SOJOURNER 101

This is the conversation I woke up to this morning:

Shammah to Leilani: "Good morning, it's time to get up."
Lani: "What are we going to do today?"
Shammah: "We're moving.  That's what we do..."

And that is indeed what we did today.  We are now staying at Chris and Esther's house while they visit their family in Utah.  Their invitation was very graciously extended and very gratefully accepted last week.  Just a couple of days prior to that, this mother hen was worried a bit because all of our kiddos were going to be convening upon us and I didn't know where we'd go, specifically, Christmas morning.

Noah and JD are already here.  They arrived Saturday evening.  We picked them up, grabbed burgers at In-N-Out - official CA burger joint - then took them to Uncle Dave's house where they are staying.  (Their trip was planned before our CA trip.  They planned a fun CA trip to Uncle Dave's over the holidays only to meet with....the fam, already here.  But they don't seem to see this as a negative thing.  They seem to be glad we're here as well.)

Then Grandpa and Grandma (Roy and Laura) arrived today along with Zube and Nazar (one of my all-time most favorite people in the whole wide world-I asked if he could come.) The boys will stay with us.

The grandparents have a hotel room reserved close to Uncle Dave's.  We'll spend some of this week visiting family over there and I'm sure they'll be over here some.  (20-30 minutes drive.)

SOJOURNER 101:  WHEN IN DOUBT - PRAY

One day last week I asked Shammah if we could pray, asking God what house we should be at while the boys were here.  Adding two more (for a total of 8) to the RV did not seem like a very good idea.  I didn't see how we could crash back over at Chris and Emily's as the RV didn't fit there very well.  And I didn't see how we could crash over at David and Ari's...as the RV doesn't fit there very well either...and I didn't want to jeopardize their new lease...

Two days after we prayed and asked God where He wanted us to be, Esther called and said she'd got to thinking that maybe we'd want to use her house while our family was in town as they would be in Utah?!  The house would be available the exact days we would need.   (These are the kinds of things I have in mind when I say, "Truly I have known the favor of the Lord.")

We arrived around lunch today and the rest of our TN travelers arrived early this afternoon.  I'm very grateful.     (Thank you Chris and Esther!)

As you sojourn thru this life on your way to heaven (smile) there will be times when you don't know where you are staying next.  Don't fret.  Turn to your Father and ask Him.  He already knows and would like to unfold a beautiful answer to your prayer for you.

I want to end this post with a quote from Aubrey's blog  - this has stayed with me ever since I read it a few days ago:

 "It is easy to think that if you’re going to be a missionary you need to be really spiritual, quick witted, and some kind of a leader... you do need a solid relationship with God to sustain you in tough situtations, but the needs of people are very basic. If you can love all the time, which isn’t always easy, that is pretty much all you need." 

And then you should all read the post, Waves in an Ocean, on Abba's blog.  Here's a teaser:

"After living for over 20 years in a corporate existence and thinking I knew what we would be doing in the future, I am beginning to see a new thought emerge concerning ministry..."

I believe the spiritual repercussions of this post and its content will echo throughout all eternity...uh, not to be dramatic or anything.  Abba is so very good at capturing where we are at times and putting it into words for all to read.  He writes in the first person and while it's his journey and feelings he's writing about, it really speaks for all of us at Rose Creek Village as we together go on with God.  Enjoy!

Oh, our Gathering a few days ago that I asked prayer for -- that'll be my next blog -- along with the street-corner Gathering we attended the next day...to me they go together...

TTFN.  (Learned that from the RCV Sojourners...)