An Old Friend Still Beckons Me!

 In October 1992, After selling many things, giving away many things, leaving a business I had babied for 10 years, and leaving friends and families that had babied us for many years, Cindy, Emily, Mary Ashley, Maggie and I, left Florence, SC and were driven by Jerry Russell after he and Susan Russell and other friends had spent days helping us pack 32 U-Haul boxes to within ounces of the allowed 70lb limit.  Those 32 boxes held things dear to us, that we would use for the next two years, while we lived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
We arrived at the SIM Headquarters in Charlotte, NC, where we would live with other missionary candidates for the next 30 days.  While there, we met friends that became like family and still are to this day.  We also laughed, and marveled, at the signs indicating direction and distance to lands we had only heard of.  They seemed so far away. 
Today, standing in a lite drizzle, I am brought to tears, literally, as I stood in front of this old friend that showed me where God had sent The Jackson's more than 22 years ago.  As I stand there, I reflect on the things we have seen and tragedies we have experienced and blessings upon blessings that God has let us be a part of and I am dumb-founded.
The distance, 7467 miles, to Ethiopia, seemed impossible to imagine being able to travel there let alone live there with people we had never met, but, that became so much a part of our lives...and still are.  So, standing there in the drizzle, drops sending a chill to my spine as they dropped on the backside of my neck, I think about the hundreds of thousands of miles we have traveled now.

God has allowed The Jackson's to travel the globe and to be a part of what He is doing in and through peoples lives.  We have been allowed to grow up in other cultures and see God's creative hand in the people he has made in His own image.  God has given us a rich heritage that cannot be bought with silver or gold or stocks or bonds.  Our riches are in the people we have come to know and love and in the lands that we have stepped upon.  God is so so so Good to Us.  To Him be All the Glory.  I am a blessed man.

In Mexico City....Wick Jackson