Halfway Home

Six months ago we came "home" to St. Joseph, Michigan, after completing our second term at Tenwek Hospital in western Kenya.  We have embraced the joys of reuniting with family and friends, the comforts of good roads and easier living in general, and the privilege of sharing what God is doing in Kenya with people who really care and are partnering with us.  We have also embraced the blessing of abundant snow!  Our home has looked like this for at least two months, having received about 10 feet of snow so far this winter.

There are aspects of this home which we have found difficult to embrace - the sliding morality of our country, the self-centered mentality of many, the blatant sexual messages in so much of what you see and hear, and the effort to eliminate religion and a core set of absolute values from education and life in general.  This is not news to you, or us, but when you don't have to look it in the face every day when you are on the other side of the world, it really hits you when you get here.


And now as we have rounded the corner into the New Year, we are done focusing on our family's adjustment to this home (which has gone very well, thank the Lord), and we are facing the preparations of heart, soul and mind for our return to our Kenyan home.  Six months of stateside living behind us, and six more months to go before changing settings.  How do we do this turn-around again? How can we face leaving Julia and Rebecca behind us in college when we go, and face leaving aging parents another time? Only with the deep assurance that the Lord is going before us and that this is His plan for us. We are seeking that assurance now, as we do each time we are back in the US, and we ask for your prayers.

In realizing our own need for more time for prayer, reflection and restoration, we have planned individual prayer days this month at our favorite retreat place, appropriately called "Still Waters."  Hopefully we will have several more of these days over the next months. And we are initiating this blog, to improve communication with those of you who read blogs, to enlist you to pray with us.

Halfway Home!  Halfway here, halfway there!  It keeps us reminded that we are sojourners, looking forward to our final Home with the Lord Jesus.  Pray for wisdom at this particular point in our journey, and for God's clear leading on the road ahead.