FSBO : Everything

Before we decided for sure that we were really going to commit to this crazy notion of leaving everything behind to become missionaries in some far-flung, Central American country (who does that!!??) we did a lot of research on the internet.


Ok, I did a lot of research.
(Which, in reality, meant that I spent a lot of late nights trolling on all of the missionary blogs I could find.)

The ones I discovered mostly fell into two categories:

1.) Well-established missionaries who joyfully retold the breakthroughs, high points, and victories they were having in sharing the gospel with the people of  ___<insert name of distant land>____. (Oh yeah, they sometimes mentioned that it was kind of hard once in a while, too.) 

2.) Intrepid new missionaries who did a handful of posts about their assignment, and then seemingly disappeared from the internet. Possibly the face of the planet. (It really started to make me wonder how frequently people get martyred these days.)

What I didn't see were very many (any) blogs about the preparation process. I wanted to be able to see that some other family had felt the call, and struggled with the same things we were struggling with. That's what we're trying to do here - show the ins and outs, the goods and bads, the high points and the low points of preparing for mission work.

Like, for example, having to get rid of stuff.

             Like, a lot of stuff. 

As in, basically all of our stuff.

I have mixed feelings about this. I've really struggled in the past with my relationship with my "stuff." I'm not one to sentimentalize items anymore, so it's not all that hard for me to get rid of things. (FYI - that's not true for everyone in our family, which causes some challenges.) What I am finding difficult is knowing when to get rid of what, and which things I should save.

Are we walking in faith (that we're really going to get all of our funding and be able to move in July) when we get rid of everything we don't actually, 100%  NEED between now and then? Or, are we being foolish?

Should I take my crockpot with me, or hope I can find a good deal on one once we get down there? Ditto the TV. Ditto, well, a whoooooooole bunch of other things.

Is it better to re-home our cats early (so we'll have an easier time selling our home and have that big adjustment out of the way before we face all the other 'goodbyes' ahead)? Or, should we hold on to them until the last minute, so that we don't have to miss out on a single extra minute of time with our beloved pets?

When should we put our house on the market so that we'll have enough time to get it sold, but so we won't end up living out of boxes in some hotel for the last ___ weeks we're in the U.S? 

How much stuff should we put into storage? We're committing to a minimum of 2 years in Guatemala. What if we come back, absolutely destitute, after those 2 years and regret not having kept more? What if we end up saving too much - crowding our friends' basements with junk we will someday wonder why we ever kept in the first place?

And so many more questions...

(This is where I usually try to tie things up with some profound statement that is both poignant and encouraging. Sorry folks, I got nothin' this time, except to say that we're doing the best we can to struggle with these issues, like I'm sure that everyone else in our position does. But, I don't know for sure, since no one seems to blog about this part of the journey. <sigh> All I can say is that I'm grateful that God's grace is sufficient.)

We'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions, though! What advice would you have for us? 

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