For the Record

     Just for kicks and grins (and in anticipation of our upcoming move to South Korea--Camp Casey and Dongducheon), I decided to make a list of which states and countries I've visited (and when/why--if I've been there more than two or three times, I'll only reference the main or most memorable trips), which I can return to and update as we travel more in the coming years.

US States:
Alabama--2000--cousin's wedding
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California--2007--cousin's wedding
Colorado--1990s-2011--camping, skiing, youth group trips (summer and winter), DCC (x4)
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida--1987-2011--regular visits (starting pre-birth) to grandparents' home
Georgia--2005--college visit
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois--numerous trips to Chicago...
Indiana--2005--college visit
Iowa--1987--born there.
Kansas--far too many cross-state roadtrips from MO to CO
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan--2005, 2011--college visit, catching up with a friend from the other side of the world who was meeting her future in-laws in Michigan ;)
Minnesota--many regular visits to relatives
Mississippi
Missouri--lived there. :)
Montana--2010--cousin's wedding
Nebraska--2010--roadtrip to cousin's wedding
Nevada--2007--cousin's wedding
New Hampshire
New Jersey--2004--choir tour
New Mexico
New York--2004--choir tour
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma--lived there in 2011-2012
Oregon
Pennsylvania--2004--choir tour
Rhode Island
South Carolina--2002, 2006--youth group trip, choir tour
South Dakota--2010--roadtrip to cousin's wedding
Tennessee--2005--college visit
Texas--2006, 2011, 2012--mission trip, grad school visit, visit to in-laws' in Dallas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia--(hope to visit later in summer 2012)
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin--drove through on way to MN more times than I can count...
Wyoming--2010--roadtrip to cousin's wedding
Washington D.C.

Other countries:
Austria--2009--fall break trip (Vienna)
Canada--multiple times for family trips (Thunder Bay, Ontario)
England--2007, 2009, 2010--family trip, study abroad (fall semester), visiting friends on way to second study abroad trip
France--2007--family trip (Paris)
Germany--2009--fall break trip (Munich, Berlin, Hamburg)
Ireland--2009--weekend visit to Cork, Blarney, Limerick, tour of Galway Bay area, and Shannon
Italy--2009, 2010--fall break trip (Trieste, Venice, Pisa, Rome), summer study abroad (Florence, Rome, Naples, Caserta, Verona, Cinque Terre)
Mexico--2006, 2011--mission trip (Juarez), honeymoon!
Scotland--2009--weekend in Edinburgh(Riviera Maya/Cancun)
South Korea--2012-2014-- PCS-ing with Army to Dongducheon/Camp Casey in summer 2012! :)
Japan--2013--stopovers flying between South Korea and US

And hopefully I'll get to add a few more states and countries to this list by the time we're done with the Army in a few years! :D

Itinerant Household!

Ok, I've given A LOT of thought lately to the topic of the previous post--being an itinerant household. The reason?

WE COULD BE MOVING (AGAIN) IN AS LITTLE AS SIX WEEKS.

Yes, you did read that correctly.  It will probably be longer than six weeks, but there's no guarantee.

That's right.  We could be moving in less than two months, COULD being the operative word.  The Army, bless them, hasn't bothered to cut us any orders--or even any pre-orders (called RFOs)--yet.  All we know for sure is as follows (and we've known the following 3 things since Feb. 28, nearly 6 weeks ago):

1) We are officially moving to South Korea.  (More on that in the next post!)
2) Drew will be stationed with the 2nd Infantry Division (henceforth referred to as the 2nd ID).
3) We won't be leaving until after May 22, 2012, because Drew's coursework/training here in Lawton concludes on that date.

Yes, that's all we know.  And yes, May 22nd is a mere 6 weeks away.  Can you tell I'm getting a bit restless?

I've been reading all about the country, the culture, moving tips, pinning all things moving-and-itinerant-household related onto Pinterest, speculating about all the possible variations of how this whole moving-to-Asia thing could go down, and stressing out some about how little real info we have about something that's happening for sure and may be happening very soon.

