Tidbits

The past week and a bit have been fairly uneventful.  The packing has begun.  The mess in the house is....perpetual.  Why does packing UP stuff seem to make such a mess??  It's three weeks today that we fly out.  Three. Weeks!

Empty rooms...

Empty Closets.

These are the clothes Nate and I have left in our closet...

Here's the room above the garage where we're going to store all our stuff.  Looks organized, doesn't it??

Can you find Nolan hiding in this pic?  He's wearing orange!

And this box in the photo above....do you know what this is?  It's not JUST an ordinary shoe box.  It's special.  Because whatever each child can fit in ONE of these, is what they can take to Africa.

This is Nolan's box...half packed.  Wanna know what's in it??  It makes me laugh....

The little white bundles are his "dinky cars", individually wrapped in Kleenex for protection, like little mummies being preserved.  And what else does he think is important cargo in his very limited space??  Purell Hand Sanitizer.  I think he has 6 bottles in there.

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, it's tonnes of fun at our house these days....

The Week of Miracles!

In the last seven days, we have seen God work in amazing ways.  Here's how it's gone down:

1.  We sold our van.  A lovely family that we know through homeschooling has decided to purchase it and I know they will take good care of our "Vantastic!"  Miracle!

2.  We sold our pop-up trailer.  Another lovely family we know has decided to take it off our hands.

3.  Our visas.  They arrived promptly on Wednesday last week.  Things went smoothly ~ everyone is allowed in the country.

4.  OUR HOME IS RENTED!!!  I saved the best for last!  I just finished signing all the papers about 10 minutes ago and I can tell you that we are so super excited to have this last item checked off the list.  Mountain MOVED!

Thank you for praying about this with us.  Thank you for your encouragement and for asking how things are going, and for so much more.  We have been so encouraged when you have told us you are praying daily for the rental of the home and GOD HAS ANSWERED!  He gets all the praise for this!

Waaaay back when I started this blog, I listed the mountains that needed to be moved.  Here was my list from March 20th blog post:

1. Raising Support: (Mountain moved.)

2. Renting our House: (Mountain moved.)

3. Selling Stuff: (Mountain mooooooved!)

4. Immunizations: (check!  We survived that!)

5. Learning to Speak French:  (we've come pretty far with this one, but still need some work...)

6. Packing, cleaning, sorting, tossing, etc.: (This is still a work in progress but it's happening.)


It has been amazing to see these things done by our Heavenly Father!  

Thank you, thank you, thank you for praying us through this and encouraging us along the way.

Waiting

I've been less than good at continuing to count miracles in the last several weeks.  So much has happened and we've been super busy but I have, nonetheless, been lacking in counting.

We got home from training last Saturday afternoon.  On Sunday, we spent the entire day at a family reunion and met up with some friends at the reunion who came home with us Sunday night and slept over.

These are the kinds of friends that everyone needs.  Everyone.

Jay and Krista are kindred spirits to us in their heart for missions.  They spent three and a half months in Papau New Guinea with their three very small children on a work project.  They are also kindred spirits to us in other ways.

Jay and Nate are double-trouble, kindred spirit, red-neck, handyman, motor-head, weirdos.  Krista is a home-schoolin', tough-love momma with a creative flair that makes everything she touches look gorgeous.  I am a home-schoolin', tough love momma who likes having people like Krista in my life.

Here we are on a little hike with the kids:

Monday morning Jay and Nate were busy.  In just an hour or two they threw together the stairs on our new deck.  Then they doubled for a ride on the four-wheeler, and then they watched a John Piper video.  That's just the kinda guys they are.

Before they left for home, the four of us prayed together around our little island.  We prayed for our family, our kids, the friends and family we're leaving and for a renter for our home.  We discussed renting vs. selling, we discussed how best to rent it and decided the best plan is to leave it to God. Then they packed up their stuff and hopped in their Jeep.

Just as they were ready to pull out of the driveway, two vehicles pulled in.  Nancy, a friend from church, and her daughter, hopped out and tell us that they think they have renters for our house!

Jay & Kris, Nate & I, just looked at each other.  (And I promised to call them as soon as we knew anything!)

I gave Nancy and her daughter, Rebecca, a quick tour of the house and they told me they'd bring their friends by Tuesday night.

The friends came,  looked at the house and told us they'd let us know by the end of the week.

They called Thursday afternoon.  They're not going to rent it.

I was really disappointed.  I thought this was "it."

Then I thought a little more.  Why did I ever think that this whole moving-to-Africa-deal would be easy?  That things would go super smooth, no hiccups, no trouble.  Just because I'm a Christian?

Because we all know that things go sooooo easy for Christians.  (Insert sarcasm font here.)

Because we're followers of Jesus, our lives are free from stress and trouble, right?

Then I thought about Moses.  His walk with the Lord was easy peasy in that desert for 40 years.  Then I thought about Daniel.  For sure sleeping in a den of hungry lions was a cake-walk.  Then I thought about Jesus.  Hmmmm.

Why did I ever think this was going to be smooth-sailing all the way to Togo?

It doesn't mean I'm in the depths of despair but it is a reality check.  Tough stuff happens to all of us and even if our house never ever rents, it doesn't mean that God is not in this and that it's a bad plan.  It's just life here on earth.  We are not guaranteed ease or a trouble-free existence.  And I think I needed a bit of a reminder in that area, a little kick-in-the-pants.

I still claim Psalm 37:5....Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will act.

He will....but it will be HIS will in His time.  It's the trusting and waiting that's hard.