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Hisjoy -> Making Progress (11/28/2007 11:35:48 PM)

My living room has two folding tables with "stuff" on them. I cannot see the top of the coffee table or the desk. There are a few spaces on the dining table.

In the first bedroom there are boxes of "stuff" on the floor and some of it is on the bed and floor, not in boxes.

In the second bedroom there is "stuff" on the bed.

In the third bedroom there is "stuff" all over the desk and some on the bed.

We have been sorting, tossing, packing. It looks much worse than when we started months ago.

But we are making progress. It's hard to believe all the "stuff" we've accumulated over 31 years. Some has been sold in two yard sales. More of it is in the upcoming yardsale this week.

But I can't part with our children's artwork from their early years. Or the things they've given me on birthdays and Christmases. Or things this person or that person gave to me. Or my cute Billy bunny rabbit, a real, live one, given me by my daughter ten years ago.

Or can I? The artwork definitely stays. Billy may have to find a new home. And the "stuff" may have to go.

"Love not the world or the things that are in the world." Thank you, Lord. I'm learning. I've a long ways to go, but I'm learning!



Hisjoy -> RE: Making Progress (1/14/2008 5:26:40 PM)

Tomorrow will be our last day working at the mission HQ.

We have been on the HQ staff since 1980 or 1981 and are the only ones left from that time. Most of the staff were in their 20s and 30s when we came to work at HQ. Now there is no one under 50, and we have less than half the amount of staff we had back then.

My job has changed considerably, in fact I've had so many different job descriptions I can't recount them all. That is good, because I like to get varied experience and not get in a rut.

I feel different...perhaps numbed...by the idea that we will not come back here to work any more; 27 years is a long time. I am not crying or emotional...well maybe a little bit emotional inside, which is surprising because something like this could well have me in tears. Though our last day here is tomorrow, our last day as members of the HQ staff will be January 31. Maybe that's why.

This month we'll be representing the mission at a mission exhibit for two days. We will continue to be members of our mission as February rolls around, just be out on our own but not independent. We have been given time to get our house ready for sale, do all the preparations for a new ministry in Texas, and raise ministry and missionary support.

Now comes the challenge to trust the Lord that He will get us through the next few months. He is perfectly capable, and He loves us. So in anything we experience we will see His gracious work producing "heavenly" fruit in our lives. Well, I hope we will have the grace and good sense to see it. Sometimes it can be too easy to focus on what's going on than on God and I sincerely don't want that to happen.

I am looking forward to this time, and yet am a little scared as well. If I were confident though, how could I trust God and wait on Him? He has done a lot already as He moves us toward the goal.

If God can sanctify His people through and through, and keep our spirit, soul and body blameless at Jesus' appearing, if the One Who calls His people is faithful and will do it, then He will for sure accomplish that which pleases Him. Don'tya just love Him? [:)]



Hisjoy -> Seeking out Believers (4/3/2008 10:11:02 PM)

January 15 wasn't the last day at the Mission HQ after all. We completed that day and went on our trip up north to represent the mission at an exhibit for two days. We worked one more day at HQ on our return, then our 27-year assignment was complete.

The trip up north was peppered with visiting our Christian friends. I have been impressed with the fact that Paul, on his missionary journeys, first sought out believers at every place where he stopped. Even on the trip to Rome as a prisoner he sought out believers in some places.

We all need each other so much. At one time it was difficult for me to express such a truth. As we prepare to venture out "on our own" as some people put it, we are not on our own at all. Last year we visited the town we expect to live in soon, God willing, and sought out believers! Without them, our visit would have been pretty fruitless. They enriched our lives and we hope it was mutual.

When I first started "seriously" posting on forums, God began to do a wonderful work in my life. Much of it was because of the relationships with believers on the forums. I learned so much and grew in the faith.

After 39 years as a Christian, I am still learning to relate to my Christian brothers and sisters. It was easy for me to be a loner, which I was bigtime before my Christian days. I am learning how to love, to serve, to enjoy my family in Christ. Not that I haven't done this in some way, but it can only get better as Christ's life grows in me and I learn more of Him.

