Satisfied Sojourning

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles i to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” 1 Peter 2:11

For the past six weeks we have been sojournering. We spent Christmas vacation taking a break from Mongolian winter and were reunited with friends and family in America. It was a strange feeling for me. I must say that I felt that I was resting in Rivendale, particularly when we were in Franklin having coffee or Irish pubbing with old friends. It was happy reunions and “many meetings” which made it almost a homegoing. Almost.

We visited family. My Dad met us at the airport and my Mom met us at the door of their home in North Georgia. Again it was a wonderful resting place for us after a long journey. And not just a long journey of 24 hour flying, but a long journey of 2 1/2 years living in a foreign land. We were free to rise early and nap and recover from jet lag and reaquaint ourselves with Starbucks and “The Cheesecake Factory”. We then went to Adamsville, TN to the home where Renee’ spent most of childhood years, growing up. It was where she called home. Her “Shire”, in a sense (although she would never approve of such blatent ‘Lord of the Rings’ metaphore). We spent a wonderful Christmas with her family and were so happy to see them - to be with them - again. It was good to be ‘all together’ for Christmas, and we were sad when it came time to say ‘goodbye’. These sojournings could also have been catagorized as something of a homegoing. But not quite.

We visited a different church almost every Sunday, all of which were churches that are close to our hearts; good friends are there. We felt very much ‘at home’ in each of these churches. Perhaps a real ‘homecoming’ has everything to do with connecting with Christ’s body. Yet, that wasn't quite it, either.

Several people asked me while we were Stateside, “So where do you ‘go home’ to? Is coming back to America ‘home’ or do you feel like you’re going home when you go back to your apartment in Mongolia?” Renee’ and I talked about this several times while we were traveling together. Our mutual answer to that question is “neither”.

Mongolia is not our home, and can never be because this will never be our own culture, language, society, or people. No matter how well we adjust here, no matter how long we stay here, no matter how fluent we become in the language.

On the other hand, we now know that we’ll never really be ‘at home’ in America. It’s not a culture or a society that we can be comfortable with. Plus no place is the same. When we’re in the States now, it seems that everything is in flux ... and we don’t see an end to that feeling. All four of us are learning that the life God has called us to also contains “many partings”. We say goodby a lot. When that happens it can be difficult to figure out where home really is.

So 1 Peter helps a lot. It’s a truth that I’ve known my entire Christian life. It’s a truth every Christian should live according to. I am just now beginning to understand how LARGE this truth really is for me. I am not and never will be at home on this earth. In no place. Never.

What this vacation has helped us to see is that we really are okay with that. Christ calls us to be satisfied sojourners. We’re exiles, living out God’s purpose and will for our lives on this earth. The “Grey Havens”, whatever that may look like for us, is where home really is found. Ultimately (not to be cliche'), it's where Jesus is. So I am okay with not feeling at home anyplace. In fact, I am now convinced that our lack of feeling at home here will make make our real Homegoing that much sweeter. All will be well as ends better.

Last Days

These are our last days in the US. Heading back to Mongolia on Saturday, January 17th!

Anderson Stateside Holidays

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas and New Year holidays. We have spent the majority of our time so far in Tennessee with Mom and Dad Majors. We were at their home in Adamsville, TN for Christmas. Here are a few pictures taken during our gathering with them:






We all enjoyed time with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, with good American Christmas cooking!

We spent New Years in Gatlinburg, TN. We were able to watch the fireworks and festivities from the balcony of our room. Here's a shot a few minutes before mid-night.


And the fun just keeps right on rolling...

After a stop in Chattanooga, TN (speaking in a church there), we head to Atlanta for our final couple of weeks with Mom and Dad Anderson (AKA, Grammy and Pop). We are looking forward to spending time relaxing and reacquainting with them before shipping back to Ulaanbaatar.

We appreciate your partnership with us!

We wish all of you a blessed 2009.

Happy Reunions, Joyous Fellowship

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to spend some time with new and old friends at Faith Community Church, our church home. It was a blessing to see so many friends. We reminisced and had the privilege to share our current life and ministry in Mongolia.

Below is the original group of folks that we joined with in 1993 to "restart" the Franklin church.



Of course, at the time Jonathan was only a year old and our friends John and Darlena Fox's son Jarod was about 6 or 7 and their daughter Emily was a newborn. None of the other folks in the picture above had children. Of course that's changed somewhat since then.



Finally, here is a shot of our family with David and Natanya Yoder and their family. David has taken on the job I used to have, pastoring the church in Franklin. We're happy to be in joyous fellowship with Pastor Yoder, and look forward to years of working together - although on different continents, we serve the same purpose.

My 10 Things

As of November 1, 2008 I am 41. Typically my birthday/holiday season is a catalyst for a time of reflection for me. I don’t know exactly why that is. Perhaps my upbringing. Perhaps some obscure sense of obligation to reflect during the holidays. I am sure that there is no reason to avoid mid-year, fourth-of-July seasonal reflection, as well. It just tends to come most naturally for me from November to December.

This year I am thinking about all of the things that I’d really like to do over the next months and year - and some lamenting over the realities of life that will most likely keep me from accomplishing all of them. However, in my lamentations I have been smacked in the mouth from a couple of unexpected sources.

1. This blog entry (along with this one) from Merlin Mann’s 43-folders. For our more sensitive readers, I’ll forewarn you that Merlin can have a bit of a potty mouth. On the other hand, I really appreciate the shift that he’s taking on his web site. It’s too easy to sit around lamenting (like I was) and wile away hours looking for ‘tips and tricks’ and ‘lifehacks’ and all kinds of other time-wasters, instead of actually writing, or editing or running or playing. The real work of learning how to make cool stuff involves a process of making some really bad stuff. It’s how we learn. On more than one level, through pain (whether the pain of life or the pain of making stuff that looks like garbage) we grow and learn. Like it or not, that’s God’s intention. So I need to embrace it ... and get to work.

2. Another place that I’ve been helped greatly is a recent series of blog posts from CJ Mahaney’s ‘view from the cheap seats’. His words regarding busyness and laziness are helpful and convicting. The bottom line and elemental issue with time management, productivity and the battle against laziness is the Gospel. CJ does a fantastic job bringing the peripheral issues to the ultimate issue: Christ died and rose again to defeat sin ... including the sin or procrastination and laziness.

So through this holiday season, while we are Stateside, I am going to work at defeating the sin of procrastination and laziness through the work of Christ - and by dealing with those issues openly and in a ‘head-on’ manner.

In light of that, here are 10 things that I would like to do or learn how to do, but have been too much of a sluggard to either start or to complete (or that I have been too much of a coward to go through the pain of creating the cruddy stuff required to complete the process of learning to make something really good):

1. Make really good videos
2. Take really good pictures
3. Write a book that will be a Missions Mobilization resource geared for US pastors (and give it away for free)
4. Learn CSS and XHTML (in at least a basic level)
5. Run a half-marathon (and/or a whole marathon)
6. Create JHudsonTaylor.org
7. Learn Old Mongolian Script
8. Learn Final Cut Express ... well
9. Learn to use the Panasonic DVX-100a camera ... well
10. Have the ability to pray and to teach the Bible in Mongolian

I am sure this is not a horribly interesting blog post for many. But it’s one I needed to write and publish. It helps me to see this list, and then begin to think and pray about what actions I need to take in order to make these things happen. If, perchance, this does grab your attention, I would be interested in hearing your list, as well.