So let me explain.
For any of you we have not had a chance to tell yet, Nate and I are moving to Guam....a small island in the Pacific that is a US territory. There are two Church of God churches on that island that is about 30 miles long and 6 miles wide (for those of you who know the exact measurements, forgive any errors in this post!) and 232 square miles of surface area!
Nate lived there for 5 years prior to moving to Indiana to complete his seminary education. He worked with the youth and by the end, was pastoring the church we will be returning to. Through his experiences of working with the church, he realized that he did feel a call on his life to pastor that he didn't necessarily feel before but didn't have the education he felt he needed.
This lead to his decision to come to Indiana to complete his master's degree. 4 years later he is just over one week away from graduating. As our time here was nearing it's end, the church on Guam contacted Nate and asked if he might come pastor them. A missionary couple, has been there for the last 26 years working with and building the church. However, Guam has recently been moved off the "missions" list as it was decided that since it is a US territory it doesn't really fit the criteria they have for missions. So the couple who has been pastoring and ministering will now be moving to another small island called Yap, also in the Pacific and will be opening up a Christian school. And the church on Guam is hiring a pastor.
So after careful consideration and prayer, we have accepted the position for Nate and will be moving to Guam this summer.
We are so excited for this, but also very sad to be leaving all our family and friends we have been blessed with in Anderson, Indiana, and beyond! This is actually the closest Nate has been to his parents since he was in high school, so we have also enjoyed being able to have regular visits to and from Canada as well.
So this summer is full of adventure even before we leave for Guam.
We decided to capitalize on the fact Nate will be doing a 3 week urban ministry class in Berlin, Germany to finish up his second master's degree right after graduation. His airfare over there is part of the class cost so we have just arranged his return ticket to be different from the rest of the classmates and I will be flying over to Europe at the end of his class and then we will do a once in a lifetime tour of Europe. We start in Prague, then travel to Vienna, Venice, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and then will be traveling in a rental car all along Germany's western and southern border to explore towns as we go.
Again we are incredibly excited.
Once we return to the US from our Europe travels we will be spending good time with family and friends near our hometowns, starting with mine in northern Indiana, and then Nate's near Hamilton, Ontario.
We will savor our time together before making our last journey for the summer to our new home: Guam.
We plan to fly out around August 20th.
So this is what is coming up in life. And we decided to transform the blog from mine to ours, so we could both use this space to process and share what is going on in life.
We are thankful for the technology of today that will enable us to be better connected with our friends and family, no matter where we are in the world.
