IN THE CHAOS, IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL!!!

You know, I've never been so out of control! One time, when I had three little ones and a newborn, was living in a house we were re-constructing, was homeschooling, working, and being a pastor's wife, I thought I was out of control. I guess I was wrong! For the past six weeks, because none of us can fit into the "little house" due to our belongings taking up the whole 700 square feet, all four of us are living in a 10' x 10' room in the upstairs of my parents' "big" house. I can't find my passport, I can't find a work file I need to write a report to the State of California, I can't find the metal frame of the trampoline (how do fifteen metal poles disappear?) I still don't have storage figured out for the items we can't take. I can't begin to fathom which of the myriad boxes jammed into the little house might hold my passport or how I'll even get to the boxes to check. The renters of our house are wanting the sprinkler system replaced pronto--how will I add this undertaking into my schedule? How will we pay for it? I need to order the books the girls will need for homeschooling now so I have them before we leave--it is far too expensive to have them delivered to Guam.

From a human perspective, the logical question is, "Why are you doing this?" But, you know, God is truly an amazing and personal God. This morning, as I was reading Psalm 16:5-11, David's words resounded within me. Yes, my circumstances may not be the best at the moment, but it is well with my soul!

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;

you hold my lot.

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;

in the night also my heart instructs me.

I have set the Lord always before me;

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore, my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

my flesh also dwells secure.

For you will not abandon my soul to [hell],

or let your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Thanks be to God!

Karyn

Six Day Countdown!

Eric and Christian will be at the airport at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday to catch a 16 hour flight to Guam. The environment around the house is pretty frenzied with last minute obligations to complete and lots of friends and family wanting to get together! This update is going to be short and sweet because of our time constraints.

Immediate Prayer Requests:
1. That Eric and Christian will be able to pack appropriately. It may be a couple of months before we'll all be together again so they must be sure to bring all they will need in the interim.
2. On August 6, Christian begins his junior year at a new high school with a VERY different culture. Please pray that God will give him peace and help him with this transition.
3. That our support will continue to come in and that we will get closer to our needed 100%.
4. The sprinklers in the front yard of our Clayton house have completely died. The renters aren't too thrilled with this! We need to put in a new sprinkler system and lay sod. Please pray that we will find someone reputable and affordable to take care of this. If you have any contacts, please let us know!
5. Karyn's passport is missing! It's not in the fire safe box with the other important papers. This means it could be anywhere among the myriad boxes jammed into the "little house". Please pray that this would be found!
6. PTL we have heard of an organization that provides inexpensive shipping for missionaries. Unfortunately, these services are only available on the East Coast, but we have a friend trying to see if we can make something work here, on the West Coast. Please pray that this will work. As it stands, the cost is over $8, 000.00 to ship one way to Guam!
7. While in Guam, Eric will be diligently searching for affordable housing (a difficult thing to find in Guam). Please pray that God will provide the right house for us.

God is good. Although it is very intense for us right now, we find rest in God. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble."

Praise be to God!

The Sorensons

Don't forget our email address has changed to Sore4Guam@gmail.com

To contribute to this ministry, please make your check to:
"The Evangelical Covenant Church" with Support for Sorensons on the memo line and mail to:
Department of World Missions
The Evangelical Covenant Church
5101 North Francisco Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625-3676

Thanks so much for your support!

Starting to Say Goodbye

Prayer support is what keeps pastors going. Every week for nearly ten years, Eric prayed each Thursday morning with a couple of other local pastors. As you can imagine, the bonds grew strong. It was a blow to the small group dynamic when Eric announced his call to Micronesia. But what tremendous support he received from his great friends, Pastor Shawn Robinson of Clayton Community Church and Pastor Mike McCoy of Hills Vineyard. Both of these pastors and their churches have become key supporters in our call to Guam. Our deepest appreciation goes to both of these tremendous friends - God be praised for them!

Even though we should be doing something to thank them, Mike and his wife, Marianne, and Shawn and his wife, Patty, treated us to a glorious feast at Vic Stewart's in Walnut Creek. The picture here is of us before we ate (we didn't look the same after). Mike and Marianne are at our right, and Shawn and Patty at our left. It was a time of great fellowship, wonderful conversation, and gourmet food! It was also a time to say goodbye; but as CS Lewis reminds us, Christians never really say "goodbye."

Thanks to Shawn and Patty Robinson and Mike and Marianne McCoy for the years of prayer support, authenticity, and laughter. All four of them are stellar leaders in the Mt. Diablo valley. Rarely do you find more called and committed pastors who so obviously love the Lord and their people.

So July 31 is Eric and Christian's bon voyage! Hopefully Eric will have the next installment of his dissertation done by then, along with a scratch outline of the two classes he'll be teaching at PIBC. We solicit your prayers in this time of transition, especially that our separation will be brief and that perfect accomodations will be secured. Note that our new email address is sore4guam@gmail.com. We sure look forward to hearing from you all! Thanks for all your support.

