A Winter Trip to Maine

Why in the world would we pick January to take a trip to Maine?  After all, you can expect it to be snowy at this time of the year and definitely cold.  Road conditions are not the best and airline travel is “Iffy”.

We went because we now have a house and needed to collect our belongings from storage.  There were also speaking engagements available for us.  For me, it meant that I could spend some precious time with the ladies of West Hampden Baptist Church on their winter retreat.

God definitely prospered our journey.  We give him thanks for all that He did for us.  Here is a brief summary of some of the many blessings He poured out on us on this trip.

• Delta contributed to our travel fund.  We were waiting for the plane when we heard an announcement.  “If anyone would be willing to give up their seat and be driven to Atlanta to make their connection, we will give you a $400 voucher for future travel.”  Charlie jumped up and went to the counter.  A few minutes later we were on our way to Atlanta via taxi.  Since it was a holiday, we did not even have to deal with traffic.  We were there in plenty of time for our flight to Maine, and we think we may have arrived before the delayed flight.
• Our flight up was without incident.  We flew on a Monday.  The weekend before there had been many weather-related delays.  The next day another storm blew in and once again there were many delays, but we were already there.
• We have such generous friends.  Friends picked us up in Portland and drove us two hours north and dropped us off with another friend to stay for a couple days.  Another friend gave us a very nice vehicle to use while we were there.  Another friend drove me down to the ladies’ retreat. 
• We were able to visit people in Farmington.  Charlie’s uncle lives there, so we were able to drop in and see him and his wife.  Then on Wednesday evening we shared our ministry with the people of New Hope Baptist and stayed overnight in their “Prophets’ Chamber.”
• The ladies’ retreat was a real joy to my heart.  It is the event I miss most now that we’re gone.  Gathering with those dear friends to learn together from the Word of God is such a joy.  There was time for a few heart-to-heart talks, walks in the snow, and enjoying the beauty of God’s creation there in Southwest Harbor.  (More about that in another blog.)
• The men were available, flexible, and speedy in packing the moving truck.  The night before we were supposed to pick up the truck, Charlie got a call from U-Haul saying that the battery in “our” truck was dead.  So instead of picking the truck up early, Charlie had to let the men know that it wouldn’t be available until later.  When they gathered to pack, it only took them an hour to load.  As cold as it was, it’s good there were many men there to make it happen quickly.
• The pastor and his family are loving and hospitable.  The last half of the week while I was at the ladies’ retreat, Charlie stayed with the pastor, and we were both there when I returned.  They were very warm and welcoming, and we love to see that the church is growing under their leadership.  When we left, they loaded us up with sandwiches and treats for the journey that lasted almost until we arrived home.
• God kept us safe on the trip home.  We encountered the worst weather on our second day of the trip home.  After we’d been on the road a couple hours, the snow started, and it stayed with us all the rest of the way.  We saw a number of cars off the road, but the Lord kept us safe. 



Finally home in Georgia!

• We were able to unload the truck with just minutes to spare.  We had hoped to get some help on this end, but the bad road conditions meant that people were not venturing out.  Churches cancelled on Wednesday night, so the promise of a crew to “help with the heavy stuff” did not materialize.  So on Thursday morning, after a night of much needed rest, Charlie and I finished with the remaining items and returned the truck.  The man at the U-Haul store said to us, “You are three minutes early.”  Then we rejoiced at the unplanned delay at picking up the truck as it kept us from having to pay for an extra day.

It was a blessed trip from start to finish, and we give thanks to God for his many blessings to us.

A Home Base

Last month we posted a blog that had some fun with this question of why we feel we need a house.  Lest anyone think we’re not taking their questions seriously, we thought we should post a more serious answer to the question.

We need a home base.  That home base could be on wheels, but we came to the conclusion that a motorhome would cost us more in the long run and would have to be replaced more quickly so a house made more sense.  Even though we will be gone a lot, we need a place to regroup and get ready for the next trip.

Today's "office" will need to disappear before the next meal.

We need a place to set up an office.  People have been very gracious along the way to let us use their dining room table or their guest room so that we have a place to work when we are in their homes.  However, all of our books and files are in storage boxes.  We do not feel it’s wise to go buy that book we feel we need when we know it’s somewhere in a box in Maine.  That means every time we go to write up a lesson to teach in a Bible institute or church, we’re starting over from scratch and we don’t have any of our reference books to help us.  It also means that when we are in the middle of a project, we don’t have a convenient place to keep it.  Every lesson and sermon outline needs to stay with us.  The longer we’re in this ministry, the thicker our current working files are becoming.

We need a quiet place to work.  During these years of being “homeless,” we have used libraries, restaurants, picnic tables, living room couches, beds, the car, and dining room tables as our “office.”  That means that usually there are lots of distractions around us.  Sometimes those distractions can be easily ignored and we keep working.  At other times, those distractions end up involving us, breaking the flow of thought and making it harder to get back to work when the distraction is over.  I have been asked to write curriculum for IPM, but I’ve found it very difficult to do it with the lifestyle we currently have. 

We need a place to keep things.  Over the last two years, we have often found ourselves looking for things we thought we had brought along with us.  When we can’t find it, we then ask ourselves where it might be.  Did we leave it in Georgia at my parents or in Maine at the storage locker?  Or did we lose it and we need to buy a new one?  It will be nice to have a place to keep things where we can go to the shelf or the closet where it’s supposed to be and actually find it. 

Everyone we know who has our type of ministry has a home base.  While there may be a better way of doing this ministry, we have not yet run into a better model than one that involves having a home base.  One day that home base may be abroad, but air travel originating in other countries is generally more expensive than travel originating here.  So for right now it made sense to us to make a house in the USA our home base.

Any questions we haven't answered?  Feel free to post your comments below, and we'll respond to them.

Why do we need a house?

We plan to spend at least five months abroad next year.  In addition, we will be making multiple trips throughout the US to raise support and represent the mission.  That means it’s likely we will only spend about three to four months at “Home”.  So the question has been asked, “Why do you need a house?”  So here are a few of answers which you might find enlightening.

Milk frother

With the money we’ve spent at McDonalds, Tim Hortons, and other restaurants in order to use their “free” wi-fi, we could have already paid our entire mortgage. 

When we wanted to buy a $2.49 milk frother from Ikea to make specialty coffees from time to time, we couldn’t figure out where the right place was for it in the car.  And, we wouldn’t have been able to make coffee in our car anyway, so we decided to pass it up for now. 

We need to keep an entire address book just to keep track of our return addresses.

Our arms are just not long enough to reach up to the storage locker in Maine to get a book that we need for study.

Sitting on one of our chairs in the storage locker just does not feel like home. 

We’d love to be hospitable to missionaries, friends, and relatives, but how do you invite people over to your car for dinner or to stay the night?

Right now when people ask us where we live, we say “our car”.  If they ask where we are from, we still usually say, “Our car.”  It has been tremendously economical for us to live out of our car, but we’d like to be able to have a real answer to that question soon.