Two Years Later

Over the last few weeks, I've spent time reading back through the journal in which I recorded my thoughts and prayers leading up to our move to Virginia. Although it feels like yesterday, it's been three years since God started clarifying our call to church plant and two years since we moved to Charlottesville. These years have been some of the most difficult and most rewarding years of my life, and God has used this experience to completely change me.

Here we are a few months before our move:

Two years later, with a few more inches on the boys and a few more wrinkles on the adults:

At this two year mark, I've been reflecting on the quote that I've written about before from Helen Roseveare's book Living Sacrifice:

"Remember," Jack concluded, "the Lord has only one main purpose ultimately in each of our lives, that is to make us more like our Lord Jesus."

As we talked over the implications of what he was saying, he suggested to me that the next thing God wanted to do in my life to make more like Jesus, He could not do for me back in Britain, as I was too stubborn and wilful: so He had brought me to Africa, to work in me through Africans.

Insert Texas for Britain and Virginia for Africa and it's a good description of what the past two years have been for me. I don't know what the next two hold for us, but I imagine it includes more refinement and a continued call to surrender. Now is a good time, though, to stop, reflect, and remember where we've been before we go forward. Over the next few posts, I'm going to share those thoughts with you. Hope you'll join me!