Moving Day Feelings

We are moving to Missouri in two days. This will be our seventh move since we were married eight years ago.

I have a lot of conflicting feelings about this move. Here's a rundown of them...

How am I feeling about...

...leaving this quaint house we have called home for the past two summers?

Sad. But grateful.

I am sad to leave another place that has begun to feel like home to us. But I am so, so grateful to our friends who let us live here for two summers. I'm not sure they know the extent of the gift that they gave us...giving us a place to be a family on our own when we weren't sure where we would stay. We have loved our last two summers in this peaceful little neighborhood, and we're grateful for the memories we have made here.


...moving much farther away from our parents, families, and good friends than we ever have before?

(Ivy and Abel with their great-grandma Noni)

Heavy-hearted. But reassured.

It will definitely be harder to leave everyone this time...now that we'll be ten hours away instead of two and a half. But just through some conversations we have had with our parents lately, we can so clearly see God's grace working in ALL of us, giving us just what we need to feel at peace even though we might be far away from our loved ones. God has been good to work in our hearts as well as our close family members' and friends'...helping us all see the eternal end-goal for all of this moving around. We are reassured by God's grace.


...making our children move for the fifth time in the two-ish short years they have been here?

Sorry. But excited.

I am sorry in many ways that our children have to keep leaving the places that they see as home. But I'm so excited for them to get to grow up doing ministry day in and day out. I'm so excited for them to (by God's grace) learn through all of these moves that this earth is not our home. I'm so excited for them to get to have a childhood that will hopefully cause them to look outside of themselves and to the needs of others.


...continuing our training with NTM and getting one step closer to going overseas to an unreached people group?

 (A view of the MTC campus we will soon be calling home) source

Scared. But so so privileged.

When I think about sitting in a village in the middle of a jungle a few short years from now, I get nervous. Ok, I get pretty scared. Because I know that I can't do it. There is no way in a million years that I can move in with a tribe in a third world country. And live there for twenty or thirty years. And raise a family there. And homeschool our kids there. And learn a new language, which has never before been written down. And anyone who knows me can attest to all that. However, thankfully I serve a God who can do anything, and He is the One alive within me. I feel so extremely privileged that God would desire to use me, my husband, and my kids.

We are also privileged to have the support that we need (emotionally, financially, spiritually) to even have the opportunity to go to these training centers and learn the skills we will need...the skills we will need to live and raise our family in the jungle and (by God's grace) plant a church among an unreached people group who has not heard the Word of God in their language since the tower of Babel. We don't feel at all like this training is something that we have to do or are obligated to do. We don't dread any part of it. We are so, so excited for our next year and a half of training, and we want to thank you if you are anyone in our life who has made this possible for us by encouraging us as a family. We are privileged and thankful, and can't wait to continue on with our training!!

Stay tuned for many posts from our new home in Missouri! :)