I have never been good with them.  I dreaded math all through school and still try and only deal with it if I have a calculator or an Excel sheet where I can set the formulas.  When Abigail wants to test me to see if I know as much as she does with her multiplication flash cards I tell her I only do the zeros, ones and elevens.  OK, so maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but the point is that numbers are not my full comfort zone.  So it is quite disturbing to me that I can’t get the number 3 out of my head.  It is not to the point that I am constantly writing it on stuff, scratching it into walls or rearranging my food to make the number, but that may not be too far away.

Is there anything good about the number 3 anyway?  They don’t call it an odd number without reason.  It is the number they assign to strikeouts in baseball.  If you are going to do something dangerous, scary or painful, it is the number you are going to go on.  If you have this number of legs, arms, ears or eyes than you are a medical oddity.  If you are the third person picked in the NFL draft no one remembers you.  And it is one too many flights of stairs that any reasonable person would want to walk.

The reason it is in my head though is because it is the number constantly used when talking about how many years we plan to be in South Africa.  It is the maximum number of years that we were able to get for our volunteer visa.  It is the number we thought would be ideal for transition and establishment into a new culture.  It is the number that we put out there for support raising from our partners.  And it was the number we thought would be good to tell family and friends to not freak them out that we would be gone forever.  And so with all that it is the number that is really starting to make me nervous.  Am I holding too tightly to it?  While it is the number in our heads and the heads of others we have no clue if it is in God’s plan.  Maybe God has the number 10 in his plan.  Maybe that is 10 days, 10 months or even 10 years.  We don’t know.  I have been working very hard on giving up everything I have and all that I am to Him and His plan, but this number seems to be one thing I find myself holding on to and for no good reason.  I know God’s plan is always perfect.  I have seen firsthand through this journey thus far that His plan is always better than any plan I put together.  So what if his plan is to bring us home or elsewhere in just 10 months after getting to South Africa.  Would we consider that a failure if we expected 3 years? 

Jesus states in John 3:38, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”

Not to do my will, but his.  What my role is in the details of the plan to accomplish his will isn’t all revealed to me and it is not supposed to be.  If it was I might not like it.  No, my job is to try and faithfully align His will in my life in whatever circumstances he puts me and however long it takes.  And I can’t do that if I am not willing to give up my own plan.  I can’t do that if I am holding on to my own expectations or expectations of others.

So like other things before it I must officially release the number 3 from my plan.  This isn’t to say that it won’t be in God’s plan for our lives, but if it is I want it to be because of him not me.

A prayer for us all:

God use us for your will.  Allow us to sacrifice the things we hold fast to for comfort and convenience.  May your plan be our plan.  May we, to the best of our sinful abilities, serve you with all that we have and all that we are.  We praise you for your works and may your name be glorified among the nations.  Amen.

Tate

Just six days of freedom left.  Just six days of comfort left.  Just six days of living a normal life left to live.  That’s all correct, right?  I mean, nobody lives outside the US and has the freedoms we do here or the comforts or normalcy.  Hard to imagine, but of course they do and honestly there are a lot of aspects of life that we are entering that will be far better than what we deal with here and will be such a blessing.  But yet it feels like those statements are right some days.  It feels like we are going to be living a life of chaos the second we step foot outside American soil until we return to it.  And to some degree there will be some chaos (27 hour trip with 2 kids to start) and certainly an adjustment period when we do leave, but that won’t last long.  We will quickly figure out our routine, figure out how the Elder’s function in Cape Town, learn to drive on the “other” side of the road and figure out how to feed ourselves again.  In six months all that is current and pressing with the move will seem so distant and so unimportant.  Well, maybe not the goodbyes.  We might still be crying over a few of those. 

To be honest, I am not really even sure what this post is about other than to just vomit (maybe “process” is a better word) feelings and to provide some sort of update on things.  Maybe there is therapy in writing or talking out emotions or feelings.  Or maybe that is just what wives tell their husbands to get them to confess to something, but possibly this is my attempt at it. 

So in six days we leave, in eight days we arrive.  We have secured a place to live and have gotten the girls into a school.  And when I say “we” in the above sentence I actually mean “not us”.  “We” didn’t somehow secure a great house while on the other side of the world in the peak tourist time when inventory is crazy low.  “We” didn’t somehow get our kids into school when there were no open slots at any school in the entire valley. God’s blessings continue to be abundant and we give him all praise and glory for it.

