Where Will We Live? (Tongue in cheek)

 Mile after mile.  Sign after sign.  Town after town. 

We sit side by side in the car talking while Charlie drives.  We comment to one another about houses high atop hills or those beside rivers and lakes.  We notice the prices of new houses being built.  Sometimes we laugh at those prices because they are so far above our price range.  We marvel at the palette God uses to paint His beautiful world as the sun tucks itself behind the horizon and paints the sky with pink, purple, and gold.

Every so often, we see a sign for a town that makes us smile about the possibility of living there, so I began a list so that I could share them here.

Of course, there are some town names that reflect other places in the world.  We could live in Paris, Moscow, Naples, Mexico, Lebanon, Poland, Columbia, and Norway without even leaving Maine.  That could provide interesting conversations.  Imagine this conversation.


Our previous home in Hampden, ME

"Where do you live?"

"We live in Oxford."

"Really?  I thought you lived in the U.S."

"We do.  Oxford is a small town between Norway and Poland."

"Wait a minute.  Oxford is in England.  That’s nowhere near Norway or Poland."

"Well, let’s put it this way.  Oxford is a town in Maine.  So are Norway and Poland."



Gulf Shores, AL

"Oh."

Then there are other locations where we can play with the name of the town.

If we live in Humble, TX, we will always welcome you to our humble home.  If we live in Lake, MS, we can invite you to our lake home, though there may not be a lake in sight.  If we live in Mountain Home, TX, you might be surprised that there are only rolling hills around rather than mountains.  If we invite you to our Beach house, don’t be surprised if we mean our house in Beach, TX.

If we live in Welfare, TX, does that mean we’re on welfare?



Madawaska, ME

If we have a small house in Marathon, TX, does that mean we’re in a half marathon?

If we live in Friend, NE, we don’t need a home because we can always go to our Friend’s house.

So where will we live?  Stay with us and find out.

One thing is sure.  We would rather not live in Hell, MI.  That could get really complicated.

Blessings of Being Homeless

“Where do you live?”
It’s a familiar question, and one we often answer by saying, “We’re homeless right now.”  We usually go onto explain that getting rid of house payments and home maintenance expenses  allowed us to go fulltime into deputation.  However, we are very aware that deputation would be much harder for us if we were actually living out of our car, so we’re not really homeless.  We are simply depending upon the generosity of God’s people to carry us through this time.

For the past six months, we have used my parents’ home in Georgia as our base, so our answer then was, “Right now we’re living with my parents in LaFayette.”  While we were there, we made some connections with churches in the North Georgia area and got to know some of the people my parents know.  From there, we made two trips to South Carolina, one to Florida, one to Mississippi, one to Alabama, and one to Connecticut.  (I know.  That was a bit far.)  In all of these places, we were dependent upon the generosity of friends, relatives, or churches to give us a place to stay so that we wouldn’t have to sleep in the car. 
Today, in my private devotions, I realized something.  We have been blessed by not owning a home right now. I know that I would like to settle back into a house or condo one day, but right now God has given me a real sense of peace and contentment about our current situation.  I do not take that blessing lightly.
So let me enumerate some of the blessings I see in being homeless.

1. We do not have a house payment or electric or water bills.
2. We do not have to worry about maintenance or break-ins while we’re gone. 
3. No one has to be hired to cut the grass, mow the lawn, or check our furnace.
4. We are connecting with many of my far-flung family. Right now, we are staying with my brother and his wife in Louisiana. I hadn’t seen them since Christmas, and I had never visited them here. On this long trip we will also see my brother in the Chicago area and another brother in Minneapolis.
5. We are getting to see some people I haven’t seen in years.  On Wednesday and Thursday, we will be staying with one of my roommates from high school.  I haven’t seen her since I left Venezuela 42 years ago.  I’m so excited!  Then we will be visiting the place where Charlie worked with the Apaches, and then another former co-worker in Arizona. Then in a couple weeks, we’ll be staying with a college friend.  I haven’t seen her in over ten years.  We also hope to pass through Spencer, IA, where my dad pastored for a number of years and touch base with friends there.  I could go on because the list of people we hope to see is getting longer as the days go by.  What sweet reunions!
6. “Window shopping” poses no hazards to our bank account.  It’s simply an appreciation of the beautiful and/or efficient things that are available.  I can enjoy them with my eyes without feeling any need to own them.
7. I get to see the many ways that women turn a house into a home for their families.  I love the personalized decorating that I see that reflects a family’s personality and life.
8. I learn new ways to be more effective in my own life and ministry.  Sometimes that’s in watching a busy family manage all the needs of the individuals.  Sometimes it’s by paying attention to a new organizational or management technique that will help me.  Sometimes it’s just by listening to our host pray.

The Son of Man had no place to lay his head.  He has not asked us to sleep outside on the hard ground.  We have not even had to make do with our car, so I’m sure we are much better off than He was.  But we are learning what it means to be homeless in a ministry kind of way, and that’s a good thing.

Missionary Support: Churches or Individuals?

Which group is better for raising support?  These are some of the arguments on both sides.

Churches are better:

• They are consistent.  If they commit to you, you can be quite sure that the money will be there every month.  If they have to let you go, they will notify you.
• They can give larger amounts.
• You have a whole group of people behind you praying for you.

