The Journey Forward

The Journey Forward  

It’s strange being able to pack your whole life up in one afternoon. It makes it easy when you don’t own much. It also makes it easy when you have no particular order to your packing. The time-efficiency of throwing things higgedly -piggedly into suitcases is great until mid-travel you come to the wonderful revelation that you packed up necessary medications deep into the heart of an unknown piece of luggage.

Yet for better or worse, packed and ready, my father and I were about to embark on a week-long venture to my new home state, Phoenix. First stop, Omaha, Nebraska where Dad would lead a leadership conference with the staff of an organization called Christ for the City International…and then off to Denver, Colorado to visit with my Aunt Lois…and finally the long haul from Denver to Phoenix via New Mexico. Vive Las Vegas! (We didn’t stop to do the slots…in case you were wondering…)

It would be a daunting amount of time spent for a girl who hadn’t traveled more than six hours in a car in over ten years. It was supposed to be an adventure, a time to enjoy the brilliance of the open road.

Yet, once again, agitation over-ruled anticipation in the idea of leaving all I knew behind. It was becoming all too familiar a trope and I wasn’t happy to experience any of these agitated emotions.

My dad and I got a “late” start, depending on whose perspective you choose. My day tends to start AFTER the sun comes up, whereas my father’s tends to well before the rooster crows…so you can imagine the compromise a father-daughter makes when it comes to sleep and driving.

But I’ll spare you the riveting details of our driving and start our adventure in our arrival in Omaha. We arrived that evening, hitting up a hotel where their advice for dining was paramount to asking a teenage girl for directions. (This is a stereotype, and thus please disregard it if you are a teenage girl with a fabulous sense of direction)

So with that, my father and I found ourselves eating at a local diner, and the main thing I was thankful for was the wait-staff’s obliviousness to my sobbing over the meal I had ordered. The food wasn’t great, but no reason to cry right…

Girls crying in public happens. But it’s never pretty, and always something to avoid if possible.

But there I was, in public crying as I attempted to still eat like a normal human, while my father did all he could to be comfortable in quite an uncomfortable situation.  And though my father found slight relief in arriving back at the hotel and my crying could be done in the peace of our hotel room…my mother’s concern was plainly heard over the phone, “I’m concerned about you.” I couldn’t blame her. But I couldn’t really comfort her either…so we both realized, I would just have to go to bed and try again the next day.

Yes, my first day of travel was not the quite the adventure imagined months prior. You picture yourself experiencing new things, trying new food-joints, enjoying the beautiful scenery, infused with the entreprenual spirit of conquering the unknown in the grandeur of travel.

Hotel of Tears ;)

Instead, I once again resumed the form of something shakeably cowardice.

Yet, with sleep I was granted some semblance of peace.

That morning, my dad and I woke up and prepared to meet some of the staff members of the organization Christ for the City International (or CFCI).

As our little Yaris took off down the Omaha city roads,  there came another small whisper in the depths of my mind…a whisper that God was going to meet me somewhere that day.

I almost wanted to squash that whisper because I was afraid of getting my hopes up…because I didn’t know exactly how, when or for what…but I could feel that God had something in store, and it’s a hard thing to trust in...with it comes the fear of being let-down.  The whisper continued inside me, “keep going…I have some family I would like you to meet.”

CFCI Map

We made our way into a building shared by some other organizations. CFCI’s location was the second floor down at the end of a little hallway. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry that day. And God’s whisper continued…keep going…keep going…

There we were greeted by a handful of individuals who worked on staff at the CFCI base…and it was a little pinprick of light in an ocean of darkness…as each face I met held something deep beneath the surface of each smile. Each person I shook hands with, and talked to gave off endearing warmth…filling up my heavy soul like a little helium balloon…each pump of the hand, inflating my spirit higher and higher.

These people, in this different state…they had it…they were men and women of God and their passion for ministry was evident. The staff at CFCI knew what they were created for: to Love God and Love people and serve where God calls them even if the calling was a tough one.

I learned a small amount about some of the staff, but within those meetings, I understood the joy that could be found in following God’s call into the unknown.

CFCI Conference Room

These people had traveled and lived outside of the U.S. They had experience of the loneliness of leaving all they had to do something new. They had experience in going where God calls, only to realize he was calling you back, because…you learned all He wanted you to learn…and you were now equipped to return…

Their stories flowed over lunch after our meeting, and I found kindred spirits among these staff workers in Omaha. They spoke into my life, excepting my father and I into their staff family, as we ate, laughed and shared.

Their mission is the transformation of communities and the development of leaders in the name of Christ, by reaching into those communities and giving hope to individuals through the transforming power of Christ.

Warm connections with staff!

And oh! how much light they shared together working as a united body! This small window into their world granted me some strength for the next few legs of my journey to Phoenix.

In visiting those staff member in Omaha, God met me…He shined His love once again through His children, children I hadn’t met before, but children He was able to speak through. And there He stood in front of me, and spoke into me, “Continue forward, my daughter. I have more of my family to meet. This is only the beginning of your journey.”

And so we continued on…and I continued on towards God, and His people.