If you search Google for moving advice, timelines, and checklists, most of the moving timelines start counting down from 8 weeks...and expect you to actually know where you're moving to.  We won't even know what kind of housing accommodations we'll be renting until Drew gets there (he will go first) and signs a lease, by which point in time, we'll have already moved out of our apartment here in Lawton, OK, USA, and put all of our belonging into a) storage, b) a shipment to Korea that has a maximum weight restriction, or c) his and my suitcases.  So much for the internet's advice to consider the layout of your new home and label the boxes with appropriate room designations and plan furniture layouts! Ha! :)

I guess I always have said I wanted adventure...I just sometimes wish it didn't involve so many unknowns or so many things outside my control, truthfully.  At the same time, I know that these few years of Army moves will be an amazing experience--we'll get to travel to and live in places we might never otherwise see, and we get to grow together as individuals and as a couple through these experiences and the challenges that come with them.  So even though I'm sometimes frustrated, I try to remember that--as one of the women at the Army wives' Bible study I go to said recently--"God cuts the orders and the Army foots the bill!"  God already knows all the details that we don't, and better yet, He's already planned out each and every purpose He has in store for us in South Korea.  We have the chance to carry the Gospel with us all over the world, and the Army pays our expenses. :)  I hope to find joy and comfort in that as the move gets closer and closer.  God is the God of the whole world, and He goes ahead of us and follows behind us, guiding and guarding us as He gives us a role to play in His Kingdom's work.  As we remember especially at this time of year our Lord's atoning death and triumphant resurrection, may we find joy in being including in the glorious project of Redemption.
In Christ, who is the Hope of the whole World (even Korea),
Emily

Trying to think outside the box...

...about boxes, of all things.

Ok, so college students do it regularly, military families do it regularly, missionaries do it regularly...so why isn't there more written about it?

I'm talking about moving, of course. :)

College students move usually twice a year (to and from college) for four-plus years, military families move anywhere from every 6 months to 4 years, and missionary families often move between the field and their home-church base for sabbatical times.  There's tons on the internet about moving, packing, cleaning out the clutter before the move, and unpacking after the move.  That's all well and good and has definitely helped me over the years.

But now what I can't seem to find is the one type of thing that I really want to know about: when one is preparing for a life-time (or at least several years of the foreseeable future) of constant moving, how does one make EVERYTHING one owns portable or easily packable or flexible, without looking like one is living in a college dorm room with posters haphazardly taped to the walls and stacks of flimsy, brightly colored plastic rubbermaid boxes holding anything that doesn't fit in the wardrobe that came with the dorm room?  Where are the blogs about making every piece of furniture do double duty as furniture and storage that can be adapted to any sized living space but be both easily packed up and moved with out breaking easily, yet still look classy or even coordinated?  Where's all the advice about how to decorate your first home or apartment when you know full-well that you'll be relocating the entire contents in 6 months or less?

I'm determined to meet this challenge head-on and master it.  I WILL figure out a way to make this work, to keep the furniture and containers and systems that will transition well from location to location, from one side of the globe to the other, if need be, and cull out everything that weighs us down without being worth the extra effort. :)

In closing:
"Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."
-designer William Morris

[Or that can be easily moved halfway across the world, or is worth the extra effort needed to do so. :)]

If I come up with awesome revelations or even vaguely useful ideas on the subject of the Itinerant Household, I'll follow up and post them!

Stewardship and Spiritual Gifts

One of the cool--and challenging--things about moving regularly is that you don't have time to get complacent spiritually.  At least, not in regard to attending church and listening to preaching and teaching and such.  When you have to find a new church home every couple of months or years, you get used to evaluating carefully what's being said, testing it against the Bible, looking at groups of people you've recently met and asking yourself, "How is this community living out the Biblical ideals of the body of Christ?" and "Is this the community God wants me to join to fellowship with, learn from, and grow with?"  It often makes me think more seriously and extensively about what's said in any given sermon or Sunday school lesson, mulling it over and trying to decide whether what was said was sound doctrinal truth and, if so, how I should apply it to my life.

This morning, I attended Sunday school for the first time at what I believe will be our new church home here in Lawton, OK.  The topic was stewardship.  I've thought about that a lot over the years, but the Sunday school leader presented a few aspects I hadn't considered much before: that stewardship applies not only to the obvious things, like our time, money, general abilities, and our bodies (the temple of the Holy Spirit), but also to things like our testimony and our Talent(s).  

Testimony in this context meant that each of us has a unique testimony of which we are the steward: we are meant to understand our testimony and share it with others for the edification of the body of Christ and to help bring people to relationship with the Lord.  If we neglect to use our testimony for the Kingdom, instead hiding it away, we are being poor stewards of something that is unique that God has given us for the advancement of the Kingdom.  I had not thought of it that way before, I guess.  But after some consideration, it seems to me to be a valid and Biblically sound idea, that each person's testimony is valid, beautiful, and meant to be shared for the advancement of the Kingdom, and to refrain from sharing it at the appropriate times is to miss out on a chance to advance the Kingdom and give glory to God.  

