Ebenezers on the Journey

I’m thankful for the Facebook feature that reminds us of what happened on this date in the past. For me, those reminders are like Ebenezers: stones of remembrance. 

Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer (which means "the stone of help"), for he said, "Up to this point the LORD has helped us!"  (I Samuel 7:12, NLT)

One year ago today, this was my Facebook status:

What a day! It's Saturday evening, and as a family we spent the entire day packing the belongings that we'll be shipping to America. The amazing thing: the boys did the downstairs (the "boy den," or "man cave") all by themselves. They spent the morning sorting and bagging all of their thousands of Legos, and then they each went through their books, toys, stuffed animals, costumes, school papers, etc., and chose what they most wanted to keep. Each boy got one Rubbermaid tub to fill. Not only has each son finished packing, but each one has provided me a careful hand-written list of the contents of his box (important for Customs purposes).

When this Big Day started, I prayed that it would not be a depressing day-- or a day when family members were impatient or short with one another due to stress. And it was not!! God is good.  As for me, it was special going through so many precious old memories-- carefully packing the beautiful Japanese lacquer tray Aunt Harriet gave me as a wedding gift, and imagining it gracing our home in Dallas; sorting through piles of artwork and stories written by the boys when they were really little; taking a cross-stitched Scripture off the wall and packing it away for yet another move-- a wall hanging given to me by a friend from church, Donna Schwartz, before my family 

moved from New York to Oregon in 1991 when I was entering 12^th grade, which has moved with me from NY to OR to OH to TX to PNG. The verse she stitched, Isaiah 26:3 ("He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in Him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!") is so appropriate for this day!

For this mom, it's been an emotional day and I'm ready for a break from packing . . .

It was amazing to look back on that Facebook status and to realize that one year ago today, I had no idea what God had in store for us post-move. I did not know that we would end up buying a house in Cedar Hill, Texas, only 6 months later, and I didn’t know that I would love it here. Nor did I know that the boxes we packed wouldn't arrive at our new house for 9 months! I did not know that we would immediately find a welcoming church home and a great school for the boys. I did not know that God was going to provide a whole houseful of furniture for us through the generosity of His people. I did not know how we would weather the transition emotionally.  But I DID know that God’s people would be praying us through it, and that He would hear and answer.  Thank you, Lord, and thank you, prayer warriors!! 

This is my favorite room in our new home.  All of the furniture you see here was given to us!  The room displays some of our favorite PNG artwork and artifacts-- and, yes, the lacquer tray Aunt Harriet gave me as a wedding gift 19 years ago.  :)

I think that on this transition journey we’ve been traveling a high plateau for a while, and we have just dropped off the edge of it rather precipitously, dealing with illness and emotional lows that are extremely normal for a family in a cross-cultural transition situation like ours, but still difficult (because I want things to be easy for my boys!). Today I actually heard my middle son mutter those oh-so-typical TCK words: “Things were better in PNG.” So, we have been living in our new home for 6 months now. Neil may be well settled in his new missionary training role. We may be committed to new ministries and establishing new family traditions. But we still covet your prayers.  Thank you for being our support team! We wouldn’t—and couldn’t—be on this faith journey without you.

“Up to this point the LORD has helped us!” 

I love this picture Neil took a couple of months ago at Cedar Hill State Park, just a few miles from our house. The afternoon sun filters through the silhouetted trees, illuminating a path that leads . . . where?  I don't know, but there IS joy in the journey!