Move Update

Since many people seem to be asking and since this is supposed to be a blog about our time in Korea, I thought I’d answer some common questions that I’m asked regularly these days.  But that isn’t to say you should stop asking….I really appreciate the care I feel when asked, so feel free to ask away!

Right now we are still pending our visa approvals.  To live and work in South Korea we need missionary visas and we are waiting for South Korea to approve them.  Once they are approved, we will ship our things and we will follow several weeks after.  We are still working on (slowly) packing up our apartment and deciding what goes, what stays, what to give away and what to sell.  I’m glad for the chance to simplify our lives (a goal of mine for over a year now!) but I’m surprised at how hard it is.  I never thought of myself as clinging closely to my things (they are only THINGS after all) but it is surprising how easily our hearts get attached to our earthly possessions and we don’t even realize it…It is scary really. It gives new perspective on “our hearts are deceptive.”  Ick.  I don’t want to be someone who clings to things that moth and rust will destroy.  I want to be someone who doesn’t live life focused on the possessions I’ve accumulated but someone focused on people and relationships and the God whose image they are made in.  I want the real and lasting things to be the focus of my life, not the passing and fading things.  But all that is harder to do than to write. 

Our apartment looks like piles and piles of stuff and boxes and trunks and bins…Mostly clothes and books.  We own a lot of books (we are realizing) and I guess it makes sense since we both love to read…not a bad thing to collect, I suppose.

Steve was accepted at Reformed Theological Seminary this week!  That is a huge praise and I’m a proud wifey =)  This means he can attend their mandatory in-person training the end of October before we leave.  He will be doing the distance education program they have but they do require you to attend (in person) the orientation session prior to taking classes…Perfect timing, Lord.  Why am I surprised? 

While I’m on that topic, let me just send out a loud praise for all the ways He has perfectly ordained and worked together so many aspects of this move and this change in our lives….There are so many answered prayer requests bound up in this move. So many things I have brought to the Lord for over 2 years and felt like He would never answer…and here they are…all answered. Perfectly.  In ways I couldn’t have dreamed up if I had tried.  A different job for Steve, a ministry outlet, a youth pastor position, the ability to live and work overseas, working with the next generation, seminary, a bigger place to live, traveling, a mentor for Steve to learn from and be challenged by, simplifying our life, shifting our focus, the ability for me to be a stay at home mom, paying off our student loans, being challenged, not wasting our lives, just to name a few (huge) prayer requests.   And my faithless heart is put to shame by our faithful Father (“Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means!” Rom. 3:3)

So while I have both my good days and my hard days, my emotions of excitement and my emotions of sadness in this time of transition, most our days are marked by thanksgiving and thankfulness.  I trust that whatever the next years bring and whatever this move means, the Lord will be faithful.  I trust that we are following His direction and that He is leading. 

That’s our update for now.  Once our visas come, we will ship our things ASAP and then we will follow…We hope for this to be our last week in our apartment and then we hope to live with our parents until we leave.  It will be a sweet time of hanging out with them and of them getting to be with Caleb in these last weeks.