It Beats 40 Years Wandering... (by Thom)

Wow, it's hard to believe it's been over 2 months since I last posted! Home Assignment (furlough) is a strange time for me and I have difficulty expressing what it all means to me. I am looking forward to getting back to Africa, but at the same time trying to enjoy the moments we have here in the US.

One of our big challenges this home assignment was to get the twins their social security numbers and passports. The former must happen before we can approach the latter but we've been unsuccessful so far in getting those numbers. We've talked to our local office many times but until yesterday we didn't seem to be getting anything done. Today I'm hopeful that we will have those in a week or two. After that it is passport-time, which shouldn't be as difficult. However, between this complication and a few others happening on the African side (some related to our move from Mali to Senegal and others related to other people's transitions) we've had it suggested to us from our leadership that we extend our home assignment two months. Now, instead of returning April 29th, we'll head back to Africa at the end of June or beginning of July.

We were not happy to have to wait so long to get back home, but we also recognize that leaving soon doesn't seem to be God's timing. In fact, the whole idea of "God's Timing" seems to be central here. We've seen so many things fall out of place so quickly that it really has forced us to throw up our hands and say, "Lord, we're sorry if we've tried to rule this situation. We give it back to You."

Please keep us and the Soc Sec #'s in your prayers. We think we have the housing worked out for our extended time remaining and we have a car at least another month. We're not sure yet about after May, though, since so many other missionaries had plans to come home.

By the way, it has been a long time since I've posted new pictures, too. I'll work on that soon. In the meantime, here's a family picture we had taken in the mountains of Utah last month.

(Click to see larger image)