40 days of wandering

We finally got to the end of our wandering and realised that it was actually 40 days since we left our house in Fort Collins to stay at our good friends Doug and Liz's while the removals (moving company) men were packing up all our worldly goods. 13 beds later it is lovely to be able to sleep in our own house even if it is on an airbed. 

Last week's journey started with some restful time in Petworth which is a wonderful place to have to spend some time but it did remind me of Psalm 23 

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
    he leads me beside quiet waters,

    he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
   for his name's sake.

It was as if God had arranged our stay in Petworth to make sure we rested and our soul was restored. I really felt like God "made" us lie down for while after all the hustle and bustle. On the Tuesday we attended a prayer meeting held by the local Christians and they prayed for our future which was a wonderful blessing. The most amazing thing though was a young man coming up to us and asking if we were the family that were given a prophecy by Martin Scott about travelling ten years ago, which was the prophecy that indeed started us off on our travels and it amazes us that someone we didn't know should recall those words spoken over us from all those years ago. 

We travelled back to Latvia from Petworth on the Wednesday and stayed in the "Prayer Tower", owned by some friends of ours in Riga, which seems a fitting way to enter back into the land that we will be calling home. There were some wonderful quotes on the wall and my favourite is 

We don't wait well. We're into microwaving; God on the other hand is usually into marinating.
Dutch Sheets

I could really relate to this as it has been a long journey from those words spoken over us 10 years ago. I finally also got to read in the Prayer Tower about the life of Brother Laurence who has intrigued me from the little I have heard about him. I love the way that he finds God easier in the day to day routine of life and not in retreats and tackles each task as a love offering to God - what a hero! This is a quote from one of his letters "It is not needful always to be in church to be with God. We can make a chapel of our heart, to which we can from time to time withdraw to have gentle, humble, loving communion with him." 
Brother Laurence 1690 translated by E.M. Blaiklock

Our couple of days in Riga allowed us to complete some necessary paperwork at our bank and to buy our new "car" which you can see sitting outside getting soaked in the rain. At least it washed off the drawings from our local artists, who drew pictures in the mud on our truck, a little present for a Sunday morning. Blessings on them!  

We also fitted in a trip to Norkalni, Ropazi on our way home. This was another piece of God organisation because John who we stayed with in Petworth left for Latvia to participate in a work party working on the Norkalni centre on the Sunday before we left on the Wednesday. For those who do not know Norkalni is a centre that is built to house mainly summer camps for children but also holds other events throughout the year to help children and youths come to know Jesus and also to help them in their walk of faith. When we walked into the house there was our good friend David Iliffe who we travelled with on our first trip to Latvia. God's attention to detail has been breathtaking. 

It has been an amazing journey so far with many surprises along the way but I hope you will forgive me for passing up on surprises for a while, I could quite easily settle for a couple of weeks of "boring" just doing normal tasks like cooking, cleaning, levelling floors, taking rubbish (garbage) to the tip (landfill), organising removal men (moving company) - you know, normal everyday tasks!