Not My Home
As a teenager, I had a T-shirt picturing a globe that read, “This world is not my home, although it seems to be. My home is with my God in the place He’s made for me. He’s comin’ back real soon, the signs are very clear. So when the trumpet sounds, I’ll be outta here!”
That poem meant a lot more to me when I began moving on a regular basis. I was seven years old when I felt the Lord calling me into full-time ministry. I wanted to be a missionary like my hero, Gladys Aylward, missionary to China years ago. In 2005 I married my husband Brian, who also felt God calling him to ministry. After graduating from New Tribes Bible Institute in Wisconsin, we joined Bible Centered Ministries International, a mission that shares our own vision to “Reach Children and Plant Churches Worldwide,” and began a two year journey that landed us on March 3, 2009, in Peru.
BCM Peru is a thriving ministry, based outside the capital city of Lima in a village called Picapiedra, where their Bible Institute campus houses students and most of the Peruvian missionary families. For now, we are the only Americans living on campus. Brian is head of maintenance, and I facilitate home school courses for five missionary children. We are both thrilled to be doing what we love: fix stuff and teach! We will be involved with other ministries as well.
As much as we relish this new life, it was a difficult transition. The last two years have held two moves, four cross-country drives, twelve weeks of training, and more goodbyes than we care to count. We sold our first home as a married couple, left good jobs, friends, and family, and moved from South Dakota to Pennsylvania. After BCM orientation we began the process of deputation, pausing in the middle for nine weeks of cross-cultural preparation. After over a year of living in my old bedroom in my parents’ house, we finally obtained our needed support and were ready to leave.
Before leaving South Dakota two years ago, I remember thinking about how if we moved to South America, our future children would never grow up in Boy Scouts of America. We wouldn’t be selling those famous Girl Scout cookies or attending PTA meetings. We wouldn’t be worrying about getting our kids to basketball practice. Our kids will grow up not knowing things we took for granted – like the scent of snow in the air or visiting relatives.
How could I ever deprive them of those things? I found myself wondering in that quiet morning two years ago. Yet at the same time, our children will be bilingual, understand multiple cultures, and understand better than we ever will that heaven, not earth, is home.
I’ve moved once a year for the past eight years, so moving is not new to me. However, moving to another continent and only being able to take four suitcases and two carry-ons was new. But God is faithful. When we left South Dakota, I remember taking a mental inventory of everything we owned. We had just moved into our house as newlyweds six months before. Yet as I stood in the living room figuring out what we would actually keep, I realized none of it mattered. As long as we were following the Lord’s will, we could leave it all behind with no regrets.
BCM Peru Bible Institute campus
The same thing happened as we were packing for Peru. We found out just before we flew that we could bring only four suitcases when we’d planned on taking six. So we had just a few days to figure out what was staying, what was going, what must come down immediately (we could bring two suitcases), and what could wait for two American girls arriving a few weeks later. Yet taking less proved more a relief than an anxiety. Not only is this world not our home, but the Lord Himself is all we truly need to survive.
During the last two years we’ve had so many people tell us they could never do what we are doing. We’ve had even more people tell us that we must be so excited to be going on such a great adventure. Both statements always caught us off guard. We believe that when God calls you to do something, He also equips you to handle it. We also realize that even though some days our new life does seem like an adventure, most days we’ll just be working.
We were also caught off guard by how hard it was to explain what we were thinking and feeling as we prepared to leave. Yes, we were excited. But there was some fear and trepidation at leaving all we’d known to join a team we didn’t know, who speaks a foreign language and is already functioning very well. Our lives were being left behind along with family and friends.
Saying goodbyes were difficult. We knew we’d be able to use Skype and talk to (and see!) our families while in Peru. But there is something reassuring about talking on the phone within the same country. It was hard leaving our small group at our church that we’d come to know and love. It was hard leaving behind two pregnant sisters, knowing we’ll miss years of our new nieces’ or nephews’ lives.
And yet when we boarded the plane, we both shed tears of joy as we prayed and thanked God for bringing us this far. We were finally going home – a place we hadn’t been to in two years. It was superbly comforting to know we were in the center of God’s will for us.
Still, landing in Peru was again a shock, physically and mentally. We’d flown from Florida where it was 45 degrees Fahrenheit to arrive in Lima at almost midnight to about 80 degrees and humid. We’d left English speakers to be surrounded by thousands of people jabbering what seemed to be the world’s fastest language, Spanish. As we left the airport, I looked at my husband to see his eyes opened wide, looking more lost than I ever thought he could be. As we went to bed in our new home at 1:30 AM, we looked at each other, and said, “What in the world are we getting ourselves into?”
But now that the initial shock has worn off, we are so content to be here. Everyone here has accepted us and made us feel welcome. And we’re excited to begin our new ministry.
My favorite verses recently have been Hebrews 11:13-16 (NIV). The author is speaking of the heroes of faith who died without ever receiving in their lifetime the promises from God. They realized they were “aliens and strangers” here on earth. “If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return” (vs.15). But they were longing for something better—a heavenly homeland. Verse 16 says, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
BCM Peru evangelistic outreach
Brian and I had every reason to stay where we were or to return back there. But, we don’t want to because there’s something better. Our hearts are here in Peru, and we are so glad to be here! We don’t care how hard it is going to be or how confusing the language will be for the first few months (years?). We don’t mind getting sick. We don’t even mind getting lost the first time we take the bus.
Why? This world is not our home. We are merely passing through. We look forward to that trumpet sound (which we were kind of hoping might have been while we were on the plane!) calling us to our heavenly homeland. But for now we are where God wants us, and Peru is our home. We wouldn’t trade being here for anything else this world has to offer.
