Shaken, not stirred….That is my life this year!

I simply could not wake up, but I heard all the rattling and shaking. Nancy was the one who woke me up…screaming “Earthquake!”

Last Friday, we experienced the epitome of California…a 5.4 earthquake. The pictures were rattling, the bed was shaking….and we couldn’t figure out where we were! Nancy thought we were in a high rise motel….I was just too tired to care. But we were definitely shaken.

Over the last year, our lives have been violently shaken, not gently stirred. Everything about going into missions is about upheaval….selling our belongings, moving our family, living out of our van, hopping from motel to motel….you name it, nothing is constant.

Just last week during a service, I casually mentioned that there are many kids in Moldova that have no home; they just live on the street. Natalie quickly piped up, “We don’t have a home!”

Yet the shaking does have its advantages. I have learned to trust God in a deeper way…for our support, for our health, for our home to sell, for my strength.

You see, not everything in my life has been shaken….I still have the rock. Jesus Christ has been the one constant in my life. I can always dial Him up, no matter where I am. Though things around me are unstable, I can cling to him. In fact, the shaking has merely loosened my grip on some things…belongings, dreams, possessions, and pets. I have learned to hold lightly to those things.

People are important….things are not.

So let the earthquakes come! I am still on the Rock!

Your missionary to Moldova,

Andy Raatz