You could say our story is just beginning. In the last several months, we've felt clear direction to pursue living amongst the people of Bundibugyo, Uganda, and have begun the process of transferring our life there. But to say that this is the beginning would be living out dozens of chapters that have led up to this point.
So, does the story begin a year ago when we first heard about the ministry in Bundi and began making contacts and praying about if this could be where God might have us serve? Or maybe it begin 7 1/2 years ago when we stood before God and a crowd of witnesses, made a covenant with each other and with the Lord to hold fast to His firm foundation, to seek Him with all our hearts, to follow Him wherever He might lead us, and to rely on Him to secure our love for each other until He ushers us home. Is that when the story began? Or was it three years before that when God directed our paths to cross, softened our hearts to a love story that only He could write, and began us on a faith journey that would forever shape our walks with Him?
I could go back many many more chapters asking the question, "God, is that when you began our story?" I even think back to a home video my parents have from when I was 3 years old, messily eating my macaroni & cheese at the dinner table and decided to pipe up out of the blue, "When I grow up, I want to live in a twee!...Like the Berenstein Bears!" Was even at this tender age, God putting on my heart a desire to defy the norm, redefine life, find happiness where others might not seek it?
It is difficult to pinpoint the beginning of our story because truthfully, it's not "our story", it's God's. He began writing it loooooong before we ever came on the scene, and will continue it looooong after we depart. We are but a small dot on the page of the story He is writing, but what a privilege to be included in The Story!
So, without further ado, I will open up to a random chapter (how about Chapter 221: "When Derek and Lauren Meet"?) And begin there...
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