So leaving Florida, we pulled over to get some gas when we were still about 2 hours out of Foley. As we got back on the highway, there was a man who was hitchhiking, so we picked him up. I don't really know why...he didn't look like a crazy person so I hoped that meant he wouldn't kill me and/or eat me. Obviously I'm typing this, so I'm still alive. Long story short, he was pretty boring but very appreciative of the ride. It's a bit of an unsettling feeling so I don't plan on making it a habit, but it was interesting nonetheless.
We finally made it into Foley, dropped off our friendly resident hitchhiker, and headed over to Stephen & Kristine's house! Yeah! We planned, as usual, to be in Alabama for one week and four weeks later, here we are!
Since we did hurricane relief in New Jersey, the focus of our trip has unintentionally shifted more towards service than evangelism. While we are always looking for opportunity, Foley is pretty small and doesn't exactly offer ample opportunity to engage the masses. Our first few days here, we got started on those pesky chores that need to be done & nobody wants to do! (Or nobody has time to do.) Chore #1: touch-up painting at the church. We sanded down big chunks of drywall in the bathroom and then repainted it, then did touch ups all over the place. Mission accomplished.
Calvary Chapel Fellowship of Foley
sanding & painting the bathroom
the dust left about after sanding down 3 walls!
digging out a bush....
digging out a tree...
the terrible task of weeding this (by hand) took a few days.
I swear, Satan must have created crabgrass.
the aftermath
Other tasks throughout our time here included:
-cleaning the house of an older gentleman
-cleaning the church
Marc helped Pastor Joe put up shelving for the coming food bank:
Putting together cabinets (just 2) to later be installed at the church:
And then helping to install them: (I didn't help with that....I crocheted.)
This one is pretty sweet! We turned this:
into this! Pretty sweet right!?
and found these little guys:
And a few other tasks here and there. :)
Just to backtrack a little bit, when we were in Florida, we went to the pastor's conference for the evening session. One of the pastors was speaking and one of the first few things he said was, "It doesn't matter how you begin, it's how you finish is what matters". The moment he said that I knew, at least for now, the trip was to be continued. We weren't done yet. Since Georgia in early January, my mind & heart have been in a constant struggle against themselves, wondering if its time to go home. It always comes up for a reason, whether small or large, and I always give into the ponderings because I miss home. More so than I miss home, I miss life. I miss having a life and a job and a paycheck and projects I can work on it I want to. So when we were in Florida, I heard the pastor say that and I knew we weren't done. Throughout that study, God was showing me how disobedient I had been, and deep down I already knew it. I knew that my heart wasn't in it anymore and as much as I wanted to go home, I needed to be loyal to what God wanted me to do and at this moment, I wasn't. I could think of nothing worse than doing the trip when I didn't want to and getting to heaven and not "getting credit" for it because my heart was wrong. Before I go on, forgive me if I sound like a broken record. I know I speak often of wanting to be home and what God shows me through it, but that is what I'm going through and so I share.
Back to the conference, as the study went on, I realized how terribly wrong I was. I was trying to rush through the trip so I could be home quickly. I was putting my time limits and my stipulations on God's task instead of just being obedient to His call. I was just doing my time. And I was convicted.
Getting into Alabama, I tried to keep in standing with my newest change of heart. Of course, I could rush through and leave promptly at one week because that will get me home just before my god-daughter's first birthday. Seeing as I missed her birth, that is pretty important to me and yet, I must leave it in the hands of the Lord. And then came Alabama and a new challenge. A house! Of course, not our house, but the idea of a house. Because of the lack of people here, we've spent a lot of time taking care of things around Stephen & Kristine's house. We don't have very much, but we can be of service, and so we do, in hopes of blessing others. Anyways, back to the house-when you don't have something that you want (a normal life) and then you're around it a lot, it's not hard to desire it and so my longings came back with a vengeance. At this point, I knew in my heart we weren't going home, but I still prayed to know God's will for the small chance that He would tell us to go home and then I could have my life.
Of course, here we are, still on the trip. My point in all of this is the lesson that I learned.
After Florida when I heard from the Lord , it was much easier. I was content to continue the trip-God had given me passion for it again. Over the next few days, I was fine but then after that, it started coming up again-that pesky feeling of life/home/babies/etc. The first few times I prayed and asked God to help me with the feelings, but slowly, I stopped. I had expected it to be easy, but that isn't how God wanted it to be. It's better for my relationship with Him if He keeps me dependent on Him. Just because I want these desires to go away, doesn't mean they will. I have to actively be giving them to God every time they come up and not let myself give into them. Needless to say, I didn't do that this past time. I let my day dreams take me over, but God is faithful to keep me close to Him and remind me of what is important. Ultimately, what I want is to serve Him, it just amazes me that He still is so faithful to me in my fickleness.
On a lighter note! We spent Mardi Gras here! I was terribly afraid when we got here that we would be leaving and traveling through New Orleans on Mardi Gras. Yes, it would be a great witnessing opportunity, but as much as possible, I'd like my husband not to see what goes on there, know what I mean? It's interesting to see how people here celebrate it so much. People actually have the day off for it. Not for President's Day, but for Mardi Gras. Schools are closed down even! We got to go to a good, clean parade where they threw out beads and candy. It was actually a whole lot of fun!
Awesome! The Jesus float!
I must say, that we have had an excellent time here. The food has been great! The company has been amazing! Its been so fantastic to be here with friends, to be able to be ourselves and not have to worry about getting to know people or making sure we don't leave the wrong impression. Stephen & Kristine have been so flexible in hosting us. We got here and said that we'd be here for just about a week and it just kept getting pushed back....and pushed back....and pushed back! And still, they treat us like we've just been here for a couple of days. We've been karaoke-ing a few times, and played many games together. I love these peeps!
Karaoke!!!
Kristine & Stephen!
Game time! :)
me & Marc :)
Mallory singing to Sarah in Quelf
A sweeeet little swamp we found in a park!
(complete with koi fish)
(and turtles)
and a kitty! I named him Ignacio. :)
That seems to be enough of an update for now. We did meet some interesting characters on the way, but that is a topic for another blog. We are planning on leaving on Friday morning. Tomorrow (Tuesday) the McTigue family is due to arrive so we'll spend most of Wednesday unpacking them and Thursday saying our goodbyes. And then we're off to New Orleans and state #29! That's particularly exciting because that means we only have 19 states left! It's crazy to see how small that number is and to look back to a state like Texas. We felt like we had been on the road for so long and it was only state #6, with 42 left. Imagine that! And now we're down to almost 19.
As much as I would like to be home, I'm sure once I'm there for a while I'll miss the vagabond life. To everything, there is a season. I guess we'll see what God has in store for us.
Thanks for reading my blog :) It means a lot to know that people keep up with us.
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