Today is a big day for me and my family! All of our belongings from India arrive in a big container, and we will actually have everything we own on this earth in one house for the first time in 11 years!
When we moved to India in January 2010, the Lord had given us a strong calling that took us there. And, by God's grace, the Lord and that calling from Him to--unreached and unengaged people groups--to see a vast multitude of lostness come to know and worship our Lord Jesus Christ--sustained us for 10 years! It is hard to turn something like that off--we aren't turning it off, but it is significantly changing. As we began processing this change in our life, job, and "calling," we have grieved many things about South Asia! Though The Lord has continued to lead us and call us to a different role and different places, and we are joyfully walking in obedience on this journey, it does not ease the pain of grief, change, good-byes, and loss. It hurts quite a good bit.
This day is huge for us--crate arrival makes this change real!
In our 10 years of living in India, our family has returned to the US four different times, once for 7 weeks, twice for 3 months, and the longest for almost 5 months. We are a little familiar with being in America a few months and going back “home” to India. Though we left India 2 months ago today, saying good-bye to all of our dear friends there, to our favorite places, and to making India our "home," and have already been in the US, it is still hard to process and truly realize we will not return back to home and life there in a few more months. It seems almost like one of those short little seasons. For the last two months, we have lived in a missions house, with our family, and in a furnished home with our company--it has felt temporary...in some ways it has felt like in just a month or two, we'll pack up these 10 suitcases and head back.
But, today, when we see all those pieces of furniture, toys, dishes, and special belongings that tell the story of life we have lived and the home we had the last 10 years, it is going to make it real. It is going to be so strange to have our "home" in India come to America and meet things from our "home" before India. Home is NOT our possessions, but our earthly possessions sure do symbolize something big for us today. It symbolizes closure of a huge chapter. It symbolizes change. It's grief. It's anticipation. It's so hard to put into words. It is so good, yet so hard! I am very excited to make home and get settled here, but I know I am also going to be grieving our life in India as I will be reminded again of all the precious friends and family there to whom we said good-bye and the place we called home.
Thanks for praying for us as we continue in transition and change! Please pray especially for my kids. And those of you who grew up overseas know even more how to pray for them than I do!