I’m thankful for the moments I got to come up for air during
this past month as things got super busy with packing, more packing, even more
packing, cleaning and moving! At least I
didn’t end up MIA by packing myself into one of the boxes or suitcases!
I had my pile of suitcases that were packed with things “specifically
for Africa”, a pile of “donate to the Salvation Army,” another pile for “in the
future”, one for "selling," and one for “keep out for now until we leave in September.” We also had our “take to Mom & Dad Mason’s”
pile, take to “Mom & Dad Campbell’s” pile, and “give to friends” pile…..oh,
and don’t forget the “throw away” pile.
Holy moly, that’s a lot of piles to keep straight, but I’ve really
enjoyed the process and am glad it’s all done.
The kids have done incredibly well with this transition and haven’t
complained once….I think because we just gained some incredible neighbors (our
good friends, the Beers Family).
We officially moved out of our home on Thursday, August 7th
and headed straight to my parents’ in Eastern Idaho. The rest of my family (minus a few) joined us
throughout the weekend for a “mini” reunion to celebrate one last time before
we move. It was great to spend time with
my family and I am thankful for the special moments I had with them. I was also able to visit my brother
(currently incarcerated) in person one last time before we leave the country. Typically visits only last 30 minutes, but
sometimes longer for out-of-towners, but the guard in charge surprised us with
the blessing of 1 ½ hours! That was
pretty sweet!!
We are back home now and the first week of living in our RV
has gone rather smoothly. Our friends
have been gracious and generous with sharing their home and belongings with us. Their daughter, Gracie (age 6), surprised us
with giving up her room for a month so that we could have somewhere to store
all of our suitcases for Africa. Thank
you Gracie Beers!!
After returning from Eastern Idaho we had planned to list our
Jeep for sale. However, an employee of
Josh’s approached him the next day when he returned to work and asked him if we
were selling our Jeep and that she wanted to buy it and pay cash, say what?!?! She also told us we could keep the Jeep until
we leave in September. WOWZERS!! I mean, I know the Lord is good, but I just
love testifying of His goodness and how much He’s been taking care of our every
need as we step out in faith. While we
were driving home from our trip, written on the back of a dirty semi-truck was “Matthew 6:33”. I looked it up right away. “But seek first His Kingdom and His
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” The part He really highlighted to me was at
the beginning – seek first His Kingdom.
He was reminding me to keep my eyes focused on Him and all will be well. Sometimes we can get discouraged or
disappointed when people we care about don’t understand our hearts, but that is
when it is imperative that we keep our eyes focused on Him so that we can
protect our relationship with Him in turn protecting our relationship with
others. This verse was very timely for
me to read. With the rest of the verse (and
the verses prior), we know the Lord is our provider so we don’t worry about the
unknowns of this journey we’re on. When
we worry, it’s like telling the Lord we don’t trust Him.
There have been some changes that have occurred that have
placed us in a greater position of faith.
Without going into great detail, we are unable to get visas at this time
to enter into Pemba, Mozambique (which was supposed to be our final destination). We have plane tickets to get us as far as
Johannesburg, South Africa, so that is where we’ll remain until the visa
situation in Mozambique gets resolved.
Your prayers over this situation would be greatly appreciated. We don’t need visas for Joburg
(Johannesburg), which is why we can remain in that country until we receive further
direction from the Lord. We are looking
into serving at another Iris Global base in that area, and either way, are
excited to see what the Lord is up to.
We don’t see it as God leading us a different direction. Sometimes things happen that are outside of
our control and the Lord’s, but with the new twist in our journey, we’ve
learned to ask the Lord daily what He’s up to at the time so that we don’t miss
what He’s doing from day to day. Yes, we
are 20 days away from leaving and, at this point, have no idea where we’re
going to end up………but we trust God and know that we’ll be taken care of. Living a life for Jesus isn’t supposed to look
normal to the world. To me, living a
life for Jesus looks exactly like it did for the disciples – they left
everything comfortable to them to follow after Jesus…not really knowing what
that would look like. That doesn’t make
the journey easy, it just makes it worth it!!
