A Time of Transition

How is it already May 10th? It is hard to believe we are beginning  to actually pack up and physically (and emotionally) prepare to say good bye to the O-Jung Dong! Mike and I were just commenting on the fact the our current apartment is the one we have lived in the longest since being married (3 whopping years!) And though it is very exciting to be moving to a new building in a much cleaner area of the city, I think we will miss our 4th Floor Loween Dorm home. Of course I won’t miss loud Hannam students, blaring music, or climbing up and down 4 flights of stairs several times a day (usually with 2 children and a few other items in tow). But I will miss this place, because it is what Jacob thinks of as home and it is the first home Moriah was brought to. I will miss quick walks to the coffee shop, the grocery store, and stationary store.

But more than the buildings and the location, I will miss walking through campus and having memories of times spent here return to me when my eyes land on certain people or objects. Just today I stood for a while observing each of the graduating classes whom I have personally seen graduate (class of 2006 — class of 2010). And though these giant sized pictures will inevitably find a new home at the Techno Valley campus, when I look at the faces of those in the pictures, the memories are set upon the backdrop of the current campus. Easy to remember because even though many people have come and gone the backdrops have not changed.

Nonetheless, I believe we will all be blessed greatly through the move to a new campus, one that is near the river and away from the college crowd and all that college students attract. We will have upgraded this, and improved that, and likely be better able to serve the students of TCIS. And hopefully, even though time and space will change many things, we will not lose focus of all that God has given us, both the blessings and the responsibilities. May we trudge forward lightly knowing that God will guide us, but that he has given us this place to use as a ministry that glorifies his name and allows him to shine brightly above all the other demands and priorities that beg for our attention.

So it is with mixed emotions of joy and fear that  we have begun to sort all our belongings and pack boxes. And many a conversation finds it way to discussing our new way of life ahead. It is very strange to not have moved in six years, but to have seemed to have said good bye to so many people. And now saying good bye to the ground on which those relationships were built, brings a twinge of sadness. But I digress.

In the midst of  packing up all the boxes I think we too will pack up little pieces of ourselves and our history. They maybe tucked away just for a bit, but others might get tucked away never to be taken out. Yet others may perhaps be fortunate and find a way out when someone or something from our new life brings to life a special moment from what will now be our former life. So in memory or the people who have left prints on our life through our time at TCIS, here are some photos of the faces who have made this place our home and precious chapter in our journey log.

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