As the title suggests, I haven’t been around much in the blogging world lately. A measly two posts this year so far, and both of them back in January. Close to six months of silence– yikes! 
Several months ago, life became such that actual blogging was just not happening.
It turns out that my January 2nd post was more on-target than I imagined at the time. Sometimes God does things in our lives that we never expected or even dreamed of. Perhaps you know what it’s like to just be traveling down the road of life, and suddenly, sometimes out of nowhere, we find ourselves at a major bend in the road. Other times, we can see the bend way off in the distance, on the horizon, and we know change is coming. Either way, the major bend can be a lot to work through. Change can mean deep waters sometimes. It can even be heartbreaking, in a good way, or in a bad way.
Change can also be good. It pulls us up out of our comfort zones. It causes us to see things in a new light. It can bring life sharply into focus again.
God has called us away from our home and ministry of nineteen years in the Shenandoah Valley, and has brought us out to the plains of Illinois. We have said plentiful and painful goodbyes to family and dear friends. Part of our hearts will forever be in Virginia.
So, that’s where I’ve been. That’s where we’ve been, all ten of us. Turning a corner, closing a chapter, going through a season of change, experiencing the end of an era, uprooting after nineteen years.
I think I’m starting to come up for air after these intense several months. There is much I’d love to share. God has been teaching me so patiently as we have gone through this experience. He shows such great mercy to our faltering steps.
Now, instead of our beloved mountains, we have the wide open sky. Our faith has been stretched to new levels. There have been many questions. There still are. But the bottom line is, we are here to follow His call. There is no doubt that God is the One Who has done this.
We have a new home here, one that we hope to move into soon, maybe sometime in the next few weeks…? (And I don’t want to hear the word septic again for a VERY long time.) We have a new ministry here, of an entirely different sort than before. And most importantly, we serve the same God here. 
Life is an adventure! Whether you find yourself rooted or uprooted today, settled or unsettled, remember the Ever Faithful One. Rest in His love. Find joy in His plan. Remember Jesus Christ Who is our Hope, our King and the only true Savior. Trust Him even when nothing is making sense. (I’m preaching to myself here…) “He knoweth the way that I take…” Job 23:10
“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” Psalm 115:1
“But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!” Psalm 115:18♥
I know it’s easy to get discouraged. We hear bad news everywhere. Kids are departing from the faith. Hate and violence overwhelm our streets. Churches are shutting down. Families are splitting apart. Unrighteous lawmakers seem to prevail. Children are abused. Our world seems to be going crazy in many respects.
Oh, yes. Yes, there are! 
The devil loves to come marching in and start feeding us lie upon lie when we are discouraged. 
I love hearing my husband Steve preach and teach from God’s Word. Over the years I have grown by listening to his wisdom as he teaches, and also by watching him live so humbly as a servant of the Lord. This blog post he published today resonated with me so deeply that I wanted to share the link with you here. 
After reading my last blog post, about 