We are church planters. I must have told you by now (ha, I know I have). The job description for church planters has often required us to move once we have established a church and prepared the pastor sufficiently to take the reins from us. It’s not glamorous, but it’s what we do. For some strange reason, church planting stirs our cornflakes.
13 pieces of luggage
In early 2016, I found myself standing in the Blantyre, Malawi, airport. I stood with my husband, Jamie, and daughter waiting for our luggage in the baggage claim area of the airport. It was hot, and sweat poured from Jamie’s forehead. He lifted our bags, all 13 of them, one by one onto luggage carts. Once we passed through customs, we walked along the downward-sloping surface that led to the exit. I knew we were headed for complications as the cart picked up pace and we struggled to slow it down. It didn’t take much – just a small bump on the walkway’s surface – for the suitcases to be sent cascading down in front of us.
This was my welcome to Blantyre.
I must have told you I don’t need to collect things
By nature, I’m not someone who needs to collect things. I must have told you this by now. I imagine God prepared me long before I knew I would be a church planter. Moving to Blantyre required me, as many moves had before, to pare down my belongings to an odd mixture of suitcases, foot lockers, and a duffel bag or two.
Mixed among the necessary items, like my extra contact lenses, four plastic plates, a small set of cutlery, and shoes, was a jumble of both necessary and non-necessary items. These included pictures of our family, a few keepsakes from other countries where we had served, and important documents (such as our marriage license, diplomas and degrees, and our youngest daughter’s adoption decree, etc.). As I unpacked all the necessary and unnecessary things, tears rolled down my cheeks. I felt the familiar sting of having to leave one place and start all over again.
What are we looking for?
As we go about our daily lives, it’s easy to get distracted by our surroundings. We feel the need to conform to the norms of society around us, which we work so hard to attain. There’s nothing wrong with settling into a place. There’s nothing wrong with it as long as the place you have settled into doesn’t cause you to settle for less. Anything less than what God has planned for you is something that will cheat you from experiencing His best.
What are we looking for? Where are we going? With all the effort we put into settling into life and making ourselves as comfortable as possible, is it possible that we have forgotten that this life isn’t the end of it all?
Lifting the stakes
I lived in Blantyre, Malawi, for a while until God put another assignment on my plate. Then, I had to pack up those 13 pieces of luggage once again. I went through the uncomfortable process of lifting up the stakes of my “tent” and moving on. As uncomfortable as the process has been and surely will be again, there is not a city on this earth where I will finally rest as I will when I enter that Heavenly City and really put my roots down.
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