Looking back.....

On top of the Mountain

After so many months on the road going through the motions and emotions of life we realized tonight through a phone call that we are just beginning to process all the things the God has done over these last months.  In many ways we have gone through the motions, pressed forward, put our heads down and forgot to see how God has and is opening so many doors.  A few weeks ago we called it being Numb.  Now after a bit of time and space I think we can begin to reflect.

After an experience like this you would expect mountains of stories demonstrating His provision and power.   Those stories you would expect to be large and grandiose, just like our God right? Full of thunder and lightning.  Stories of triumph and victory.  The funny thing is those stories have been manifested just as God speaks... in still small voices.

That's not to say that He hasn't shown up in LARGE ways He has, but more He has been constant, like a constant melody, quietly playing through the various verses that make up life.  Always there, consistent, and definitive from one note to the next.

He has been the simple things, like the provision of a car, or rather a truck for us to use for an entire two months while we were in Idaho.  A truck that frankly I was skeptical about because lets face it a family of three on the front bench of a small truck with a two year old in his massive car seat doesn't sound like the model of space and luxury.   But that truck was such a blessing to be able to have  sense of freedom and independence while at MAF, giving us mobility and the opportunity to turn a temporary relocation into a home away from home and a connection to new church and family that we would have otherwise never met.  E still to this day laments leaving his red and white truck, although it was really red and silver.  

He showed up in providing the perfect family to rent our house while we were away, when we were beating our heads against a wall trying to figure out what to do with our home while we were gone.   Rent?  Sell?  It was the perfect time to sell, just not according to the numbers or the professionals, but renting wasn't going to work either.  What were we to do?  Then He shows up providing a family who had been looking for a place to stay in Charlotte, moving in just two weeks after we left and one week before we got back!  And to top it all off, they took better care of it than we do and now we feel bad because we know how good our home can look!

He was there when we needed family when we didn't have any close by, or at least we didn't think we did.  Salt Lake isn't exactly a stone's throw, but close.  He provided in getting to see and spend quality time with family that we had not seen since our wedding.   Turns out that we didn't have enough time there.  But we'll be back....

He was there when we were faced with having to go north for a full week of training, which could have been completely depressing sitting in a hotel room in Sandpoint Idaho by ourselves.  But instead the time went too fast as we thoroughly enjoyed spending time at the ranch, building a bond with a family that truly inspires us to be all that Christ would ask us to be.  We really felt at home there, and E still talks about driving the ATV's and riding the horses.

 He has been there in the discouraging times as we are walking through the heartache of watching another  missionary family intending to go to the Congo in Africa, possibly being lead in a different direction, as they have struggled over these last 12 months to raise their support and are now in the final stages of options with MAF. (To the Fuller's: our hearts are saddened and we are praying that God gives you His peace no matter what the outcome!)  It makes the high times, like when we received our final checkouts at MAF for overseas service really confusing allowing the mind reel as to why it seems that He has chosen our family, out of a pool of many talented and special families to Go.   
He was there....He is there!

There really are so many more examples, both small and large of how the Lord has been working through this journey in some capacity.  Over the last 4 months we have traveled over 4,704 miles by air, 4,503 miles by car, shared on 5 consecutive Sunday's across 4 different states, had no real travel problems, and are closer as a family than we have ever been before.  If that's not a testimony to God's great faithfulness even in the small things, than I'm at a loss to know what is. 

There is really are so many more to share about, but I suppose that much more and I'll have you all falling asleep at your keyboards.

These stories are just the model of the God who is walking and guiding us from one chapter to the next.  I suppose this is how it will be overseas, and throughout our history,  as it has been for many before us...

Sitting down in the Valley.