Temporary Home

I always love getting on a bus on a Saturday morning with my backpack, a bottle of Diet Mt Dew, a couple of magazines and a Donald Miller book and heading out to some obscure location for a weeklong mission trip. Let's see, I've been to Brunswick, GA on a few occasions, Myrtle Beach, Miami, Nashville, and the list could go on. That morning is always filled with anticipation and the hope that at the end of the week, I will be exhausted and fulfilled. It was a hope that almost always was met. At the end of that first Saturday, I would unroll my sleeping bag in a corner on some hard floor of some church or gym. Then I would put my suitcase at the foot of the sleeping bag, pull out my alarm clock, my handmade (by my wife and daughters) Peanuts blanket, and my sound machine (yes, a sound machine, set on white noise if you must know) and settle in for an exciting week. By Tuesday, the floor, the roommates, the bugs, the temperature, the distance to the bathroom, the lack of hot showers or some other distraction had me longing for home. And when I would climb back on that same bus just one week later, I was ready, very ready, to sleep in my own bed, eat at a table with my family, and stand in a hot shower that would last way longer than is environmentally responsible. But I would also climb on knowing how important that week had been in my life. On many of those trips, I had built a home for a family or a church, shared a meal with a homeless man, led a child to begin a walk with the Creator of the universe, or given water to a stranger on a hot day. But it was always me who ended up being changed, finding hope, experiencing the love of God. Those temporary homes were important places for me and will always be cherished.

Today, I am getting a new temporary home. Here at eleven forty five at fbc we are setting up a temporary home for the leadership team of the new service that is going to begin in the fall. This will be a place for us to discuss ideas for the gathering, to share our dreams of what God can do, and to encourage one another. Once we get a name established, we will move on to our permanent home.

Will and I will be posting ideas as we discuss them. We will also keep it updated with news of meetings, events, prayer needs and more. I am filled with the same anticipation and hope that filled me when I first hopped on those buses. I know there are gonna be a few Tuesdays along the way where some obstacle will make me want to give up, some difficulty will make me long for the end of the trip, or some 'disaster' will make me question why I'm here. But I make this journey with the confidence that when the bus comes back to get me this temporary home will have inspired us on our journey. It will be a place where we encountered God together and sensed His movement and direction in our lives. It will be a place that I look back on in the same way I look back on Brunswick, Myrtle Beach, Miami, Nashville. In other words, I hope this new, temporary home will be one that we cherish.

Now if you'll pardon me, I have a sleeping bag to unroll and a suitcase to unpack.

-- Peace, Jamie