I also thought a lot about what they meant by being a steward of one's Talent(s).  When I hear 'talents,' I assume someone's talking about how well he draws or she writes or he plays baseball, but this morning Talent with a capital T meant your spiritual gift(s), which God has entrusted to you and wants you to invest for the growth of the Kingdom.  The premise, which may or may not be widely known in all evangelical circles, I'm not sure, is that--in addition to the fruits of the Spirit and general enabling through the Spirit to live in a way that honors God--each believer is given one or more special spiritual gifts.  These are particular areas where he or she particularly--supernaturally--excels at an aspect of the Christian life or a charismatic demonstration of his or her faith.  Not all spiritual gifts are the charismatic kind, though.  One online resource for helping Christians identify what might be their unique set of spiritual gifts lists as many as twenty-eight kinds of spiritual gifts.  These range from the more obvious kinds, like speaking in and interpreting tongues, to the less obvious kinds like teaching, hospitality, or administration.  This doesn't mean that only some Christians are expected to be organized or hospitable, but rather that God gives to some a remarkable, supernatural ability or inclination in these areas (for example, I know a young woman who almost certainly has a spiritual gift for administration.  She ENJOYS organizing things.  Like A LOT.  And she has continually, selflessly, and joyfully used this gift to benefit the ministries she has been involved in so that they are better able to advance the Kingdom.  This seems by all appearances to be more than a case of an ordinary orderly individual.  At the other end of the spectrum, I also have met a young man who seems to have a spiritual gift for healing.  He sees it happen supernaturally and somewhat regularly.  I've heard some of his stories first-hand--it's CRAZY what God chooses to do sometimes.).  There is something deep-seated in their souls that compels and enables them to do these particular things to the extent that they (or those around them) can identify these abilities as coming from the Lord.

Considering this, I went looking for something like the link I included above, similar to a different assessment that a young woman who discipled me in college had once had me take.  Though some of the results were different (which may have something to do with a different, more specific test format or that some of the areas of emphasis in my walk with the Lord have varied over time and were unduly reflected in the last set of results?), some of the results stayed pretty consistent.  And this set of specific results really resonated with me.  I've been thinking about callings and careers and purposes a lot lately, and I'm beginning to think a way to go for the time-being might be to pursue avenues surrounding what seem to be the spiritual Talent(s) God has given me.  If some or all of these things (in particular, hospitality, music, missions, exhortation/encouragement) are in fact Talents from God, then I can have confidence in pursuing these avenues as I seek to be a responsible steward of these things for the advancement of His Kingdom and His glory.  I was once told by someone that I had the "spiritual gift of 'hello,'" meaning, I think, that I'm burdened and enabled by the Lord to care tremendously about making people feel welcome and included in the Body and at getting to know people and helping them to connect and build meaningful relationships that last even after I get out of the picture.  This happened multiple times in Cru in college, and it happened in London pretty intensely, too.  I feel absolutely compelled to not leave that new person standing in the corner--I want them to experience fellowship.  I love opening my dorm/flat/apartment to people so that they might be able to experience a deeper community within the Body or even come to know the Lord for the first time by being welcomed into a community that will bring them face to face with Jesus.  I also feel called to music, in a variety of ways--I'm not entirely sure which direction I'm called from this point, but I do believe that God wants me to keep using that Talent to encourage the Body and to bring Him glory.  I also know that I find immense joy in experiencing new cultures and that the prospect of maybe moving to Korea later this year (and the opportunities culturally and spiritually that would include) is less scary to me than moving to Lawton, OK, has been.

I suppose now I've gotten to the rambling stage of this post, so it's time to wrap it up and get out of here.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that I am really mulling over the idea of being a steward of Talents, what role that can and should play in my life in general, and what role that should play in my life at the present and I'm spending these next few transitional months in Lawton figuring out more about who I am, who God wants me to be, and what His calling(s) is/are for my life now and in the future.  I'd love your prayers and your feedback as I ponder these things and seek God's guidance about how to put His good gifts to work.  I have more thoughts and anecdotes about the topic of spiritual Talents, but I think that'll have to wait until a later post.  For the moment, I have dishes then sleep calling my name.  Thanks for reading and wandering with me!

Cheers,

Emily