Doing It Again

Image by mohamed hassan, Pixabay

It seems like forever ago that my husband and I were young, and we moved to Spain with our baby, leaving our families, country, and everything we knew behind. We were ready—after all, we'd spent two years of deputation working towards that day. But, when we got buckled into our seats on the plane, we just stared at each other. This was real. This was awful. We began to talk about our feelings, none of them pleasant. What had we done?

That first day on the field was mostly spent in travel. Nothing looked like the slides we'd seen.

Our coming-to-the-field, whole-life change was over thirty-four years ago.

And now, we're doing it again. We're transitioning the church to a young, energetic couple. We're going through twenty years of accumulated stuff at home, sorting, pitching, asking others if they want things, making lots of trips to the recycling center, and packing up what we want to take.

As soon as we sell our house, we'll be moving back to our home country—though we feel more at home here. We'll once again be stepping out into the unknown and starting another adventure.

This time, we're old people. (How weird to actually say that!)

We've poured out our lives on the field of Spain, striving to be faithful, doing whatever was at hand. Between the two of us, we've built, cleaned, evangelized, made friends, planned camps, taught, preached, and worked with children, young people, and adults…. God has brought some souls to Himself.

The Lord has made His will clear to us that it's time to retire. (A misnomer, since we'll still be working.) But we'll be retiring from overseas missionary service. Someone once told us, "Re-tiring is getting tired again." We'll probably find that to be true.

My husband and I believe God makes His will clear and works out the details (Proverbs 3:5-6). Though this is a step of faith, we have already seen the Lord do the "impossible" in order to hasten our departure. Since we see His hand in it, we are following.

Honestly, my husband and I will always have a huge chunk of our hearts in Spain. We love the land, the people, the cultures, the lifestyle, the food…. We could go on and on. We'll miss it.

But, God is moving us.

When the Apostle Paul got moved around—which was frequently—he obeyed God's call. He was needed over here? Yep, going. He was needed somewhere else? On the boat, Lord. God told him to go somewhere else? On my way, entourage in tow. Preach all night? That, too.

So, what's our response? I'm getting real, here. My husband and I had two different responses. My husband's was more deliberate. He waited to be sure God was indeed moving us. My first response? Total panic. Though my head said it would be okay, my heart response was, "Oh my!"

Thankfully, after prayer, several obvious almost-miraculous confirmations, and many details coming together, we can clearly feel the Lord's nudge—towards a totally different life.

What's ahead? We have no idea.

Seriously.

But we can trust.

And, we can go, just as we did more than thirty-four years ago.

And, you know what?

God remains equally faithful.

My life verse is Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24). I'm clinging to it now.

Would you pray that God would sell our house, help us find a new one that will be good for us as we age, and that He would get the glory each step of the way? Would you pray for us as we start over again?

Thank you, and God bless.