Uftda!  The packing continues.  Just when you think you’ve made huge headway, it seems as if the remaining pieces start breeding.  It seems that the “transitional emotions” tend to ebb and flow as well.  What will the new place be like?  Will we make friends? Will we like our new neighbors?  Will the work be stressful?

As I was making the announcement this weekend about the Conference Offering for the ND Oil Fields I found myself thinking of what it must be like for all the people in the past couple of years who have had to make THAT move.  As much anxiety as we feel about moving, we are also familiar with the area, we’ve already made some connections and we know the culture of Mitchell won’t be too radically different from that of Brandon. 

For many of the individuals and families moving to the Bakken region, it’s probably more like moving to a foreign country—all the normal stressors of moving combined with a culture and climate that aren’t always friendly and welcoming. 

Resonating with what these folks go through made me realize even more the necessity of the light of Christ in that region.  A place to feel welcomed and connected; a people who care about you at the deepest level; an outreach that helps meet basic physical needs as well as spiritual and emotional needs.  I personally have no doubt the difference these things make in making that transition.  For people who may be coming in search of something, it is an open door to find what they truly need—Jesus Christ.

Over the past month, the sermon series has been about living missionally—UP into deeper connection with God, IN to a stronger sense of community with other believers, and OUT into the neighborhood.  But I pray that this would be more than a sermon series.  I pray it would be a way of living—a way of living that makes God’s love complete (1 John 4:11-12) by bringing the light of Christ to the Brandon Valley area, to the Bakken, or to wherever God leads us.  

As we live in a world filled with transitional times, may that be the mission that moves us to where God is calling and is already at work!