Making A Dent

You saw the awful pictures of our house situation two posts ago. Well, to be honest, it's still pretty awful, but we are making a dent! Karyn in spite of the flu, knocked off a few miserable hours in the "little house" organizing the kitchen. We can actually now see the kitchen counter. Meanwhile, Eric rummaged through the master bedroom until we could actually find enough carpet to vacuum: what an exciting moment. And oh, the discoveries we made! To his delight, and the relief of others, Eric actually found a change of clothes. Our frustrating exercise was occasionally punctuated by, "Oh, there they are!" It may suggest something about the state of our minds when we almost wept at the surfacing of our long-lost shelf pegs - shelves at last! Yes, since moving, our lives have taken on new meaning.

New meaning, indeed. As Eric writes this, the countdown has begun. Eric and Christian move 6000 miles away in exactly 30 days. 30 days, and lots more to do. Eric has to finish writing a large hunk of his doctoral dissertation, and finish his syllabus. Once we've organized the little house, we have to shift to going through everything again - it can't all go to Guam. Then, we've got to say our goodbyes, and pack everything up. None of this, by the way, is for the purpose of making you laugh or feel sorry for us, but solicit your prayers. Very little would mean more.

Finally, if you've made a pledge to our work - thanks - and now would be a great time to begin fulfilling those. We give thanks to God for all of your gifts and commitments. We trust that he will reward you immensely as you join us in doing His work in the Western Pacific!

It's Official

At the Covenant Annual meeting, we were officially commissioned as missionaries. They had "old" and new missionaries carry flags representing the countries in which there are Covenant missionaries. Karyn got to carry the Guamanian flag! :) As we walked down the isle of the auditorium waving the flags to the Latin beat of a song, it was quite a thrill. As we stood before the hundreds of witnesses publicly proclaiming our calling and commitment to serve God around the world, Karyn experienced her first wave of loss of her homeland and her family. The imminence of our departure hit her full in the face. The idea of saying goodbye to our son and her mother, in particular, brought tears of sadness and loss. It gave a new respect for the many missionaries who have gone before us and the cost they were willing to pay. It reminded us of how important it is to pray for those out in the field and their families here at home. It's not just the missionaries making the sacrifices--it is family and friends who also sacrifice a priceless relationship with a loved one for God's glory.

From Clayton to Castro Valley to Portland

Well folks, we did it. We've actually moved from our Clayton home and into our temporary quarters in Castro Valley. We've moved from 2500 square feet to about 700. Needless to say, we've downsized. What did we do with all our stuff? Let's just say this: you should see the inside of this little house; in fact, you should see the outside! We still have a bit of work cut out for us. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Today we're off to Portland for the annual meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Tomorrow night we will be officially commissioned as Project Missionaries! It will be a wonderful experience to be "set aside" for this worthy task. Hopefully it will give new meaning to lingering backaches and sleepiness resulting from our marathon move.

We cherish your on-going prayers. A prayer of thanksgiving for our move and for our newest partner church, Central Peninsula Church in Foster City, CA. Continued prayers for fundraising efforts and the need to continue to go through all our stuff and determine what goes to Guam and what to do with the rest. Speaking of rest, that too.

Welcome!

So, we've stepped into the techno sphere. Some might say it's about time. Others might be impressed. Actually, the blog thing has been a lot easier than we thought, so here we are.

You may notice that we're calling our blog Musings from Micronesia. The operative word here is "from." Right now these musings aren't really from Micronesia at all, unless closeness in mind counts for actually being there. "From" is a statement of faith projecting forward into the fall. It really won't be long before we are, in fact, writing from Micronesia.

I suppose the big news is that the "from" begins for Eric and Christian on July 31. Yes, Eric bought the cheapest one way tickets he could find, and so dad and son are booked to fly! It's not that Karyn decided not to go after all; it's just that Christian's school starts August 6 (!), but the PIBC semester doesn't begin until September 3. Since we still don't know where we are going to live, Eric and Christian will head to the Western Pacific and "set up shop" while Karyn wraps up all the details back home. Karyn and the girls will arrive in Guam at the beginning of September.

For now, we are buzzing with house-evacuation. We must be out this Sunday, June 17, and we've got a lot to do. The house has all that scattered stuff laying around that always boggles the mind after the big stuff is removed. All of us are burning the candle at both ends trying to get everything settled. We have a great family of three renting our house for a three-year lease. That is our first prayer request: getting out of here with our sanity and relationships intact. Second, please pray as we continue to work through all the items we are uncertain about bringing or not bringing. Since we don't know our accommodations yet, it makes deciding what to bring and not to bring rather challenging. Finally, please continue to pray for our fundraising. We are at about 65% after the last official adjustments. We praise God for his provision, and trust him for the remaining 35%. Thanks to all of you who have joined with us in our Mission to Micronesia!

Again, welcome to our blog. There's a lot more to come.