30 years

30 years ago this week, I packed a rental truck, turned in my company car, and (with my brother John) drove that truck from my native Boston, to the Midwest (the Chicago area). It wasn't until we were somewhere in Ohio that I looked at the map in both awe and horror and said "John! Illinois is next to Iowa!!" (My Northeastern brain at that time thought of Iowa as on the edge of nowhere). As the hills and woods and curvy roads turned to cornfields and straight highways, I tried to take it all in. 

Why was I leaving my job and everything familiar, to move a thousand miles away, and live with some people I'd just met? It was because of a sense of call. I was headed to seminary, and headed to ministry (where my pay was a room in someone's home, and gas money to drive the 50 miles-each-way that I would drive four days a week from home and church to school. Those were the days before online education!)

30 years in the Midwest. 30 years in ministry.

This week I will again pack a truck (a much bigger one this time, and this time when I say "I" I mean the college students that I've hired), and drive many miles in the reverse direction heading back to the Northeast. This time it's my husband driving the truck, and my daughter and I driving the car. This time we will leave the lakes of Minnesota, then the cornfields of Illinois behind, and in some ways I will feel like I'm returning home, while my husband and daughter try to take it all in.  And this time, like last time, I will be living with generous, gracious people who have invited me in until we find a house to buy.

And I still go because of a sense of call. 

God's call can be a tough thing to describe to those who have not yet experienced it. But when it happens... You know that you know.

A few years ago, I had said to Marsh: "hey, when I hit 30 years in ministry, I think I'd like a party!" This wasn't the party I expected ...but in so many ways it's better. In the past few weeks of saying good bye, people have prayed for me, commissioned me, told me what my ministry has meant to them. And by next week, a new adventure, a new call will have begun.

Thank you, Lord, for 30 years.