I'll let this journey be my home

Brent and I have been married for 16 years, and in those 16 years, we have lived in 3 different countries, 9 different homes, almost 2 years without a home (traveling around the U.S.), traveled thousands and thousands of miles, stayed in hundreds of different hotel rooms and missionary apartments, and are now living in someone else's home, using their things, while all of our stuff is boxed up and stored.

At times, this has bothered me and I have allowed moments of self-pity. Then I remember that our life is but a vapor and on God's list of important things in my life, where I live or even in what conditions I live in, surely are at the bottom.

I have been asked many times where "home" is and I always struggle to answer. The U.S. is my beloved country and home, but where I live with my family is home too, and now, Peru is starting to feel more like home, after 9 years here. What I have concluded, I think, is this journey of life that I'm on - wherever I am, wherever God takes me - this is going to be my home. My home will be the peace I carry in my heart that I am where God wants me, and so, I will always be at home.

Steve Green wrote a song "I Will Go" and dedicated it to the Bowers, a missionary couple in the Peruvian jungle, who's plane was shot down several years ago as they were flying in a routine flight. Mrs. Bowers and her baby girl, who she was holding, were killed.

I sang this song in many churches in the U.S. 6-7 years ago, and have sung it a few times in Spanish here in Peru, but right now, today, it means more to me than ever before. I've never met Steve Green (although I have seen him in concert) but I praise God for his insight, his gift with words and song and I thank him for writing this song. Here are the words:

Give me ears to hear your spirit, give me feet to follow through

Give me hands to touch the hurting, and the faith to follow you

Give me grace to be a servant, give me mercy for the lost

Give me passion for your glory, give me passion for the cross

And I will go where there are no easy roads, leave the comforts that I know

I will go and let this journey be my home - I will go, I will go

I'll let go of my ambitions, cut the roots that run too deep

I will learn to give away what I cannot really keep, what I cannot really keep

Help me see with eyes of faith, give me strength to run this race

And I will go where there are no easy roads, leave the comforts that I know

I will go and let this journey be my home - I will go, I will go

I will go, Lord, where your glory is unknown, I will live for you alone

I will go, because my life is not my own, I will go, I will go

Miriam