Hungry Hippos

Hungry Hippos.  For kids it is a fun game of gathering marbles by pressing a lever to get their hippopotamus to eat as many marbles from the center of the board.  To every parent it is the noisiest and most obnoxious game of all time.  Last night I was given an amazing t-shirt that symbolizes how I have been living these past few weeks.  

                                     

We have received our clearance to return to Ecuador and I have literally turned into the Hungry Hippo.  Scrambling, gathering, hording every possible thing we could need to return to Ecuador for four years.  It is a loud and messy process.  The amount of boxes and packaging materials in our home could confuse us for amazon’s packing center.  I wake up with a list of my “marbles” that I need to get that day.  Go! Go!  Get the marbles!  Buy extra underwear!!  Micah grew 6 inches last night!  Buy more clothes!!  What if Eli and Lydia do the same thing next week?  Buy them more clothes!  Shoes!  Get shoes!  What if they shrink?!  (This really happens!  USA fast food is no joke!)  Make sure they have smaller clothes too!  Oh, and make sure it totals up to the maximum weight requirement or less for luggage!!

                 

When you know that you will not see a Walmart, Target, or Amazon for 4 years you get into hungry hippo mode.  And yet, Spiritually I feel the same way.  We are getting ready to head back to Ecuador and live in a community that does not have a church.  We are going back to a spiritually dry community.  I feel as though every church service and prayer meeting that I attend needs to last in my heart.  I take notes so I can review the teachings once I am home.  I have horded my spiritual marbles as well.  Bible studies, devotionals, study videos.  And now the suitcases are zipped shut and we are ready to step on the plane. 

What lies ahead we never really know.  Plans change in a moments notice.  Circumstances change.  But what we know and what we firmly stand on is the knowledge, the truth, that God is good and has a plan.  God offers hope, has a plan for Loja province.  He has called us to go and even though the goodbyes squeeze every tear from our eyes, we step forward knowing we serve a God who can be trusted.  We serve a God who knows us and knows His plans for us.  God asked us several years ago to step out in faith and move to a remote community in southwestern Ecuador and we said yes.  That calling in our hearts remains.  The phone text messages and other contacts from our friends in these communities have kept our hearts hungry to return to Ecuador during these past 10 months in the states.  

                                         

The mountains that God has moved from before us to allow us to return has been astounding.  We held up our hands and handed God the support we needed to raise in order to be able to return.  It seemed too hard.  Too much to raise in too short a time.  But God calmed our hearts and provided ministry partners in amazing ways.  God has healed broken ankles and a sprained foot.  God has provided healing to my back and neck issues and even provided instruments to keep it that way.  Our hearts are full. 

 

And so as we climb onto the plane today and step out again in faith not really knowing what lies ahead we cling to what we do know.  God is good and has an amazing plan for our lives.  God loves us and the people of Ecuador.  And there is no better or safer place to be than at the center of His will.  So, as I sit here this morning sipping my coffee and trying to recall if each computer and phone has been charged, if the laundry was removed from the dryer, if each marble is in its place, I will cling to my spiritual marbles.  I will call to mind each bible verse I have gathered in my heart and know that those marbles, though they are many, don’t weigh a thing and won’t put our luggage over weight!