In the last year my dear husband and I had the trauma and adventure of moving and scaling down our belongings from an eight room to a five room house.
Yes, when we were young and first started out in the ministry I loved the “Adventures in Moving” including the U-Haul truck or trailer, seeing how the Lord provided little things for us like reaching into the curtain boxes and finding just the right type and color of curtains for the right number of windows in each room. The joy of meeting new friends in Christ and new avenues of ministry. Yet, missing the ministry and friend of the previous work
This Sunday with tears we shared with our people here that we believe it has come time for us to retire and move to a small retirement village in Michigan, not to far from our previous ministry at Jonesville, where we believe the Lord has opened up a place.
The people were so sweet and understanding and encouraging.
Ken will be a key person on the night shift in exchange for our housing in a very nice small apartment. It has recently been completely redecorated with all new appliances. It is just across the street from one of our sweet ladies that Ken and I have called on, who attended the Jonesville church until she became house bound. She is the person who referred us to the job there at the Friendship Village in Litchfield, MI.
At this stage in our life now, this is definitely not what we would call “Adventures in Moving” even though we are still using the tried and true biggest white truck they have.
I just pray that we can get all of our saved treasures tucked into our little place.
Now we are at it again and this time it is a different step in our lives. Scaling down again and parting with dear treasures gained in fifty years of ministry. The treasures consist of four file cabinets of sermon materials, pamphlets and articles in his “Memory-O-Matic” file system (before the computer age). for Ken and two files of music, teaching materials, flannel-graph materials and a five drawer “Simplicity” file of crafts and cassette accompaniment tapes and two three drawer “McCall’s files of yarn and sewing supplies (used in my sewing business) complete with an upholstered board on top for a cutting table, and five sewing machines. Between the two of us Ken and I have seven bookcases with approximately 1,500 books.
I donated my two commercial sewing machine prior to our last move to the Wycliffe Bible translators in Florida where Ken’s brother Bill and his wife, Billie ministered for the past few years)
Today both of us went through our closets and tried to be realistic and parted with a lot of clothes which in the past we felt we could not do with out.
Several times I would take an item and put in in the trash, take it out, put it in the pile for a charitable organization, take it out again. One such item was a sweet little plaque that the pastor’s grandson had given me at the Christian school where we taught, with eight adorable baby kittens in decoupage on a little piece of wood. That little boy grew to be a teenager and was struck and killed by a truck while mowing the lawn. I have treasured that little plague for years and of course there are many more things just like that, so hard to let go.
But, our greatest treasures we do not have to let go. The wonderful memories of our ministry and the dear friends we have from Oklahoma, Kansas, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana to Michigan.
In all of our years of ministry there has never been a time when we have been without.
Psalm 37:25
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
Our precious Lord has met our every need and many of our wants. There is not enough ink to write all the wonderful joys and heartaches of the ministry, the strength that the Lord gives through hardship and trials, the wonderful joy of leading someone to the saving knowledge of Christ as Savior and seeing the Saints grow in grace and knowledge of their faith.
My prayer today is, as we are trying to accept our limitations of increasing age and decreasing health that we will have a sweet spirit of love for one another and those to whom the Lord allows us to minister in our everyday lives. That we will not use that weakness as an excuse to become bitter or lax in our total commitment to You and that we will honor You in all that we do.
Amen
