I’ll go where you want me to go. These are the words of a popular hymn in our church. This hymn is typically sung as missionaries prepare to leave for a place that they did not choose, but was assigned by inspiration from the brethren at the church headquarters.
The words to this hymn have been going through my head over and over. Maybe because we are on the move again, and again not by our choosing. When we came to China I was the only one that was 100% excited about it. We prayed about it as a family and each person felt it was the right thing to do, but they still were not excited about it.
Now after many tears the past few days we are spending our last night in China. No one wants to leave. We love it here, we are thriving here, we have built deep relationships here. But if we truly believe the words to this hymn that we have collectively sung hundreds if not thousands of times then we need to go.
And so tonight is our last night in China and tomorrow at 4am we will wake up and begin the journey of thousands of miles with 27 suitcases, 9 backpacks, 2 car seats, a stroller and a port-a-crib in tow. About 25 hours later we will be heading to our new home in Chaska, Minnesota (Temp housing until the end of March and then move into our new house).
In church and the scriptures we are taught that faith requires action, and through that action we will receive a witness and our faith becomes stronger. We are moving to the Minneapolis area because we feel like it is where our family needs to be at this time. So amid all the craziness and madness of moving a family of nine half way around the world we have an incredible feeling of peace. We are doing what we need to be doing. We have been immensely blessed for moving to China, and I have no doubt that we will continued to be blessed in our new adventures in Minnesota.
I realized that we have not blogged for almost a year. The past few days as I have had some quiet time I have had idea after idea for blog posts come to my mind. (These posts will come in the near future.) Mostly, for our own benefit to remember the amazing experience that we have had here in China and to remember how much our lives have been blessed by listening to the promptings of the Spirit we had as a family to move to China.
As our family prepared to come to China I told our kids it would be the most difficult thing and the best thing our family had ever done. Both of these statements are true. And for this, I am forever grateful.
Boyd
