A time to stay still and a time to move

Well, now that I am very off on my regularity (is that a word?) with writing in this blog I have decided to still try to keep you updated.

Since coming back from Germany, visiting my good friend Hope, God has been really challenging me. I would love to share with you all the details, but alas, I don't have the time, nor am I that good of a writer to communicate with you what God has been doing. His work cannot be reduced to my words. But the "conclusions" I will share with you, because your prayers and support will be needed as I tackle another adventure.

When I first came to England, I had no idea what to expect. It was adventure that I was willing to take and learn from. My original plans were: stay with the family till Christmas and then possibly come back till June. Well, that will not be happening. Although part of me would love to stay, my work here is done. God has been showing that to me more and more clearly.

I like to talk in stories or word pictures so imagine with me....

I, Katherine Baker, am a plane. I am not a very big plane nor am I one of those boring planes that are grey or white. I am a little yellow plane. I am housed in a huge airport. Although it may be big, it runs smoothly and is fairly predictable. All sorts of plans come in and out, in and out. I sit and watch the big planes. I sit and watch what goes in each plane. And though I do have the right gear in me that is sufficient to take off and leave, most of the planes around me are bigger and have much more. As a little yellow plane I have not done as much as the bigger plane. I do leave the airport occasionally and take-off, but never very far. In fact, there have only been a couple of time that I have left the perimeters of the multi-terminal airport.

Then one day something happened. There was more fuel pumped into me and I was given the okay to go down the runway. I started to shake a little, for I realized that this was not a normal flight that I was used to. I was not caring something from one end of the airport to another. I was not going on a small mission and coming back. I was leaving. I was leaving and was not supposed to return. As I took off fear but with excitement gripped me. As I flew higher and higher, the airport became smaller and smaller. It is hard to say goodbye. I must land somewhere else. I must find another airport to land. As much as I want to go back to the old and familiar it is time to go to the new and unexplored. But to steal a Switchfoot line of a great song... "I am a plane in the sunset with nowhere to land..." I have been in the air for awhile and I am needing to land. I can't go to the airport that I came from, I need to become my own. If I kept staying at that airport, I would remain as the little yellow plane. God has bigger plans for me. And though I first thought that might be England. God is not letting me land here. He is wanting me to move on to somewhere else. We shall see where I land. We shall see what happens. I will need to land soon to get more fuel, but anywhere I stop will be only a pit-stop until I get my orders to land.

Though that is not a perfect story and a little weird (like live with three children, everything is told in story form) it is kind of how I feel and see myself in life. You can pray about where I will be landing and what that will look like.

This also means I only have one month left here. That doesn't mean that letters are not appreciated. You can write them to:
23 Blunt St
Carlisle
CA2 5LT
UK

I will try hard to write you back and keep you informed.

My plans for the remainder of my time is packed and I am excited. I am planning on having a quiet retreat by myself in the lake district for several days...meaning I want to be in the hills and mountains with God. I am planning on going to Dutch L'Abri and checking out what it is like.I hope to go to Wales with a friend and going to visit a friend in Lithuania. That is a lot to fit in, so I cannot promise constant updating, but I will try hard.

Pray for the remainder of my time and that God will continue to reveal more of HIMSELF to me. That is what really matters. Although it seems important to what I should do with my life and who I am, the real question is WHO IS GOD? I want to fall more in love with God.

Grace and Peace