Marah

What we've been doing...

It’s been a while since we posted, but we wanted to update people on what we’ve been doing and what our plans are for the future.

Since our last entry from two months ago, we’ve remained living in Wooster with Colleen’s parents.   We’ve been fortunate to go on quite a few trips, including to Chicago, Indiana, Texas, and Kentucky to see friends and family.  We also were so blessed to have some of our good friends drive down from Chicago to spend the weekend with us in Wooster.

Until a few weeks ago, I was continuing to work remotely for WGM Kenya as the treasurer. Being eight hours behind Kenya, in addition to traveling so much, was definitely challenging, but it was great to stay connected to the missionaries and everyone else we were working with.  However, I was glad to turn the work over to someone else in a few weeks ago. 

While at the Ramsays' in Ohio, we were taking care of the their dog's puppies and helping to sell them by updating their blog.  Colleen was on primary puppy duty since mid January and last weekend we took the final puppy to her new family near Chicago.  We (especially Colleen) have loved caring for the puppies and it is really fun to see them go into new homes.  I have been the main updater of the puppy blog, so check out doodlesbyrosie.blogspot.com if you want to see my posts. 

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What we're doing next...

It has been a difficult few months trying to figure out where God is leading us and what we're supposed to do next.  As far as our immediate future goes, we’ve decided that we are not going to return to Kenya.  We love it there so much, but as we pray about it we don’t feel any peace about that option.  So we do not believe God is calling us to return to Kenya right now.  We’re not ruling out anything for the future and are very open to returning if God calls us back.  We are striving to follow the Lord wherever He leads, and we are trusting that He will show us the way.  The conclusion we've come to is very bittersweet... we're sad to not be returning to all of our friends in Kenya, but we're excited and optimistic about what is next.  

Our plan is to look for jobs in a few different locations and see where God guides us from there.  Living in central Ohio for this winter, after a year and a half of living so close to the equator in Kenya, has convinced us that we need to be somewhere warmer.  I keep saying that every time it snows here, it moves our search 100 miles further south… I think at this point that’s pushed us down to somewhere in Panama!  For now, however, we’ll be job searching near Lexington, KY, Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA.  If anyone has contacts in those areas, it would be great to start making connections!

Photo of Rose by Brian Ramsay

Now that I am no longer working for WGM and the puppies are all sold, we’re going to start traveling again.  We took the last puppy to Chicago last weekend, and got to spent time with our sister and brother-in-law.  Next week we’ll be going out to California to visit some of our good friends that we haven’t seen in a long time.  Immediately after returning from California, we head out on a road trip to Florida, Savannah, Charleston, and a few other places… we’re really excited to visit Fort Lauderdale, so we can meet our niece, Rose May Ramsay, who was born on Saint Patrick’s Day! 

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Where we are...

It has been wonderful to be home and we are so thankful to John and Eileen, Colleen’s parents, for having us stay with them since we returned.  We really needed time to unwind and process our time in Kenya.  It has been great to be back in the US, and to spend time with friends and family, however, we do miss Kenya.  The relationships and camaraderie that we had with the church youth group, the missionaries, the football team, and other friends, are things that we think about every day. 

We also miss the triplets (in you don’t know who we are referring to, you can look back at this post from November).  For the first month or so after we returned, I cried myself to sleep a few times a week, just aching for them (and feeling sorry for myself).  We are in a better place spiritually now, and though we aren’t able to understand the “whys” that we have asked a million times, we love the Lord and are trying to trust and follow Him.  However, it is still so difficult to be separated from the kids that we love, and to know that they are still at Baby Centre with their situation in limbo. 

One thing that has been comforting to us, is a sermon series podcast we’ve been listening to called “The Geography of Salvation,” by Stan Key, pastor of Loudonville Community Church in New York.  One sermon in the series is from Exodus 15, about Marah, “the bitter place” that the Israelites come to when they first start wandering in the desert after God frees them from slavery in Egypt.  Marah looks like the oasis that they’ve been praying for, however, when they arrive, the water tastes horribly bitter.  They grumbled against the Lord, and He rebuked them, but then led them to Elim, which was a real oasis with fresh water for them to drink.

In many ways, we feel like we were at the bitter place, and maybe we still are to some extent.  It sure seemed like God led us somewhere, answered our prayers, and then what we thought He had promised became a bitter and painful situation.  The comforting part of the story from Exodus is that God was leading the Israelites the whole time, even directly to Marah.  And immediately after "the bitter place," the Lord led the them to a new place of respite.  

Even though we don’t understand what happened in our situation, and the wounds are still fresh on our hearts, we believe that if we trust and follow the Lord, we will be brought to a new and better place.  From our finite perspective, it is tough to comprehend why God would lead His people directly into trials, but we have to believe that everything happens for a reason and that all we can do is trust Him.  Through this, we are praying and trusting that the Lord will watch over our precious triplets… their futures are in His hands just like ours. 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support over the last two years of our life that we’ve blogged to the world.  We’re sorry that two months elapsed between posts this time, but we do plan on keeping this blog updated, wherever we end up in the future. 

-Cason

Here's a few photos from the last two-ish months... 

My friend, Dave Haire, and me at the Evansville Zoo

At the end of January, we went to Texas to see our great friends Joel & Jenny Mostad and (almost) one-year-old Jeremiah

A few puppy pictures! (to see lots more, check out doodlesbyrosie.blogspot.com)

Colleen and her mom went cross country skiing in Ohio

 Snowy Ohio... this is the reason we're thinking about moving south!

Thanks so much for reading!