Musings from Helen

Written Monday evening, May 30th ~

As we left our MMAP project in Flovilla, Georgia today, it struck me...what a strange life we lead during our summertime travels. We aren't actually traveling around as full-time sight-seeing tourists, constantly on the move from place to place to see as many sights as possible, nor are we ensconced into a settled-in life style around home and hearth. We exist in a world between full time vacationer and home-bound settler.

After three or four weeks in one spot, things start feeling a lot like "home". The roads we travel start to become more familiar. We recognize more detail in houses and yards. We know where the various businesses are located. We greet the cashier at the local store, the attendant at the gas station and the folks at church like long-time friends and acquaintances. The evening outing down a tree-lined path to walk the dog becomes a routine - with the buzz of the cicada, the songs of the birds and watching the squirrels jumping from tree to tree or enjoying the puffy white clouds overhead becoming an expected evening ritual.

But it's not home. And as we pulled out of the campground in Flovilla for the last time, with trailer in tow, I realized we may never see this place again or experience again exactly what we did here. Yet, it's alright. We are on our way to someplace we have never been before, and after a few weeks there it will start to feel like "home".

Then the project will end, and amid a vague regret of leaving home yet once again, the urge to move on to something new will overtake us, and we will look with anticipation at what may be around the next bend. It is, indeed a strange life....but one we feel blessed to be experiencing. Nothing ever the same - yet still all familiar and "the same".

Perhaps it is an opportunity we are being given to peek into what heaven will be like. We are just travelers through this life, headed to a place that is truly home. Yet, what we experience at home here in this life - the things that fill us with joy and satisfaction and meaning are but a prelude to the ultimate joy and satisfaction we will know when we finally "go home."

A note to our readers - I had just finished writing the above thoughts when I got a call from the son of my cousin, JoAnn Adams, advising me that she had died on Thursday, May 26th. So, I think it fitting to dedicate my musings in memory of her.

Let me just take a moment to tell you a little bit about JoAnn. She was in her mid 80's and was married to my mother's cousin, Jim. They were quite a bit younger than my folks and had been a light in my childhood. But because of life's turns and twists, I had lost touch with them sometime in my late teen years. It was only last year that I reconnected with JoAnn by phone, only to find out that cousin Jim had passed away suddenly a few months before my call. Yet, in true JoAnn fashion, she was still her joyful positive self, sharing with me that she was certain Jim was now in heaven and relating what a wonderful 50+ years of married life they had shared.

Over the next few months of calls and e-mails she shared stories of the traveling she and Jim had done, and the adventures they had experienced. She was a big encourager to us regarding our travels, and understood that our traveling is not just to see the sights, but with a purpose of reaching out as God directs us, to do what He wants us to do.

We had planned to stop in to see her in California last fall on our way down from Washington to Arizona. However, my little "side trip" to the hospital while visiting our children in Grass valley, CA had rearranged those plans. We agreed to put off our visit to her until we returned from the trip we are now on. But, as we now see, He had other plans for her.

So, with heavy heart (for myself - not for her) I will just have to wait for that reunion. Thanks for your precious and uplifting words, JoAnn. We'll see you and Jim someday when we get "home". For now, we will remember your stories as we continue to travel - doing the things that give us joy.

Again, a note to our readers - we apologize that we got off track this time from what we have been doing with these blog updates. Our next update in a week or so will again include pictures and information about our travels around Georgia while on project in Flovilla, and some snippets of our five day trip to our next project in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania. 

However, for those of you that have a desire to know more about what we mean about "going home" and trusting in a God who takes care of all the details of the trip, feel free to read to an addition to the end of our blog.....our blog devotional section. In these times of uncertainty in our world, we wanted to share with those that want to know it, the certainty of God's plan. Our first devotional, taken from a book entitled Truth - Seeing Black and White in a Gray World, is called "The world says, Live for today - God says, Live for eternity".


Until next time,

Jim and Helen

The Great Adventure Devotional Section

The world says "Live for today"

God says, " Live for Eternity"

A man came up to Jesus and asked,, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" Matthew 19:16

      The simple cross-stitch banner hung on the bathroom wall for years. It read, "One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of house I live in, how much money I had, nor what my clothes were like. But the world will be a better place, because I was important in the life of a child."  This statement really asks, "Are you living for today or are you investing in tomorrow?" Better put, it suggests, "Are you living for eternity?"

     The Bible says all of us will live on after we die a physical death. Life on this earth is only the beginning of our existence. We will have an existence after we die, with or without God. Yet, our eternal destination rests on some decisions we make here on Earth in this lifetime. Those who place their trust in Jesus as Lord will be raised to new life to live with Him forever. Those who reject the grace that could be theirs face eternal separation from God. In light of these realities, shouldn't we examine our priorities in the here and now?

     Should our lives be about collecting possessions and riches, or trying to win others in love to an eternal life with God? Can we ignore God and His commands? Can we ignore the needs of other people? In reality, God placed you on this earth for a purpose. Through accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior, letting Him forgive you and live his life through you, and letting Him renew your mind to conform to His, you begin to live the life of an eternal being.

     All we can take with us to heaven is our own soul and each other. Find out what pleases God. Find out what will matter one hundred, one thousand, or one million years from now and do it!

This world is fading away, along with everything it craves. 

But if you do the will of God, you will live forever. 1 John 2:17 NLT