Thoughts on Leaving Togo: What is God doing?

I have been a terrible blogger lately.  Partly because of poor internet service (that makes it difficult to access my blog), partly because of life just being busy.....but mostly because I didn't want to face the fact that our time here was quickly ending.

Monday we will load up into a van-- 6 people, 12 suitcases, 6 carry-ons, 6 passports, 6 visas, 1 stroller, 1 car seat-- and drive 6 hours over to Ghana and then on Tuesday we fly out of Africa and head back to the U.S. for the next chapter of our lives.  While part of me is excited to see our friends and family,  the other part of me just wants to stay here where we have made our home.  Part of me wants to return to America with all its luxuries and convienences, but part of me wants to stay here in Togo where life, while much more difficult, is much purer and less inhibited by materialism and modern distractions.  If it was our choice, we would stay.  These last 2 years have been too short.  I can so envision myself and my family living in Africa for years to come.
 

We love this place.

Togo Sunrise
Photo by fellow missionary Judy Bowen

We love the work here.

We love the ministry here.

We love the people here.

But yet, it seems like the Lord is taking us down another path, for now.  It is a little strange.  Our hearts are here.  Our desire is to be here.  We are happy and at peace here.  But the Lord is taking us somewhere else.  I don't quite understand His working or direction at this point.  But that is okay.  There have been a few other times in my life where I would have chosen one path, but the Lord clearly was taking me down another. What is God doing?  I don't know!!   I am a little confused at what the Lord is doing in our family, but I will trust what the Lord is doing in our family.

I feel a little like Abraham may have felt when the Lord told him to leave his home and go to a place he didn't know, a strange country.  But by faith (Heb 11:8-9) he obeyed the Lord and that simply is what we are striving to do.

To rest in His promises. (Ps 37 :7)

To obey His leading.  (Deut 13:4)

To trust His plans.  (Pro 3:5-6)

To submit our desires.  (Ps. 37:4)

To commit our ways. (Ps 37:5)

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."  Is. 55:8-9