What are we doing in the final days leading up to our next Mission Corps assignment? Three weeks from today, we will be in Zurich headed toward Buesingen, Germany. There are honest things to tend to, one of which is to carve to perfection our travel list on Excel Even though we have traveled a great deal, there are still items that we add and that we delete. The travel list is neatly divided into categories that include toiletries, first aid, clothing, household items, paper work, and electronics. Surprisingly, paper work requires quite a bit of consideration from stopping the paper, to renting a p.o. box to collect our mail, to xeroxing every piece of documentation that we take with us. We are making a list of addresses, registering with the State Department, procuring traveler's and medical insurance and finding a bank to buy currency for the first country of our arrival. Paper work is what it is, and its demands have changed for us through the years. The funniest category is our electronics one, which is leaning a little more toward the digital world. In the past, the digital camera was the only item in that category! Now, there's a longer list. Besides the camera(s), there are newer gadgets that actually make traveling, communicating, and blogging so much easier. A little world of "Apple gadgets" will tag along with us, documenting experiences on the page and with photos. We are packing. Our guest bedroom is a collection station of unorganized necessities waiting to be organized. We will get there.
Establishing categories on Excel is one thing, but seeing them in small drugstore boxes or xeroxed copies or rolled into tight balls of clothing is quite another thing. In the middle of our conversation, we find that we are spinning toward the computer to add another item to our list before we forget it. Then, we can't remember our suspended conversation, but that doesn't matter because we documented that item or that task. That is what we are doing right now.
In addition to making those lists and seeing them come to life, we are beginning to "eat down." We are buying in smaller quantities, and eating all of it before going back to the market. (This could be practice for living overseas.) Our freezer is getting leaner - showcasing only the good part of life!Our pantry is becoming skinnier, too. We are eating down, planning meals that will use that little bit of rice or last small can of soup. There are fewer things to worry about because there are more important things to focus on.
We are praying for clarity as we serve in this, our newest assignment to Buesingen, Germany. We are praying about relationships, responsibilities, and growing. We can't put those in categories - or, at least, we don't dare minimize those to a list or a category.
Slowly, the broad months of ago when we received this assignment are becoming more narrow weeks that will funnel into days. We are moving forward, and we invite you to come along with us as you did when we "truly experienced God and His surprises" in Ecuador. And, God will be the same in Germany!
Keep looking up!
Jim and Linda