Seeking out believers is a wonderful way to make a journey! Paul was "addicted to the ministry of the saints." If we were all addicted in this way.... At a Bible study I was in over a decade ago, a minister asked the group what we might look like if we all were filled with God's love and living it out as Christ wants us to do. That is to say, we are not living in the fullness of His love, not yet (but God is working in us). It was a piercing question, and one that needed to be asked. I am not sure that I could answer it fully even now.



Hisjoy -> RE: Seeking out Believers (4/21/2008 8:46:14 PM)

All the clutter has gone, walls painted, new carpets, broken things fixed. We are very comfortable living here. We've been here 21 years and the house is better than we've ever known it.

Someone else will get the benefit after we've enjoyed it for a while.

"For Sale." The sign went up in our yard today. For a few seconds after the sign went up, I had mixed feelings. They quickly and peacefully settled down to remembering that God is moving us on.

Now I have a kind of numbness. I am just where I am--not excited about moving to another, somewhat larger city and a new ministry, not tearful at all about giving up our home and all that's been familiar the past 21+ years.

I am in the center of the realization of it all with the inner sense that God is here. He is doing it this way because He knows me well. We still have some things to do on the house. We have people to visit. I can't run ahead of Him because He has 'stuck' me here. And He is 'stuck' here with me and He ain't letting go. It's His love I'm stuck in, let the reader understand.

Abide in Me and I will abide in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.



Hisjoy -> Keeping on Track (5/31/2008 4:54:31 PM)

The "For Sale" sign is still up. Amazingly, the house is still presentable inside! The clutter has stayed away!

I was telling our daughter on the phone that with the market the way it is, we can 'humanly' expect a long wait, but God...but...God...! He is in control! We will trust Him and see what He will do! All so very 'spiritual,' isn't it? "Mom," she said, "All you need is one buyer. He can do that, can't He?" God is so straightforward, and He used our daughter to put things into proper perspective! It's less difficult to believe. But why? Isn't God capable of doing the impossible, aren't the nations like a drop in the bucket to Him, isn't He the same yesterday, today, and forever? So we wait and trust!

Meanwhile, we are finding things to do, like visitation, and taking prayer requests by phone once a week at the radio station. We write a bunch of letters every month. And now that the house is so clean and free of clutter, something always shows up that has to be done which that obvious before. Our pastor asked us if we'd help get the church records up to date so we hope to start on that next week, one morning a week while we are here.

All the while, we keep the Texas 'vision' in mind, where we believe God is directing us to start a new ministry with our mission agency. God keeps it alive by reminding us in various ways that we are "on the move" and helping us to not get stagnant and merely wait it out. Sometimes it feels that way, but He always does something to get us back on track. It might be something that He nudges us with in His Word, or something that happens, or in our prayer times together, or other people giving encouragement. He has His ways of doing it, often so unexpected in how, why, and where.

Our daughter has made indirect appeals to us to consider moving in the opposite direction--near to where she lives. She offers us the joys of being near our grandchildren, but is definitely not trying to pull us from God's direction, just expressing her desire. I could so easily go with it and I tell her so and how I would love it! But we believe God directed us to Texas! We have never been able to 'see' the ministry situated in her city, yet it looks so at home in the Texas city.

Well, if it is wrong, we can always up and move again. Or God can redirect us before we do it. I have known other missionaries to be all set for one place and change to another at a moment's notice. Really, it doesn't hinge on the geographical situation, but on God's Word and what God is doing in and through us and what He wants to do.

You might get the idea that I am somewhat unsettled about all this. What, me? Well, I admit, it is true, though I'm not losing hold of what He has already given us. Our daughter said concerning moving closer to her, "It wouldn't be a sacrifice, would it?" Yes, creating a greater distance between us will be a sacrifice, and Jesus spoke very clearly about giving up that which we desire in order to do His will. If Jesus said that, then why am I unsettled? Why do I wish that the joy of loving God and the joy of loving our children and grandchildren could take place in the same city? I can talk about God's will and making sacrifices, but I guess I'm just too plain human after all. Even so, God triumphs. It can't get better than that.



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