It’s here. Today marks one year since Megan, Addy, Arlo and I drove the big rental truck to Watertown to work alongside a great group of people and plant a church that is now known as The Bridge. It’s really hard to believe, actually. In some ways the time has flown by. Yet quite a lot has happened in the past year.
From becoming “home-owners” again to meeting and befriending lots of new and interesting people to getting used to new surroundings and working in different arenas and capacities, it’s been quite a year. The hospitality we’ve received has been top-notch and we’ve definitely come to feel like part of the team. Beyond that, it’s been great to see God working in and through people that we’ve come to know.
It hasn’t always been easy, and that is as it should be. We miss our friends in the Boone area a lot. We’ve shared lots of great memories with them over the years. And we’re a bit further from family than we were before which makes getting together a little tougher. And though those things hurt from time to time, they have been buffered by making new friends who share in our love for Jesus and making His name known and by our family graciously coming to visit often over this year. For those things we are thankful.
It’s difficult to piece together in words the emotions of looking back on a year like this. It’s a scary thing to uproot and move into an unknown area even with the assurance that God has called you to do it. And yet even though it was a scary thing…it was an exciting time as well as we wondered what God had planned for us in this next part of our lives. I guess as I look back I can’t help but remember God’s encouragement to Joshua as He commissioned him to lead the nation of Israel to the promised land. Understand, the commissioning of Joshua held much higher and further-reaching implications than our move from Boone to Watertown. But the encouragement God gave him in Joshua 1:9 is something that is most definitely appropriate for anyone God asks to do something that is both scary and exciting…those things that are out of our comfort zones…including for you. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9, ESV).
I wish I could claim that’s been my rock…my anthem every day this past year but you know what? I’m human. And in spite of those times I failed to lean on that truth, I can honestly look back and say it should have been. It’s been true all along whether I allowed myself that security or not. Though moving has caused some sorrow in parts of our hearts, I don’t regret doing what God has called me to do and moving here. He’s replaced all those sorrows with new joys and things to be thankful for. So if you’re standing where I was a year ago…on the precipice of one of those scary/exciting things God is asking you to do…then do it. Jump! And be strong and courageous. God is with you wherever you go!
Be a witness,
Nate