, “Some people say, ‘Wouldn’t that be a great place to live?’” Adds Michele, “Most people go on vacation. We up and move there.”

They rely on their faith — in God and in each other. It’s what the Rev. William Sloane Coffin called “the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.”

Gordon and Michele have grown wings in the strength of their relationship. “We’re in accord with each other,” says Michele. “We laugh a lot, we’re flexible, we love people, we’re curious, we like to learn new things.”

The first relocation from their native California was wrenching. They left two sets of parents behind. “It’s not that moving isn’t scary. It takes resolve. The first time, I sobbed and sobbed,” says Michele, recalling the two-ton Dodge flatbed truck that Gordon rehabbed to carry all their worldly possessions and a five-year-old to Idaho.

Often, they’ve first thrown their hearts into a new locale, quitting jobs and traveling entirely on faith. “Gordon is resourceful,” laughs Michele. “He could always find work. I say he’s like MacGyver (the fictional TV character whose ingenuity is put to the test in dire circumstances).” Gordon has retooled his vocational skills in each setting, most recently from technical support for the Nevada gaming industry to communications technician in Iowa.

But the Winstons are hardly without roots. They trust in God’s presence in new beginnings. Says Michele, “I have a really childlike faith. I know that Jesus will take care of me. I know that he’ll be there. My faith is not complicated or intellectual. It’s that simple.”

Michele is slowly losing her vision. “But I don’t feel I’m in the dark,” she says, relying on the buoyancy of hope. She’s unable to drive. But she has attached herself to a strong network of west Davenport friends who call themselves The Laughing Ladies. “Even if I become totally blind, I know God’s hand will always be there guiding me. I believe, at some point, I will see the light of God’s face.”

Resourceful and adaptable Gordon embraces the open questions and challenges that come with each relocation. He stakes his expectations on finding meaningful work, and he seems to. He and Michele “look for friends to start a root system.” And a church. “St. Paul felt like home the first time we walked in,” he says.

With hearts now attached to the Quad Cities, Gordon and Michele expect to make this their home. But people of hope are alert for whatever God will do next. They stay rooted in the goodness of God, so they won’t get lost on the journey.

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"Let me keep my mind on what matters...which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. " ~Mary Oliver