We lived in our Richmond Hill, Ontario house for 15 enjoyable years. We moved to Calgary, thinking we would live there for five to ten years. There we bought the nicest of the five houses we have owned - and to our surprise sold it less than four years later because we were on our way to Ho Chi Minh City. We arrived in HCMC and found a very nice apartment where we expected to spend the next 3 or 4 years. Again to our surprise we were on the move ten months later.
We are getting older - why are the moves coming faster? :) Well here we are in Hanoi with a two year lease on a very nice apartment in a good location. We hope that if the Lord wills, we will actually live in this apartment for three years. But we will move, as before, when we believe God wants us to move.
Actually we are not in Hanoi tonight. We spent Saturday night in Hanoi. I preached there this morning (Sunday) but we caught a 4:00 pm flight (less than 2 hours) to Bangkok. We are gathered here for a week long seminar with some fine folks from SE Asian countries. Following this seminar we will return and move into our new Hanoi apartment.
If ever we feel tired of moving, we need only to talk to some of our International friends who for a variety of reasons have moved far more often. Or we may speak with one of the many business people (like a new Korean friend in Hanoi) whose company sends them on a one or two year contract to another country. Sometimes the company does not provide a housing allowance large enough to allow the employee to bring his family with him; or his spouse is in a career that is hard to leave; or their children are at a stage that uprooting them for a year does not make sense. So they come for a lonely and stressful year or two. It is hard on them and hard on their family.
We will be serving among international people like these in Hanoi. People who are on the move - and often because of this, they are open to moving ahead spiritually at an accelerated pace. Think about biblical characters. Many of them were people on the move physically as God moved in and through them. I hope you are available if God wants to move you.
We are getting older - why are the moves coming faster? :) Well here we are in Hanoi with a two year lease on a very nice apartment in a good location. We hope that if the Lord wills, we will actually live in this apartment for three years. But we will move, as before, when we believe God wants us to move.
Actually we are not in Hanoi tonight. We spent Saturday night in Hanoi. I preached there this morning (Sunday) but we caught a 4:00 pm flight (less than 2 hours) to Bangkok. We are gathered here for a week long seminar with some fine folks from SE Asian countries. Following this seminar we will return and move into our new Hanoi apartment.
If ever we feel tired of moving, we need only to talk to some of our International friends who for a variety of reasons have moved far more often. Or we may speak with one of the many business people (like a new Korean friend in Hanoi) whose company sends them on a one or two year contract to another country. Sometimes the company does not provide a housing allowance large enough to allow the employee to bring his family with him; or his spouse is in a career that is hard to leave; or their children are at a stage that uprooting them for a year does not make sense. So they come for a lonely and stressful year or two. It is hard on them and hard on their family.
We will be serving among international people like these in Hanoi. People who are on the move - and often because of this, they are open to moving ahead spiritually at an accelerated pace. Think about biblical characters. Many of them were people on the move physically as God moved in and through them. I hope you are available if God wants to move you.
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