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On the Road Again


We’ve done this all before.  And I still think God may have confused us with some adventurous, change-loving folks.  We never imagined that our lives would be so full of change, uncertainty, and oh so many steps of faith.  When we were young we thought we would get married, have babies, and live in the same town where we were born and grew up.  We pictured raising our kids, growing older, and retiring to enjoy the fruits of our labor.  We never really seriously pictured life outside what was familiar and comfortable.  Not once did we consider that life would take us to NY to live and work on a Children’s Ranch, to Mexico to do medical missions for several years, and then to Africa to do the same.  And we certainly never expected that in addition to abundant joy and blessings we would experience so much heartache, disappointment, and loss along the way. 

And yet, here we are in a new season, leaving the familiar, beginning a new chapter, and taking a huge leap of faith.  We’ve left our comfort zone before and headed out in a totally new direction.   But this time is different.  Instead of it coming on the heels of heartbreak and loss, it comes of our desire to do what we know we are good at, loving others.  God has shown us in very real ways what our gifts are and what obedience looks like. 

The past year has been a whirlwind of preparation.  We sold our much-loved Black Hills Farm, we eliminated loads of possessions, we bought an RV, bought a house in Louisiana that we share with our daughter and son-in-law, and I finished my work career in retirement.  We made every effort to get to the point where we could travel light including ridding ourselves of the farm, horses, donkeys, chickens, and a plethora of collected junk, as well as burdensome debt.  We’ve said good-bye at church, at family functions, at work, in other’s homes, and in every gathering place we’ve been.   And so very recently we found ourselves headed down the road to a new home in a place we never, ever expected to live, traveling in an RV we never expected us to own, and will soon begin a completely new season of life. 

We’ve known for a long time that the typical retirement would not be for us.  God had long since planted the desire in our hearts to serve in new ways as our main focus, not just in our left over time.  Serving was not new to us.  The seed for missions was planted in our hearts years ago when we began to serve in Mexico.  And unbelievably the time is here when we will live our dream of serving, loving, and bringing hope to the hopeless in these years of “redirection”.  Only God knows how long that will be, but it is our earnest desire to say as the apostle Paul did.  “We have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, and we have remained faithful.”   Wherever He sends us, whatever He calls us to do, we will do the best of our ability, finishing strong. 

Love goes.......

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