Do I really need that?

Blogging is an amazing tool, obviously if used the correct way. It allows us to keep up with others as well as learn by the experience of others. I am sure there are other uses for blogging, but in relation to my type of blog those two are the primary uses.

With that said I get to share another life experience as we have ventured out into deputation and that is the world of…

Do I really need that?

In October 2011 we started packing everything we had, well what we did not sell. Everything had to be put into four categories what we were going to sell, what was going to Papua New Guinea with us, what was going to charity and lastly what would go on the road with us in our 200 cubit foot van. (I think it might be that big).

The later is what I will talk about on this post, you see we thought we had need of so many things and we had set aside so many that whether it was Amy, the kids or myself we all honestly thought, “I cannot make the trip without these“.

So pack we did, I purchased a little trailer to tow behind us and I thought wow we will have a lot of room now and on October 14th at 1:00am in the morning I found that I had no more room to pack things either in the van or the trailer and I had to look at Amy and the kids and say, “What is not going?” So we all picked things and put them in the store pile to go to a friends house that offered to keep our “Going to PNG things”. I love when everyone can work together for the common purpose of comfort!

Well we left San Diego bound for deputation and traveling the country with everything we absolutely had to have in our van and trailer, until that blessed day (or I should say night) in Wyoming on Hwy 80 in the middle of nowhere when the axle of the trailer came off.

I sat by the side of the highway, axle off the trailer with all of our (I need to have these on deputation possessions) things in it and prayed, “Oh Lord, what do you want me to do? You allowed us to purchase the trailer, we had it inspected and gone through, we packed things we must have in here and now being that I can get no cell signal for someone to help us, I have to believe you would have us leave the trailer here and keep going to our first meeting because we cannot stay with it and it will take to many days to repair and Lord we are not traveling back this way to pick it up again, God help me to make the right decision!”

I got up off my knees by the side of the road as Drew was unpacking the trailer to move it further to the side of the road. It was then I knew I had to gather everyone and say, “Okay you all, the trailer is not going with us and we cannot fit everything into the van (we still had another 1800 miles to travel) so you need to think about what you want to keep and what can stay by the side of the road.”

The silence was deafening just then, I had a feeling everyone was thinking that we could not fit everything from the trailer into the van, (and they were right) reality was now hitting that some of those things we had to have will not make it. The spirit of the kids and Amy still impresses me, because everyone was willing to again sacrifice, this time knowing that these things were not going into storage, but would forever remain by the side of the road for someone else to enjoy.

I always remember Abby, she is my avid book reader and she had more books with her than I can even read in four years (she reads sometimes three books a day) and she spoke first. “Daddy she said, you can leave my books behind if you need to.” Then everyone else with the same spirit of sacrifice started saying what could stay that truly was an amazing night.

Well we packed the van traveled the remaining 1800 miles of to our destination and everyone was fine, we had arrived in Ohio at our first Missions Conference and all went well we were able to stay in a Missionary House we call the “Burton House”. We all knew the day would come when we had to leave Ohio and we knew we still had to many things, so again we looked at each other, but thins time the comment came, “why don’t we rent a u-haul trailer?” And that is exactly what we did so we could travel to Texas.

Weird things was we all felt odd about this after it was done and we were in Texas, see we spent $280.00 to rent the trailer and it doubled our gas costs towing that trailer and then everyone thought was that a good use of the money that God’s people sacrifice for us to go to the field?

Well he answer to that question was a resounding, “No”!

So here we are today planning on leaving Texas at the end of the month to travel back west to California, Oregon and Washington and we are asking ourselves again, “Do we really need that?” We praise the Lord for good friends who again have offered to store things for us here in Texas, it is so much better than leaving it along side the road in Wyoming. We will be going into the garage today and resorting what we really need to take with us again.

It is amazing this is now the fourth time we have downsized from that first time on October 14th, 2011 and every time we downsize the spirit in our little van gets better it reminds me of that song I’ve sung that says,

“Little is much when God is in it! Labor not for wealth or fame. There’s a crown—and you can win it, If you go in Jesus’ Name.” The first part of that song talks about a harvest that God is calling us to and I believe with each day my kids are getting that more and willing to have less, if we could but reach one lost soul for Jesus in the Swamp and Lowlands of Papua New Guinea.