God's Word for today

Sunday 24 July 2011

Homeless!

One of the steps taken in my transition into ministry was the decision to sell our house.  With the property located in Johannesburg and us located in Pietermaritzburg (and likely to be relocating again at the end of this year, depending on the outcome of last week's stationing committee meeting), and our parents having moved out earlier this year (my mom to a retirement village, and Belinda's mom having come to join us in Pietermaritzburg), we felt that trying to manage it as a rental property from far away was a stress we could do without (a previous foray into rental property having ended in tears).

So we decided to sell.  A buyer was found on Easter Saturday, and transfer went through this past Friday.  This means that for only the second time in our adult life, Belinda and I do not own any fixed property.  This is a strange feeling that will take some getting used to, although being housed in church property we are of course not "homeless" in the sense of not having a roof over our heads.

My African colleagues have a different concept of "home" to us Westerners.  For them, their birthplace will always be "home", and many endeavour to acquire property in the area they call "home".  We have a more fluid concept of "home", and while my own situation is necessitated by the itinerancy of the Methodist ministry (resembling a line out of the Paul Young song Wherever I Lay My Hat, That's My Home), generally any place of abode where my family and I are recently settled is considered to be "home".

Onward then to the next adventure in ministry - stationing!  Amongst other things, knowing where we are to be stationed will give us an indication of where we can next call "home"...

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