The Journey...

This post has been a long time coming for sure. As you have heard by now, our pilgrimage in Dublin, Ireland has taken a turn. This turn involves us journeying back to the U.S. to fulfill the burden and calling of God upon our lives. It's truly been a journey of faith, and continues to be.

I came across a quote recently in reading a book by one of my favorite authors, A.W. Tozer, that I thought eloquently described the recent turn in our journey of faith and life. I found his comment a large source of encouragement. Tozer said, "We would all be better Christians and wiser students if we would remember this - God rarely uses periods. There is rarely a full stop in His dealings with us - it is more likely to be with the effect of a colon or a semi-colon. In most instances, what God does becomes a means toward something else that He is planning to do." How true that is. I think the hard part is being content with not immediately knowing what that 'something else' is that God is planning to do with us and for us.

In eight days time our family of six will board a plane to once again 'start all over'. We return to no job, no house, but confidence in our God who is 'with us'. Our faith is being stretched like never before. We do find comfort though in knowing that this journey demanding faith is where God wants us, for 'without faith it is impossible to please God' the writer of Hebrews tells us. I'm anxious for that 'something else', or in our case 'somewhere else', to become known.

These last two weeks have been very busy with informing friends of this major turn leading to planned times of being together before we depart. Today our Irish friend "V" and her daughter took our family out for pizza as she wanted to treat us, which was quite an amazing sacrifice for her as she has her own financial struggles. Tomorrow afternoon I'm heading to the cinema with an Irish friend, then tomorrow evening Andrea and I have been invited out by several of our neighbors for Chinese dinner at a local Clontarf restaurant. The week continues with more of the same making for some special memories with friends and teammates.

In some ways its hard to understand how our time in Ireland was a 'means', a colon or semi-colon, rather than a 'full stop'. But in other ways it's easy to see how this is just another part of a journey that's already had its fill of semi-colons up to this point, and it will be interesting to see where and when the next semi-colon takes place.

We relish your prayers as we take one step at a time continuing this pilgrimage of faith and life, colons and semi-colons, wherever God places us.