August Advent, part 16: September and South Carolina

“New every morning are your mercies, Great God of Light… Great is your faithfulness.” This truth has kept us going these past few weeks. This truth has helped to Advent (wait with Hope)… Still.

It’s a prayer inspired by this passage:

Lamentations 3:21-24

21 But this I call to mind,   and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,   his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning;   great is your faithfulness. 24 ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,   ‘therefore I will hope in him.’

It’s past August and we’re still Adventing. On September 1st we received word from the immigration office that they required more paperwork from us in order to process our visas. This request meant at least another 12-week delay for us.

We experienced a variety of emotions over the next few days - shock, disbelief, disappointment, anger, sadness, frustration, exhaustion… and even amidst these things we continued to trust that God had a plan and would work through it, even though it was a struggle.

Through all of this, though, we have continued to experience God’s presence and provision and care as community members, friends, and supporters have encouraged us.

Within 36 hours of letting some supporting congregations and colleagues know about this unexpected, lengthy delay, we had 17 offers for housing - some short-term, some long-term, all of them kind and caring responses. As a family we made a list of things to help us to determine which offers to accept. The number 1 thing on the list - stability, if we could stay in one place the entire time. Our kids have slept in 36 different beds since June - that’s 36 times of unpacking and repacking and moving on. Some of these were planned as part of our work and travel, some of these were additional and unexpected. All of them have left the kids feeling like nomads. We’ve realized it’s one thing to travel and spend time in other places when you have a place where you can return. When there is no place to return it takes an emotional, physical, and mental toll.

With so much transition, we let the kids choose where we would go. They decided to accept the offer of friends to stay in their home in South Carolina for the entirety of this next phase. We transitioned down to SC last week. Since then we have established a new homeschool regimen, along with walking along the beach at least once a day.

We thank God for all of the friends and family who have reached out to offer encouragement and support in this time. Through you, we have known and experienced God’s presence, provision, and peace.

We’re gathering the requested paperwork (and we’re thankful for the Bishops and others who have responded quickly to our requests and needs) and hope to have it in the mail to Dublin this week. After that, we wait and wait and wait some more.

While there could be so many things to discourage us in this time, we thank God for the amazing ways that each day we have found a reason to hope afresh.

We give thanks for Sean and Rob at Buckhorn Camp and Retreat Center in Colorado who allowed a place of beauty and safety to process this news, as well as the distraction of doing dishes and laundry and work projects around the camp.

We give thanks to our family who have given us places to stay and vehicles to drive and food to eat.

We give thanks for our friend, Jim, who flew out to Denver to make the drive back to Charlotte with Dan and our belongings.

We give thanks for the Kenyons who have graciously allowed us to make their home our home for these coming months.

We give thanks for Pastor Robert and Pastor Allison at River Hills UMC who helped with prayers, transportation, and sending Haikus.

We give thanks for the other supporting congregations and clergy and friends who are finding ways for us to have continued transportation and encouragement in this time (like Nathan, Brian, Brandon, Crosstalkers and Providence Cornerstone and Chagrin Falls to name a few).

I realize that in starting to name names I will fail to mention some names. It’s not that you’re not appreciated or forgotten - we are grateful for the texts, prayers, and phone calls. I wanted to offer some names as examples of the wide community that has embraced us and continues to cheer us on towards the goal.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

Alleluia. Amen.