Individuals are better:

• They are quicker in their decisions to take you on for support.
• We can have a personal connection with them.  When you visit them, you are only visiting one person or family instead of a whole group at once.
• We can be more involved personally in their lives.

Which do we want?  Both.  Both are very important to us.  We recognize there are advantages and disadvantages on both sides, but we love the advantages that having both gives us.  Yes, I know these are my reasons and they may not be the same for our supporters, but from this side of the process, I love having both.

I want churches because:

• I have been part of prayer meetings where prayers have gone up from an entire congregation on behalf of their missionary.  I want individuals in their churches to have that corporate sense of “We’re in this together.  We’re on our knees before God as an army who is fighting with them.”
• We both love explaining missions and our particular ministry to groups of people.  For Charlie, that’s often from the pulpit.  For me, it’s with children, teens, and women.  I love the questions they ask and the interest they have.  It encourages me to keep our presentations fresh and meaningful, and to make sure we are one our knees before God before each one of those presentations asking Him what His desires are for that group of people to know.
• When we have churches, we pray for their corporate witness and testimony in the community, for their leaders, and for the decisions they have in front of them.  We want to be able to support entire churches this way.

I want individuals because:

• We can be involved personally in their lives.  When a baby is born, we rejoice.  When a parent dies, we grieve.  
• We pray more personally for those people who are our personal supporters.  When we pray for a church, we are praying for the whole church and sometimes a person or two who comes to mind at the time.  But when we have individual families supporting us, we pray for the family’s own needs.
• We can visit with them easily when we pass through town.  With churches, we can only see them as a group on Wednesdays and Sundays, but with individuals we can meet up for coffee and get together on other days of the week.

So as we wait for our support to come in, we are praying that God would give us both individuals and churches who would see and want to support the niche that God has given us in missions of working under national leaders to train their people.

Are We Nuts?

Seriously, have we lost our marbles?  Do we have a screw lose?  Are we one off our rockers?  I could go on with all the many idioms there are for being seriously crazy.  Take a look at what I mean.

Our home in Hampden, ME

In 2010:

• We lived in a beautiful 2400 square foot house with hardwood floors and a newly remodelled kitchen, a new roof and a new septic system.  It was nestled in the woods overlooking the water.  In the winter, we could see the Coast Guard ice breaker maneuver its way through the ice up to the Bangor harbor.  It felt like it was in the country, but it was only a mile from the grocery store and post office, and only three miles from church. 
• We received a weekly paycheck from a faithful congregation who made sure that we were well cared-for.
• Our lives intertwined with a community of people we had come to know and love.
• We had a neighbor I had come to know and love who had ties to Indonesia, my birthplace.
• We took a missions trip to the Dominican Republic.

In other words, we had it made.

In 2011,

• We were no longer homeowners.  We sold our home, put the money in the bank and moved through a series of short-term residences.
• Charlie stepped down from being the pastor of our dearly loved church.
• We began to visit many churches in Maine to explain to them our vision of going to foreign countries to be part of a teaching team in various colleges and seminaries.

Our previously "stable" life was gone.  How exciting!

Or are we nuts?  Unstable?  Looney?  Batty?  Insane?

The wedding in CT where Charlie officiated.

In 2012,

•  We have already travelled thousands of miles, visiting Connecticut, Virginia, South Carolina and Florida.
• We will be traveling at least 5500 miles in the next two months. 
• We are planning to go to Guatemala in July. 
• From where we are right now, it looks like our expenses will likely exceed our income. 
• It's a good thing we are trusting the One who owns the wealth of every nation.

Or are we nuts?  Delusional?  Bonkers?  Touched in the head?

Sometimes when I look at the facts, I just laugh.  We are crazy! 

But it's so much fun to depend on the Almighty God and to know that He is the One who will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  Since He is the One who called us into this ministry, He will provide for us. 

Our current residence - my parents' home in Georgia.

To be honest, however, the financial needs we have are great, but they are certainly not the greatest needs we have right now.  We need God to work in people's hearts when Charlie preaches.  We need to see Him at work when we're out visiting people.  We need His grace to be evident in our lives.  We need to be faithful testimonies to His power, grace, and love.  In short, we need Him.


Are we nuts?  Psychotic?  Out to lunch?  Unhinged?

The world around us would probably say we are.  If we are, I hope we are crazy enough to believe in our awesome, wonderful God who will take our craziness and use it for His eternal glory.

Shannon

I wish I had taken a photo of her.  Her straight brown hair streamed down to the middle of her back, and her big brown eyes smiled as I talked with her.  Her skin was the color of carmels.  As a seven-year-old, her black velvet and red taffeta dress and shiny dress shoes seemed perfectly suited for "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes.

I wish I had recorded her when she spoke.  Her eyes lit up when she talked to me, especially when she said, "I'm going to be a missionary when I grow up.  I'm going to tell Muslims about Jesus. "  You would have seen the intensity of her desire to serve her Lord and heard her compassion for those who do not know the joys of having Jesus as their Savior.

She knows all the missionaries in their church by name and where they serve.  She prays for them.  She prays for us.  When we go back to her church, I look forward to seeing how she has matured in the Lord and what God is teaching her to prepare her for her future.

I'm encouraged by children like her who love us and pray for us.  It is the joy of my heart to hear someone say, "We pray for you every day."