33- Crossing an Ocean and a Lake

One steady discipline throughout my married Christian life has been journaling.

On the shelves behind me in our office, I have 42 three-ring binders with hundreds of pages in each of them, as well as 30+ journals, steno tablets, and diaries.

Writing my thoughts and feelings and God’s interventions, our God stories, has been healthy and rewarding.

God knew that Dan and I would have a sold-out life and much to share, and gave me a gift of grace that enabled me to stay faithful, and I have found myself writing almost daily for over 40 years. (There are some lapses, especially during the fostering years.) In the early journals I was reading the King James Version of the Bible and that’s sort of what I sound like! Here’s what I wrote on the brink of our European departure:

Sept 21, 1978  Thank You that we are with child and that You have added adventure to this pregnancy to keep us close to You, depending, trusting, clinging. Thank You that we fly away tomorrow morning from the place of my degradation and my redemption; from friends, security, status, complacency; from the known to the unknown; from possessions and language familiarity, mother, and apple pie. Thank You that You are bonding us closer to You and to each other. We trust You in us by faith.

We flew from Los Angeles to London to Zurich. And then we slept! 

The beautiful blue swathe on the map is called Lake Constance by the Swiss and the Bodensee by the Germans–since both country’s beaches crowd around its borders. Schweiz is Switzerland, Deutschland is Germany. Our plane landed in Zurich (not shown),which is 40 miles west of Romanshorn. A ferry carries vehicles and passengers to Friedrichshafen, which was our destination and where we would spend the next six months in this dormitory and an adjoining building.