Ch-ch-ch-changes

A big week is coming up for my family.  After 14 years we are changing congregations.  It isn't just a normal kind of change, but a change to a foreign language group.  For us, it's the opportunity to serve where the need is greater in an area close to home.  But that doesn't mean that it isn't stressful.

When my wife and future adopted son moved to this country, my son couldn't speak English.  My wife was fluent in the language, but still she was moving from an area where she spoke, read, and thought in French to a place where very few seemed to understand the language.  I can only imagine how hard it was for her to leave her family and friends and move to the other side of the world to be with me in an English-speaking country.  Yet, she managed it beautifully, and has since become a citizen.  I look back and I feel nothing but love and admiration for her sacrifice, but also for her courage.  It couldn't have been easy.

Now, I'm trying to repay her favor in a small way.  I've never handled change well.  I have lived in the same apartment for around 18 years(!!), have been at the same job for 14 years, and as I wrote earlier, have been in the same congregation for 14 years.  Did I mention that I don't like change?  Yet, here I am, changing everything.  Most of my congregation meetings will be in French.  I'll still be an elder in the congregation, but I'll also be one of the "eldest" members of the group.  (How did 44 become old??)  I'll have to travel a bit farther to get to this congregation, too.  

So how do I feel?  Nervous, that's for sure.  But there's also an excitement in the air.  There's the feeling that I'm doing something good and that for one of the few times in my life I'm actually stretching my comfort zone out and making room for something more.  And through it all, I know that my wonderful wife will be able to help me through it, because she's gone through more than this.

Why am I writing this?  Because it helps.  And because that if there is anyone actually reading this, maybe they will realize that if I can reach out, they can too.  Just because they call it a comfort "zone" doesn't mean that it can't grow to include more area.