Big Changes - Texas-bound!

For those who keep up with our goings on, you know that we were supposed to be commissioned in November to serve with the International Mission Board in Mozambique, Africa. Well...

A few weeks ago Todd's company offered him a job in Austin, TX. Of course, my first reaction was, "No, way. We're headed to Africa." Then, I decided to at least try to be psuedo-submissive/supportive and pack us all up so we could drive to TX to check it out and be there in the flesh to pray about it. Tuff Shed made the offer on a Wed. morning and wanted an answer by Friday afternoon. Nothing like a little time to make a life-altering decision. Anyway, Friday at noon came and went, and we were still unsure until I realized that we had been looking at the decision as either/or and not both. We had a Holy Spirit moment where we knew we were supposed to come to TX and re-apply to go overseas a few years from now. We called TS and told them we would come. It is very odd for us to make this kind of decision on a "feeling," but we've been praying about our direction for so long that we had total confidence that God had spoken. There it is, I know we sound a litte (or a lot) wierd.

Let me backtrack a little for a minute...

Todd's trip to Nampula in June/July was wonderful, but when he got home, I expected that he would have an immediate, "Yes, God confirmed that this is what we're supposed to be doing," or a "No, it's not." Since life is not always as clear-cut as I would prefer it, that's not how things worked out. He did have some reservations about the girls and what their life would look like in this city. And since he thought it would be particularly hard for them, he figured that would have a huge impact on me. Thanks to the wife who is constantly at his side saying, "Are we going or not?", he relented and said that we would go ahead with the process, but I don't think he ever had complete peace about the situation. This ought to be a great lesson in nagging!

Now, I know lots of folks who are on the mission field with more kids, younger kids, babies, in fact, and that God sustains them and takes wonderful care of them, and we know that He can do this for us, too. But, one thing echoed in our minds from our time at Candidate Conference back in May and that was the issue or question of timing. We heard over and over that a family's ability to stay and thrive on the field depends largely on timing. Is this the right time for your family? We have no idea what God has for us while we're still here, but we do know that His timing is perfect and we have complete trust and peace that we still have some lessons to learn before we're ready. Can't wait to tell you what those are!

The other strange and slightly confusing thing was that when we verbalized our decision with each other, it was as if a burden was lifted that I didn't even know I was carrying. Now, please understand that I WANT to be on the mission field. I don't think I've more sure of any of the other details of life except that I was supposed to marry Todd Williams. In fact, you could say that I'm utterly heart-broken that we won't be there next spring. When I read about Africa and my friends that are there, I lose it. So, I'm not sure what the burden was - did I have doubts about timing that I wouldn't even let myself admit, was it fear, wondering if I was going to have a meltdown when the electricity went out, and my dinner was in the oven? I'm not sure, but I look forward to the things that we have planned to learn in our extended training time.

For instance, we really want to be able to keep goats and chickens while in Africa. It's okay, you can laugh out loud, especially if you know me. We figure it might be easier to learn how to take care of them here while we're in a familiar environment. (I'm a little scared of powdered milk and would like some fresh eggs - the ones in the market are boiled.) Where was I? Oh, so we're looking for a place in TX that would give us the room to learn about getting hens to lay, milking goats, making goat cheese and whatever else one might be able to do with goat's milk. See, I don't know! Also, we've heard that it's easier to learn Portuguese after you've mastered Spanish. Great! There's lots of places to practice where we're going, and we're going to try to squeeze that into homeschooling.

So, my next blog will most likely be filled with much more whining because Todd is already in Texas, and I'm holding down, clinging to the fort with the girls trying to pack and get the house in decent shape to sell. (Todd did all of the hard, manual labor before he left.) But, there is some painting to do and lots of clutter to clean up so that someone will think that they have to have our house immediately!