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"Heaven is not here, its There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for."
Elisabeth Elliot, Keep A Quiet Heart
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I chuckle when people comment that our life is so not boring! Somedays I would like a little "boring." When I am just feeling settled and comfortable, oh about every four years or so, God shakes things up and once again, I find myself feeling the pilgrimness of this journey quite keenly. Again.
I hope with practice I am learning to embrace the curves and twists and unexpected stops and goes of this journey here on earth. I haven't always. I try to learn from my mistakes. God's grace always has been and always will be sufficient. I rejoice in that sure knowledge! And I am very grateful for His gentle reminders that this world is indeed NOT our home.
Those of you who know our little family know much of the story from Latin to North America so I won't go into that here. Many of you who have done life with us know we have talked much and prayed even more about leaving the state of California. Those who haven't have seemed surprised we would want to leave. I just comment and say California was not kind to us financially. Most respond, "It hasn't been kind to us either!"
When you start over financially at 41 years of age as husband and I did 4 1/2 years ago, you hold on to location loosely. We both worked incredibly hard straight through Covid and both survived multiple job changes...and kept working. We saved every stipend the government so generously "handed out" during the C years, knowing they would want it back sometime. We watched as others stayed home and went on vacations because "I make more at home than I do working." We purposed to not become bitter but become better and just keep working as the Scriptures command us to do. I will say we saved a nice little nest egg, praying one day we would be able to buy a small home and give our children some earthly stability.
2022 brought such a "series of unfortunate events" (as I have coined them!) that by October of last year, I withdrew the final dollars from our large savings to pay the latest unexpected bill. We left California in May 2023 with absolutely nothing to our name financially but we were not in debt and so we just said again, "Thank you Jesus!"
We are a living example of when God wants to move a family of four across the country, He does it and nothing, absolutely NOTHING will stand in His way. When husband was offered a transfer to Texas in late February 2023, he had to tell the company we want very much to make this move, but we have no funds to do so. They offered what we felt at the time was an adequate, if not generous, move budget that would cover the moving costs if we were careful. I started researching moving companies, going through absolutely everything we own with a very hard heart, giving away much of what we owned that was not absolutely necessary for somewhat comfortable living. The moving company world is a scary one. The internet is full of horror stories. I am so grateful that after receiving four quotes, God literally placed one on my mind and I knew that was the one. Contract was in place, house was in boxes, husband started work in Texas on April 17, so we spent two months apart as a family. Deposit from the company was finally made and due to a lack of knowledge on our part about these things, we were horrified to find out that after taxes, we received a little bit over HALF of promised move budget.
We literally cried out to the Lord and begged for wisdom. We never imagined that the few retirement funds we have in Brazil would ever, ever be needed here (you lose so much in exchange and our Brazilian currency is worth so little here) but God in His sovereignty provided a "way out" by giving us a legal and creative way to get funds here without losing in enormous fees. We just stood and watched Him provide. AGAIN.
Because so little for us happens easily, we were not surprised that it was an experience and a half to find a home here in Texas for us. We had been warned it is hard to get a rental because so many people move in and out of the city due to the gas and oil industries and how they move families around every year. We were down to the wire, our move trailer would be leaving California within days and we still did not have a home to send our belongings to. So we had our prayer warriors pray up a storm AGAIN. We wrote a letter to the home owner and offered a 24 month lease and begged for God's mercy. Not one minute too early, nor too late, we had a house and not just any house. It is the biggest and newest one we have lived in yet! We didn't think we needed four bedrooms but a godly sister at church had told me a few weeks before. "Jama, I think you need to rent a four bedroom house. God is going to send you many visitors!" And sure enough, we asked for a 3/2 and God gave us a 4/2 with an enclosed garage! We've never had a garage! (side note: we have already hosted our first house guests and several are scheduled already to come this Fall!). We pray for many, many more visitors.
Every single bill that has come up has had the needed funds to pay off just in time.
This morning I finally sat down and crunched the numbers for our entire move, including our unexpected little adventure on our road trip here to Texas. I cry a lot these days. When our "3 day turned into 10" trip was over, all the gifts that poured in from all over the world covered our expenses with a difference of 84.00. So, again, when God wants something to happen, nothing can stand in His way! And yes, I sat and wept tears of gratitude and just feeling overwhelmed. AGAIN!
While we love our new home, we have moved to a vastly different climate and environment. Our children thrived in the country life and are struggling with the return to large city living. We arrived just in time for a record breaking heat wave that has left little opportunity to be outdoors at all recently. I don't know if it is because of the heat but our neighbors are never outdoors and the ones we have said hello to haven't seemed too interested in further conversation. We literally feel like we moved to little India, as we are surrounded by Indian families. I wonder if there are language barriers and that might contribute to little conversation. I pray for opportunities and open doors. My children would love to make friends in our neighborhood, but right now we just feel more like outsiders and sojourners.
"This world is not our home, we are just passing through!"
We are so grateful for the ready made church family God has placed us in. Everson visited our new church in February and when he left the first service, he called me and said he felt like he had just attended our church in Ripon. I knew then that it was the place for us. They all grew to love him in the two months he waited for us to join him and have so warmly welcomed the children and I into their hearts and lives. I have a new name now: Jama, Everson's wife. I like it! But these adjustments and transitions take time. In a huge city, everyone lives very spread out so friends are now 30+ min away if not an hour. We are enjoying our small group that meets every two weeks on Sunday evening and I think that is where our closest relationships will form. God is so good. He has given us all we need for our journey in this season. And yes, even given us constant reminders that we are not There...yet!
May you live with Eternity in view this week. Rejoice with me in the reminder that He is wooing us and luring us to an eternal perspective and anticipation of what is to come! I hope and pray that anticipation is what sets us as His people apart and we cannot wait to share with anyone who will listen.
Because He lives,
Jama
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