Brought to you by the Letter “T”

TEXAS.

A distant land I’d only barely heard of. Until the day in 1996 when a friend convinced me to do a ride along on her college visit.  One scholarship interview and one Christian school chapel service that swept a public-school-raised-girl off her feet, changed the course of my life.

Texas became home.

Not without some reservation.  I sobbed when Momma and Daddy, driving me to college in a west Texas town, stopped at a rest area.  As we parked, I saw it.  Glaring at me through the windshield was the big sign that held the words I felt sure indicated the end of my life…”No cattle allowed on the grass.”  WHAT IN THE ACTUAL WORLD IS THIS PLACE?  I’ll tell you what it was- My home for no more than exactly 4.0 years.  3.8 if I could get out of there after a May graduation.  That would be just about ENOUGH.

Then something happened.  A handsome boy happened. And then some babies.  And then three more little loves. And jobs and deep community and life.  Home.  Actual home.  A home we’ve come to really adore.

And suddenly 3.8 was nearly 21 YEARS.  I’m sorry, WHAT?!

But that boy who swept me off my feet also made me a promise.  A promise of a home for all of us in the Rocky Top glory land.  He would take me back to my roots.

TENNESSEE.

Even as we have come to LOVE life in Texas, for years we’ve dreamed and planned our life in Tennessee. We looked at houses, we planned regular Sunday lunches with my parents and even picked out neighbors.  RRL was making regular trips and working toward taking his job there very soon.  Ya’ll, I wrote an actual blog in my head all centered around Drew Holcomb’s “Tennessee”

Tenn – ess – ee
Tenn – ess – ee
I was born here and raised here ‘nd I will make my grave here,
It’s home,
Tenn – essee

Tennessee.  It would be home.

Unless it wasn’t.

Have you ever done something so hard that you KNEW it was impossible to take an ounce of credit for the work?  Have you ever stumbled into obedience by just taking one tiny “yes” step after another until you were so far in you HAD to surrender?  Have you tasted the Lord’s pleasure?

I’ll tell you what happens, should you find yourself there.  You’ll dream every single day about how to continue to dwell there.  How to make it home.  And sometimes it stinks.  Because sometimes it means that when you pray “Lord, we are willing…,” you find that your dreams are just that. Yours.  Not His.

Tennessee, at least for right now, is not our home. I won’t put words in the Lord’s mouth or presume to know why that longing has continued to stir in our hearts.  I just know that for today we’ve prayed that we’d simply be “willing,” he has heard our cries and answered by gently pointing in another direction.  Pretty far away from Tennessee. Or Texas.

TANZANIA.

In July our family of 9 will be moving to our new home.  In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I cannot even begin to explain to you the THRILLING SURGE that runs through me even typing those words.  There are precisely zero of the things on paper that make this make sense.   Especially to an accountant/planner.  Except one- saying “yes.”  And because of that, there is a great joy as we embark on this adventure… and a bit of OHMYWORDWHATINTHEACTUALWORLD

We want to share more really soon about how this all came to be.  CRAZY ride.  But for now I’d like to share just a snippet of the three really cool opportunities we feel called to:

1. RRL has this amazing gift and passion for working with and advocating for teenagers.  Through both life as a Youth Pastor and through his role(s) with Teen Life he has had incredible opportunities to use those talents.  When we read the job description for his new role, it was like they were describing HIM.  It is so perfect.  RRL will be a High School Bible teacher and chaplain at a small(ish) school in Dar where our children will also attend.  He will be using his incredible passion and gifts for teaching and discipling teenagers, while learning to do it in a multicultural setting- knowledge that will no doubt prove very valuable when we return to work in the states (someday- maybe- hopefully).
2. We will have an opportunity to live and work with other missionary families, learning more about what it really means to care for those who have GONE into the world to share the gospel of Christ, often putting themselves on the front line of spiritual warfare.  We’ve prayed for opportunities to do this better and help others be better “senders”, yet could never have dreamed our “learning” would look quite like this.
3. And a third really important opportunity is what we’ve come to call “leveling the playing field”.  For the first time, all nine of us start on square one.  Together. Together we prayed that the Lord would show us where He wanted us to be and together we received an answer.  Together we will travel and expand our view of the world, together we will minister and serve, together we will do something hard, together we will be willing.  I’m not sure I can quite explain to you (or even to me) the value of this opportunity.  We are praying that the hearts of our little people will be forever molded by this experience and that we will all walk away stronger as a team than we could have otherwise been.

So there you have it.

Team L. In Tanzania. Together.

We are so Thankful to know you are journeying with us!

ABL