Johnny Hart is my hero

Moves I can’t imagine

Well, here we are in Fort Lauderdale. It’s been quite a move and to be honest, my head is still reeling a bit. Kathleen and I left Los Angeles for good on January 3, and began driving east. This makes the 3rd cross-country drive on Interstate 10 for me in less than two years, and I’m actually a bit sick of it. Also, I have to say that while I know God has a purpose for all things I am really beginning to wonder if that applies to the stretch of land between El Paso and San Antonio.

We paused in San Antonio for an extra day, so that I could speak at my old home congregation, Beth Simcha. It definitely ranked as a strange experience, due to a power transformer at the building burning out earlier in the day. One of the guys at the congregation hooked up a gasoline generator which was used to power 4 lamps, and an amplifier with a microphone running into it. I delivered a message titled “Peace: Behind The Headlines.” I got to reconnect with old friends, one of whom is one of the men who prayed with me the night I professed my faith in Jesus. I was moved to tears when he walked up to give me hug, then turned to Kathleen and simply declared, “I love this man.”

Finally we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, and things got a bit crazy. We’re renting a house from a guy who was super excited about having a missionary couple living in his place, and he has been fantastic. What wasn’t so fantastic was that the contractor he had redoing the ceilings did NOT finish when he was supposed to be finished. The contractor showed up the same morning as our moving truck, and it really stretched my sanctification not to get angry with him. We’re moved in and mostly unpacked, but every wall in the house has some substance called “knockdown” coating it. I don’t know what it is, I just know if I brush against a wall, it makes me itch like crazy. Our landlord is letting us pick whatever colors we want, so we want to get the painting done soon.

Now, I haven’t meant any of this to be taken as kvetching (complaining). Quite the opposite. You see, in the events that led to our move we’ve gotten to see God moving. For a year, we — and many others — prayed for Kathleen’s health. We saw God move in that every time we thought Kathleen didn’t have the strength to fight anymore, God gave it to her. We saw God move when it came to requesting a transfer, and saw Him move when it came to the leadership of Jews for Jesus working out the details of that transfer. I never could have dreamed that we would be sent back to south Florida, where Kathleen and I first met, and certainly never dreamed I would end up working under my best friend (who also happens to have been best man at our wedding)! We’ve seen God move in providing this house for us, and providing a landlord who is a Christian himself. We’re seeing God move in some small but immediate improvements in Kat’s health. After a year of watching my wife struggle to breathe day after day, it’s sheer joy to see her breathe so easily. I have no doubt that we are going to see God move in so many ways that I can’t even imagine over the next year — and I’m looking forward to every moment.

For now, I look around at the new home God has blessed me with, and all I can do is repeat what Abraham, and Moses, and King David, and so many other men of God have said: “Hineni, Lord. Here am I!”