This Is Home

I can clearly remember the day Connie and I were driving to our home in Midland when all of a sudden I realized for the first time that we were coming back home. We had just moved there and the area was still new to us and didn’t yet feel like home. But that day it felt to me like this was finally home. There was enough that was now familiar to us that we felt comfortable and in a safe environment with friends. We knew where things were without a lot of searching or thinking. It had become “home”.

Today, April 21, 2012, I had the same experience as I sat on a wood stool in the back of an office supply store waiting for a worker to fill my laser ink cartridge with a new supply of ink. The apartment on the seventh floor with a city of ten million all around it, making all kinds of sounds, producing all kinds of smells, and more pollution than is healthy was home. It has become a place of love and care by so many. It has become my life and is something I experience with my Father and those he brings into my life.

During my first days in Wuhan I took many pictures as I wandered around the city learning about what was there and what made it what it was, but gradually picture taking slowed down along with investigation and was replaced with more intense ministry work. As I write this I have been here over two weeks and haven’t gotten down to the river. I don’t even know how full it is, but I know my heart is filled with love for God and the people I am with. My ministry team and my students and those I have conversation with, fill my life to overflowing with His blessing and love.

If I had not been willing to come to China when first invited I may never have had another opportunity that would have blossomed out like this one. This is the thick rich frosting on my life that I can’t imagine living without. My heart aches for many believers who sit on their soft chairs watching the TV or internet where they can’t hear God’s call to do something he wants them to do that will provide that special frosting or special delicacy during life.

Yes, this is home and God is wonderful and his love fills me to overflowing.