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July 02, 2005
Long Term Goals
I was asked this past week what my "long-term goals" were. This got me thinking, and here is what I have come up with: My long-term goal is to stay in one place for 3 weeks. I know this does not sound long-term at all, in fact, it probably sounds extremely short-term. However, to us at this point, three weeks is long term. For the past two months, the longest we have stayed in one place is two weeks, and that was only Carrie who was there for the full two weeks, as I was in da' UP with Matt and Vicky for part of that time. We have given ourselves the title of "Urban Nomads" because we have been moving around so much. I will tell you what, we are getting awefully good at packing up and living out of a suitcase. Presently we are house/dog sitting at the home of the VanderKolk's while they are away. They have wiFi... yippie!!!
As Carrie has already relayed, she is working with a group of High School students from Spain for the month of July, taking them to various activities and sights in the area. I am still in search of a job, preferably in Surveying. Potential Employers, check out my resume.
So far I have had only one offer, and it was in the far reaches of da' U.P., and was not enough to ensure that we would not starve (or freeze) to death. We still have little-to-no idea of what is going on in our lives, and living this way is not getting any easier. We have started a club/support group, which we are calling "inFlux", for people who are in transition and don't know what's next. We were thinking to have T-shirts printed up, but then we realised that T-shirts cost money, and we don't have any... so I think we will just borrow a magic marker and write it on. Our friend Chad, or maybe his wife Kris, offered a motto of "I don't hear voices, but I'm listening" which we adopted even before we had a name for our group. All this being said, we are very busy moving and shaking, or at least moving. We greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers during our time inFlux. If you wish to join inFlux, please send us an email (or post a reply here) stating your intentions, and find a magic marker and an old T-shirt!
Waiting and Wondering,
DAN
your host for this episode : dan; July 2, 2005 12:13 PM
Comments
Hi Guys
This is me, Hany. Your room mate (just in case you wondering which Hany). I had the chance to read your news on the web site. I had some instant and spontaneous reactions; I felt I’d like to share them with you.
First, I liked the web site. Simple, clean design and the contents are from the heart without exaggeration.
Second, the story of the “urban nomads” sounded very common. We were there eighteen years ago. We were newly married expected our leased apartment to be finished few months before the wedding. But, things turned to be very bad. The owner put us on hold for two years!!!
We put all our money to have a long term leasing for this apartment that we didn’t know when will it be ready next months, year or never.
We were moving from a place to the other every few days living with different friends or with my brother in law. I didn’t have the skill of packing, so I lost track of where are my pieces of clothes and our few electric wedding gifts. I had to call everywhere to find out where are our things. It was embarrassing.
Mona had a job in a big company outside Cairo. Employees could go only by the company’s buses or personal cars. It was unusual for the workers to see her coming every few days with different bus. They didn’t know why this is happening.
The rest you know, the pressure, the heaviness of facing family questions, appearing not responsible (I had no job for a while), comparing ourselves to others, self-pity, feeling trapped and facing the big unanswered questions “where are you Lord?” we are trying to live honoring you, why all this happening to us?
Now, after this long time I see the meaning of this time:
It was a training time, we had no clue that it was training and if the Lord had told us that it was training we wouldn’t figure out what he was training us for.
“ This trouble you are in is not punishment; it is training, the normal experience of children… we respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like its going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God” Hebrews 12:7-11 The Message Bible
We had the training, whether we liked it or not, and somehow it marked something eternally in our lives. We knew we could move and live following God wherever He wants us. Somehow after this period of time, moving after God’s heart from place to other seemed much easier. Few months after we had our apartment we could leave for our first missionary training.
Other thing the Lord built in our lives is enjoying our place. It was humble and lacked a lot of comfortable things but it was ours, and we loved it and appreciated having it. We always felt that it was God’s gift for us. It was easy for us to have people and let them enjoy the place with us (many shared with us this feeling of rest being in our place) and we felt really blessed.
Be sure that God has prepared a special place for you. Why don’t you have it while you feel that you needed it most? I don’t know, but I’m sure that one day you will and sure enough when you have your own place you will remember these times and my prayer for you is when you remember you will see God’s hand behind it not the pressure, not the feeling that you have been deceived, made a mistake or trapped. May the Lord grant you all the grace you need for the day.
Hany
from the peanut gallery of : Hany Fouad ; July 6, 2005 11:00 AM