With quivering lips and a lump in my throat that felt as big as the Mackinaw Bridge, I walked out of my last ministerial meeting with the Michigan Conference. My heart was heavy as I thought about leaving supervisors, colleagues, and friends whom I have grown to love and respect. “Am I crazy to be leaving a great job and the people I love to go to some out-of-the-way bird-flu-infected country half a world away?” I asked myself. “Is God really leading us, or are we about to make the most stupid mistake of our lives?” As I hopped into our van, one of my friends waved me down to say goodbye. We had attended college together and been in the same conference for the last seven years. Now this was it! BAM! The reality of it all hit me like a sledge hammer.

Fortunately, my head is pretty hard, and the blow has worn off somewhat, but as I was driving home that day, it was spinning. All I could do was cry out to God, “Lord, don’t let us walk outside Your Will! That’s where we want to be.” Later, God reminded me of a passage from the Bible I had listened to the very morning of the meeting. The Children of Israel were traveling from Egypt to Canaan. The Bible says, “. . . When the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would journey; whether by day or by night . . . they would journey. Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey” (Num. 9:21, 22).

“My Cloud’s moving” He said. “It’s time to journey!”

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