As I write this, we are driving past trees and rivers and lots of cornfields, savoring the sights of the great plains...and watching the skies to see more crop dusting planes!
We had a fantastic time at Mission Institute, and are so glad we got to attend before we go to Guam. We really learned a lot. We also met many new friends. Sad to say goodbye again, but our lives are richer now for having made these connections.
...
So now it has been a week and a half since I started this draft...
I was going to write a lot about some of the things we learned, but now I think that I should just post it instead of trying to cover all these things!
To catch up just a little bit--
We just spent time with my family (Karen's), including my grandparents, parents, friends, aunt and uncle, cousins, my sister and her husband and his family, too... Very fun. But definitely busy!
Now we are with Loren's family, doing the same thing. We are really enjoying getting to reconnect with all these people. (But I have to admit I really loved yesterday morning, too, just staying home and doing little things like looking through our mail!)
We head to California early next week, to see even more dear people.
Then two weeks from this morning, we head to Guam.
I wonder if one of the points of this "pre-embarkation" time is to make you so tired of traveling that you just can't wait to settle in to your new home, no matter where it is!
Ok, so maybe there is still a bit of rough road left as far as our travels go (both physically and emotionally difficult), but I appreciate both the time with these loved ones and the lessons I am learning. One of those is to trust my Shepherd with every little detail, and try to quit controlling things or getting frustrated...
(On that note, I have to tell one more story. Then I will really quit, go to bed, and let you get on with your day, too!)
Sunday morning, I was reading Psalm 23, the one that starts, "The Lord is my Shepherd..."
I thought, "I wish I could read that book I saw one time, the one a shepherd wrote about that Psalm. I bet I could learn so much more about what it really means!"
But I didn't go much further than thinking that. I just kind of made a mental note to look for it sometime.
Later that day, we ended up looking through things in my grandmother's basement, staking our claims on stuff we want someday. She had a lot of bookshelves, all full of great books. I "happened" to notice one particular thin little book: "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23" by Phillip Keller! Exactly what I had thought of that morning!
So now I am enjoying that book, and continuing to learn to "lie down" in the green pastures He brings me to, even in the midst of the chaos of these days.
