(The following is the third in a four part series. A member of the SEND North team shares her perspective on the path into missions which God has led her on, from child to church planter.)

This World Is Not My Home

 Lim*bo /?limb?/: an intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place.

 We hung up the phone from the conference call and looked each other in the eyes—shoulders slumped with exacerbated sighs.

 We can’t go home.

 Three hard months living between our gracious parents weighed heavily on us. By the time our two daughters adjusted to one grandparent’s home we uprooted them to another.

 We went “outside” in January to attend a counseling retreat in Michigan. Our home was winterized in preparation for three weeks of absence—the return solidified in our minds.

 Three weeks turned to three months and three months turned to six.

 We were weary with no end in sight.

 At around six months of living in transition, or as some call it, limbo; we finally arrived in our beloved Alaska, eager to return to our home of familiarity.

 Upon arriving in Alaska the Galena flood hit our home village, slowly at first then fierce toward the end. Homes damaged and families displaced.

 The end in sight became blurred and nearly invisible.

 So we linger in Anchorage. And wait.

 We wait on Christ.

 Some might say our experience constitutes as sacrifice. But David Livingstone debunks this theory, “We ought not to talk of ‘sacrifice’ when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His Father’s throne on high to give Himself for us.”

 So today we remain and wait, trusting in our Lord.

 But we don’t wait as ones without hope.