The official calendar has the Elder’s arriving on the 4th, the girls start school on the 16th, Brooke celebrates her first summer birthday that same day (I won’t tell you how many winter birthdays she has already had) and we begin our work with Living Hope around the end of the month.  A lot to do and a lot to be excited about! 

We thank you all for your continued prayers and support.  We will try and get another post out soon before we leave and of course can’t wait to share experiences and pictures once we land and start this new journey in South Africa.  We are blessed to be a small part of His plan and the work He is doing there and can’t wait to see how we are used.

Tate

True fans will certainly recognize the title of this post as one of the greatest quotes of all time from one of the greatest TV shows of all time; Seinfeld.  It was said by the ever-lovable character Kramer in reference to his recent switch away from wearing any type of underwear.  If for any reason you haven’t seen it I have attempted to post a link to a video clip of it here.  G rated of course.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=161374633917278

But since I really don’t know what I am doing with linking stuff in a blog this could take you to a video of a cat taking a bath or something.  Let’s hope for the best.

At this point I am sure the excitement is building as you ponder how in the world I am going to weave in a reference to wearing no underwear into a spiritual blog post.   I am wondering that as well.  But here is also the thing I have found about writing your own blog.  You get to write whatever you want.  Sure, we created this to allow friends, family and strangers to follow our journey as we make the move to Cape Town, but our site is called “The Elder House” and is about the Elder House as a whole.  And sadly sometimes these are the thoughts that flow through the minds of those of us in the Elder House.  Mostly through Brooke, but you probably already knew that.

The reason the quote is in the title and the reason I felt compelled to post about it was I can totally relate to the feeling right now.  I am out there and I am loving every minute of it!  I am in a place that I have never been before, never even been close to and never dreamed I would want to be in.  Here is a snapshot of where I sit right now:

·      I don’t own a home
·      My apartment lease is expiring soon so I’ll be bouncing from place to place to sleep
·      I soon won’t own a mode of transportation
·      I don’t own a cell phone that I can make a call on
·      I don’t have a job
·      My paycheck is dependent on God’s leading of others to give

I am out there and I am loving every minute of it!  And I know you might say, “Well this isn’t a true representation since these are just temporary until you get to South Africa.” First off I will tell you I don’t like that naysayer attitude and secondly I couldn’t agree with you more.  We have hope and know that these conditions of our lives will soon change.  We will not be homeless soon.  We will have a car again.  I will activate a phone so I can make a call and we will have money to live from the financial support God has been able to provide through our partners.  

But what it has done is to really help me focus on many of the people in the world in which the hope may not be present.  People who have the same exact snapshot that I do, but unfortunately, don’t face it as a temporary situation.  It is their everyday reality and one that might not have an end in sight. So where is their hope?  Sadly, many just don’t have any, but joyously many have a greater hope than you could ever imagine because they have found it in the one sustainable source and that is Christ.  I have seen firsthand people who literally didn’t have a pot to pee in be some of the most hopeful and happy people on the face of the earth.  Let me tell you, when you see that, experience that and feel that through someone it humbles and convicts you to the core.   We have all let too many things and distractions blur our hope through Christ at various points in our lives.  We count too much on the work that WE have done, the money WE earn, the reputation WE hold, the health that WE have and the accomplishments we believe WE made happen.  The seduction of pride takes over, but it cannot sustain us, as WE will fail ourselves at some point.

So for these reasons and many others we are ecstatic about the opportunity God has put before us.  The chance to serve with an organization like Living Hope which holds the mission to seek to reach people for Christ, bringing hope and breaking the despair of poverty and disease.  But this isn’t just in Cape Town, South Africa where this plight exists.  It is in every corner of the earth including your own backyard.

You don’t have move to another country or even a city or state to bring hope through Christ to someone’s life.  You may not have to move out of your neighborhood or even your own home.  You might not actually need to look further than your own heart.  Your mission could be bringing hope and breaking the despair of _____ and ______ right where you are.  The simple question is  “How is God calling you to do it?”  But be prepared because although the question is simple the answer could be difficult.  But praise God for it.  Praise God for forcing us out of our comfort zone.  Praise God when we can proclaim, “I am out there and I am loving every minute of it!”

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

Tate