Are you REALLY Moving Away?!!

I realized many people don't know I'm moving away after our wedding. Where should I start? Me, as most of you know, I am not a complicated person, I hate complicated things. So the easiest way (and the shortest without typing all that much) is to do the following...

May 2007 - LP Finishes 1st Year
May 2007 - LP in HK
July 2007 - LP in Mtl
Aug 2007 - LP Starts 2nd Year
June 2008 - LP Finishes 2nd Year
June 2008 - Wedding
July 2008 - To HK
Aug 2008 - To Mtl
Aug 2008 - To 12 month Internship in the West
Aug 2009 - Back to Edmonton for 4th/Final Year
Aug 2010 - To a Church Somewhere in Canada for Full Time Ministry

So, what does a good wife have to do? Follow her husband... My parents are in Montreal, Montreal is my home, MCAC is my family, I've grown up here. I am unwilling to move away, but what can I do? At least we can all pray that after LP graduates, we will be assigned to a church that's in or near Quebec (The internship will for sure be somewhere out West). Please do pray for us!

A while ago I started reading this book called "Being a Girl Who Serves - How to find your life by giving it away". After the first chapter, I stopped. Yesterday, for some reason, I picked up the book and flipped to the beginning of the 1st chapter titled "Moving Out." Here are little excerpts from different parts of the chapter (ok maybe more than a little, but it's an easy read):


There are many times in our lives when God calls us to go somewhere or do something. He wants us to step out in faith in a situation that seems extremely ridiculous so He can amaze us with what He does. Most of the time we miss out on these exciting opportunities because we are unwilling to move -- or let Him move through us. When He asks us to move, He never asks us to go alone. He asks us to move because He wants to go somewhere and He wants us to move with Him!

We think God needs big people to do big things -- famous people like Billy Graham and Elisabeth Elliot. After all, why would He use us when He could use them, right? Wrong. God wants to move among the nations and across this country, and He also wants to move among the people in your sphere of influence. But many times we simply do not let Him -- not because we are strong enough to stop Him, but because He patiently waits for us to grant Him permission to work through us. A lot of times He works in us without our consent, but it is not very often that He uses us to do something incredible until we have agreed to obey, no matter the costs.

"No matter the costs," THAT scares me!

Sometimes the call to go is preceded by the call to pray. If you have absolutely no clue about how God might want to use you, then ask Him for direction. After all, He does promise countless times in Scripture to guide us and direct us. Psalm 32:8 says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you." That means God will not only tell us where He would have us go, but He will also keep His watchful and protective eye on us as we boldly move forward in faith. What a comfort that can be when the places He asks us to venture into seem scary and intimidating!

We need to learn to faithfully listen to God if we want to become faithful servants of Him. In each of our lives there will come a time -- and most likely many times -- when the Lord will come to us and simply say, "Go." There are specific places God wants us to be at certain times so that He can use us -- and even bless us -- in ways that are specific to that particular location.

But there is no reason to freak out over every little detail of life. It is simply a reminder that we need to listen. [...] And the truth is, fulfilling that calling to its fullest might require that we go and serve God in many different places throughout our lifetime. We gain more experience in every place we go and in very way we serve. Sometime God calls us to certain places to educate and prepare us for the place He wants us to ultimately end up.

Sometimes He tells His children to go out into the mission field. Perhaps that is a calling you believe God has on your life. Other times, God tells His children to go home from the mission field because their time of service there is done. At times God's call to go, or come home, isn't followed by a clear reason for why the call came. But the biblical accounts of God telling His children to go are countless.

In Joshua 1:2 He tells Joshua: "Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel."

The practice of listening to the voice of the Lord created an intimacy and trust that made the difficult parts of their moves easier than they would have been had they ventured out without hearing God's voice. When we know God is calling us to go somewhere, we never feel like we are going alone.

True service to the Lord is a combination of two things: FAITH and SUBMISSION. And they work together. If we don't have enough of one, we often don't have enough of the other either. It takes an incredible amount of faith to serve the Lord because most of the time when He says to go, we have no idea what will happen along the way.

Faith is risking what is for what is yet to be. It's taking small steps, knowing they lead to bigger ones." The author says "What is could be a lot of things. It could be popularity, security, stability, friendships, or a relationship with a certain guy. What is God asking you to risk? Even the most adventurous of us don't really like risk. We'd rather be comfortable. We'd rather play it safe. We'd rather by protected. But someone wise recently told me, 'God likes risk because risk involves faith, and faith is God's business.'

Sometimes it is extremely hard to risk what is for what is yet to be because we don't know what the yet to be is exactly. We like guarantees and bottom lines. We like familiar things, secure things, and definite things.

Not knowing what will happen along the way is one of the things I'm afraid of. One thing is for sure, I do not want to step out of my comfort zone at all. I am lazy. I am scared. I am comfortable right now.

My familiar things = Montreal, MCAC
My secure things = parents

I NEED TO STEP OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE! Okay... well maybe I'm not prepared to step out to AFRICA full time and honestly do not ever want to have to prepare for that... At least right now, I know that we will still be in Canada 3 years from now. Even if it means that it's going to be a 6 hour trip on the plane every time I want to come back to Montreal, Canada is good.

I hope these excerpts from the book is also encouraging to those who are a little lost right now, don't know what program to go into or where to go for university, dating problems, feel like changing jobs, debating whether to go on a missions trip...