the Unfamiliar

It's been a while since I wrote my first post... I've been waiting. I wrote my first post as we were selling our house. As it turns out, shortly after we moved into the apartment where we now reside, we realized that some things were just not right with the plan to move to Ireland. There were days when we thought we would not be moving overseas. There were days when we knew we would. It was so up and down, I couldn't write about it. Even now, I'm hesitant to put anything here since things tend to change so rapidly.

On the other hand, what is this blog if not a documentation of the process?

I won't go into the reasons, but we have decided that moving to Ireland, at this moment in our lives, is not the right thing to do. Currently, we are considering working with a ministry called MCYM, or Military Community Youth Ministries. This is an organization, still under Young Life, which serves military kids. We are still looking to go overseas, possibly to Italy or Germany. However, as I said, everything is up in the air at this point.

I have to be honest: I struggle with this change in events. I'm really having a hard time understanding why God would specifically call us to Ireland only to send us to Germany.

I keep remembering, however, that in our first introduction to Young Life International, it was conveyed to us many times that our initial ideas about location may not be the end result because God loves to use the familiar to get us to the unfamiliar. And to me, Germany is definitely unfamiliar. Actually, ANY place that speaks a different language than I do is unfamiliar to me! But maybe this does make sense. Perhaps God called me to Ireland because He knew I love that country. I've been there more than once, and I wouldn't have to learn a new language. By the time I get accustomed to going to another country, however, God sends me in a new direction. Maybe if He'd called me to Germany in the first place, I would never have gone. But if He got me used to the idea with a place that was a little more comfortable... little by little...

As Jeff says, God just wants us to be obedient. So that is what we're trying to do.