2010…enjoy where you’re at, on the way to where you’re going!

We have been on this A-D Venture for a year! Can you believe it? For a full 12 months we have been “homeless” and itinerant, Home-Schooling and living in canvas! That’s a short way of saying we have been stretched and grown beyond all our limits….financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Man what a journey it’s been. We have met many wonderful people we would not have had the opportunity to meet otherwise. We have had occasion to minister to others and humbly we have been on the receiving end of blessing after blessing from some of the most generous people we have ever been privileged to know…..

Many have asked us recently what’s next? Where are we going? When are we going? How are we going? Are we stopping? Are we taking a break? And even…are we broke yet? Hmmmm I know we are living an unusual life. I know that to many our choices are incredulous. I know that the very roads we travel don’t seem to make logical sense….as my young niece quipped:

“aren’t you supposed to go around Australia? Not all squiggly like?”

I heard someone say “there’s no point looking back if you don’t learn from it”…and that’s exactly how we feel at this point. It’s impossible to drive off into the sunset looking in your rear-view mirror. We have had to let go of a lot. We’ve had to give up a lot. We’ve had to go without many basic necessities. We’ve had to change our thinking, our spending, challenge ourselves…push ourselves to our limits and pull together as a family.

Two years before we left on this journey….in a very memorable experience God spoke audibly to me telling me to go and visit MOPS Groups around Australia… That freaked me out BIG TIME! All I could think of was…are you kidding? How? We can barely afford to live now… The whole thing was totally out of my comfort zone! Daniel felt similarly prompted and over the next 24 months we scrimped, planned, researched and planned some more! We had no idea how on earth we were going to do this. The date of departure loomed on the horizon like a garish neon light!!! Every time I looked at a calendar I felt nervous and sick to my stomach…. Do a little exercise in reality for me…walk around your home, into every room and imagine getting rid of all of it….what do you need? What do you do with the things that are dear to you? And then imagine carrying all your belongings with you in your car and camper trailer…. I think I may have lost you! It was sooooo hard! Very stressful to give away, sell and dump all that we owned. The children had to reduce their special things to a small box each…. We had enough room for those small boxes of toys, some books, one violin, a year’s worth of school work, Daniel’s tools, Recovery gear, Plates & cups etc and food. Just the basics…. Whilst we have changed the contents of our boxes a few times, we still have just enough to get by. It simplifies things!

Travelling days are our favourite days. All of us enjoy pointing our nose into the wind and “getting out there”. It still takes us 2 hours to pack up and much less to set up. We still don’t particularly enjoy camping in the rain or in the cold. However we do enjoy the ever changing surroundings, the simplicity of a meal around a campfire, the stars in isolated areas, the people we meet along the way. Living this way may seem like a holiday to some, but it’s really hard work! However, there are so many benefits! This country of ours is enormous! And so very picturesque!

2010 was the beginning of the journey….and you’re still with us! I hope that as we continue to travel this wide brown (sometimes green) land you will continue to share in the places we find ourselves, on the way to where we’re going.

Some of our sayings from 2010… “Suck it up princess” “It is what it is” “Go with it” and our personal favourite… “Enjoy where you’re at on the way to where you’re going”