You know you haven't updated your blog in a while when you have to read your last post to see what the last thing you wrote was! Come to find out, I haven't said a word since we left Clarksville, and it's been three months - hard to believe that time has gone by so quickly!
We think about Clarksville often. A small question in my head from time to time has been whether this was a mistake - to move back home. My mother said quite often that we had a wonderful life in Clarksville, and she would ask whether we were sure we wanted to give it all up. It's really too bad we can't have all our friends from Tennessee here in Houston; we miss them the most. We miss spontaneous boating trips, dinners, a lack of traffic, changing fall leaves, the winery, and most of all, our small group. I can't tell you how often I check to see if there are cheap flights to Nashville, it must be twice a week or more.
The consolation I have in moving here is that we are near our family, which was the premier driving force behind moving home. The second largest reason why we moved was Austin's and my job situation. He and I are both in the industries we went to school to be in: environmental engineering and event planning, respectively. In regards to these reasons, things are working out well, and we are getting into a groove at our jobs.
We also think we've found a church home at Ecclesia. We started going to a small group this last week, where the couple who host the group shared their testimony, and we felt just as welcomed as we did in our small group in Clarksville. We can't replace our friends and the bond we shared with our small group from Grace, but we can start new friendships and start growing alongside these new friends, and we have hope in the new relationships we will form.
In these transitional months, I can't say that my walk with Christ has been strong; I have a hard time fitting in my devotional times in the morning (no good excuse for that) but it has affected my relationships with others and my attitude. I don't think my relationship with Christ should depend on my location, my work or my schedule, but that all those things should hinge on my relationship with Christ (everything should hinge on Him) so I have some restructuring to do in my life, but Ecclesia has been a good starting point for that.
I still have the CDs in my car that I would blast on my way to work at the winery, we have pictures of our small group in our apartment, and many other things that remind us of our time in Clarksville; we miss it, and there is no denying that, but we also know that we are in the right place, for now.
As (I think?) I've mentioned before, Austin and I both feel the call to missions. I actually started seeing and feeling that call in 2010, but it hasn't seemed to be time for us to go yet, aside from my trips to Peru & Uganda that year. We're still waiting and seeking that God would make that clear to us. It's tempting to say "maybe it's time!" when we start to feel wearied by the things of this world (finances, jobs, possessions, etc), but we know God will make it happen, and make it clear if/when/how it is to happen. Until then, we wait - in Houston.
Love,
E
PS - we aren't going to Spain; I'm going to Maui for work so we're making that into a vacation, too!
