Rerouting...

(April 21, 2021)

I seem to write these posts on road trips. Those long spaces of time where you have nothing to do and am just waiting to get somewhere, enjoying the scenes as they go by.

Today I reflect on the last month, seeming like a slow whirlwind of emotions. I am so thankful that my small whirlwind happened in a safe small harbor in the middle of nowhere so nothing and no one got hurt.

We started this month heading west, from Michigan, USA, to Saskatchewan, Canada. After a slightly stressful quarantine we enjoyed time with family and prepared to head east to Germany. After trying to adhere to all the rule and regulations we arrived at the airport only to be turned around for not more rigorously following the new rules from a few days before. We were devastated. More then a year away from our home all the while prepping for what we felt we were suppose to do back in our ministry and we were just hours away (and thousands of km), but it was not to be.

I don’t know exactly what that means honestly, “it was not to be”. And I still wrestle with the wondering that asks if we did anything wrong. Did we miss a step or hear wrong. I know that God also talks through circumstances and that He works all things together for good. I have also not lost hope that we will get back to Germany eventually and maybe finish what we started and finish well.

I also have to look at the option that God might be saying something else. That the world may have changed to much for us to go back to our normal. That maybe one chapter has really closed and something else has to come.

I pray that is not the case as there is a lot that I would have to say goodbye to without much closure and a lot of work for people we left behind.

All that to say, I wrote that I was on a road trip. Again I find myself heading west. Going back to where we started this away-from-home journey, Victoria, BC. We will try again to get back home to Germany but that will take a few months. Meanwhile we will see what God has for us, where we can serve in such a crazy time for everyone. I don’t know what is all next but that again I am thankful for another safe harbor to sail to. Another place where we are loved and safe, where we can try again and see what God has.

WEST COAST BOUND!