Home on the Range - Move 1

This July, Lord willing, we are moving to Texas. During this long decision process we have reflected on the many moves we have made. Each of them have been testimonies to God’s mercy and faithfulness. They have been structural faith builders. Unmistakable evidence that the Lord has gone before us.  And right now, in the mess of moving, I need to revisit these stories. I share them with you to strengthen your faith in whatever place you may be at present. The Lord who fed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes said He will provide for you. 

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and all these things will be added to you.”

Matthew 6:33

Maybe the move this summer is really coming full circle. Texas was our first home. (Well, technically, we rented an apartment for a month after our wedding so I could stay in town to be at my best friend’s wedding.) 

Warbler Lane, Dallas, Texas. 1981-1983.

Seven months before our wedding, Steve’s dad had been in Dallas on a trip and volunteered to look at housing options for us. We were headed there the following fall for Steve to attend Dallas Theological Seminary. As a young starry-eyed bride-to-be, I imagined him coming back with the deed to a cute little cottage that I would lovingly turn into “our home.” Instead his opinion was that the housing market was not in a good place and that renting in the area close to the seminary was too expensive. He advised us to buy a mobile home twenty minutes from the seminary. One could be purchased for around $4000 and the monthly rent of the lot was $80. That is exactly what we did. Sight unseen. All of our life’s savings went towards buying the 10x40 feet of a single wide. Including the hitch. 

All of our wedding cash gifts went into fixing it up - cleaning, and cleaning again, installing an air conditioner, painting all the walls which were covered with heavy nicotine smoke and replacing carpets and linoleum with remnants from the box stores, patching holes from where cockroaches entered. It was not what we expected. Steve can tell you the story of how he thought all this was not what he deserved.

But it was the Lord’s provision. And the place where we learned to live and love and work together. The place where we began to build shared moments that unite us to this day. I have fond memories of both of us sitting on the long brown sofa we found on a porch sale. Backs to opposite ends, feet meeting in the middle. Steve reading an assignment - I grading papers. Cool evenings found us walking through the beautifully landscaped cemetery our mobile park bordered. 

When two years later we had to move to another part of the city for my work, we sold it at a profit - a big part of the reason we were able to graduate from seminary without debt. 

North Josey Lane, Addison, Texas. 1983-1985.

After my driving north every day for a year to teach 7th grade Math and Geometry, Steve decided it was his turn to sit in a car stopped on the Dallas freeways. Kindness. We heard about a good (safe and inexpensive) apartment complex that loved DTS students. We moved in over the summer.

It felt so spacious. Two bedrooms/two bathrooms. Family and friends came to stay with us, celebrate holidays with us. Ok - the orange carpet was a thing. . . . but again, this was the Lord’s provision. Steve was able to carpool to classes (he got the back seat of a two door truck). Less time in traffic meant  our car was still running well when it was time to move. Providentially, the apartment was near an auction house. If one waited patiently through all the very expensive items that would find their way into a fancy downtown hotel or a Dallas Cowboy’s home, there were bargains to be had. Who could ask for any better Friday night entertainment? 

The Lord had gone before us and laid out His best plan for where we would lay our heads at night time, where we would learn to share burdens and joys, where our self-sufficiency was weakened and where we would dream about ministries ahead of us. 

I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Psalm 16:8

And this was very good.