Thursday, November 13, 2008

Moving to Montana

Specifically, Helena. Pronounced HELL-in-uh because the miners thought Huh-LAY-nuh sounded too girly.
  
Really.
  
This move, prompted by Ethan's acceptance of a call to pastor a small starter church ("mission work" is the proper vocab. in our denomination), agitates a whole host of conflicting emotions.
  
Relief: finally knowing where we will live.    
Anxiety: wondering where EXACTLY we will live.
  
Excitement: the thought of the Wild West. Sort of. 
Dread: the thought of the 35-hour drive, with Ethan piloting a moving van towing our camper, and me piloting our van towing our six kids. In a few weeks. Winter.
    
Happiness: meeting our new church family. 
Sadness: leaving our old church family.
And extreme sadness: leaving my family, which is whole-heartedly East-Coast tied.
    
Certainty: this is God's will for now. And as such, the anxiety, the dread, and the sadness will have to succumb to the surety of Doing the Right Thing. Calvinism over Emotionalism.
   
I can talk myself out of the anxiety and the dread. And the sadness? The part that is tied to fear (How long will it be before we see everyone? How will my children cope without their regular dose of grandparents?) needs to be doused with the promises of Scripture and the reminder of God's omnipotence and omnipresence. He can care for us over there and them over here. And the sadness that is tied to love (How long will it be before we see everyone?) will have to comfort itself with the same promises and busy itself with plans of having family come see our new home. Airplane tickets, people!!
  
Ethan took some beautiful pictures of Helena on his 12-day trip in September. Once I find the CD that I had them copied to (because our camera cord to the computer is packed away *somewhere*), I'll post those.
   



  

3 comments:

  1. ...that the Lord will draw you ever closer to Himself through this huge transition! And that His grace will flood your sadness and give you, in the midst of it all, that peace that truly passes all understanding. Many blessings to you in Christ!

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  2. You'll be in my prayers in the weeks to come. And there are several wonderful LU people I know in Montana. You'll be in good company. :) Mike and Jenn Iverson are in Billings, Jamie Hess & her fam are also in MT, and there are a couple more I can't think of at the moment. And it is hard to move so far from family. I keep praying for the day that God moves us closer to one coast or the other, but I'd rather be where he wants me than anywhere else.


    Chris Mayne

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  3. ok, so i should be on the excitement side-right? :)

    ReplyDelete

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