Why are we moving?

Tomorrow, the Yoder family begins the three-day process of moving our things from our current house to our new house.  Christy wrote a post recently about why we chose the house we are moving from.  This may raise a question:  If the house you are moving from was so great, why are you moving?

Over the last few weeks we have been asking ourselves the same question.  Why are we moving?  We have so many reasons to thank God for the house we have been staying in.  We are comfortable here.  We have enjoyed a holistic ministry here.  We have actually been feeling more sad about where we are leaving than excited about where we are going. Why don't we just stay?

The answer to "why are we moving?" is not actually simple, which is probably why we keep asking ourselves.  There are a number of advantages of our new house though:

• We will having running water
• We will have a compound generator that will provide electricity for us each night
• Mariama and Daso will be able to play outside freely in a big open green space, full of tress and flowers and a small playground.
• We will be able to screen guests through the gate guards (though we still want most of them to come by most of the time!).  Perhaps this will allow us to invest more intentionally in our neighbors.
• Overall, I have been feeling "over tired" a lot in the last year, and we hope that this new home will help provide us with a bit of margin.

  

  Mariama and a friend--At retreat, not our new house :)

It has some disadvantages too.  For example it is a lot more expensive (though still cheaper than a mobile home trailer in Dallas), and it will be a little harder for our Hwolshe friends to just "drop by" as it is a little farther away.  However, we took time to pray about this decision and we are moving ahead in faith that God is guiding our steps.

Please pray that this new home: 

• Will be a place of holistic ministry.  
• Will be a place of rest on the journey, even as we know heaven is our final rest!
• Will be  a place where we (and all who visit) have a sense of God's presence and where we hear his Word.