Looking for the Pillar of Fire

Hello friends!  We are currently in Northern Peru in the city we are expecting to be moving to in about a month - that is assuming we find a place to live!  The school year here runs on an opposite schedule - just like the seasons. Everyone is currently on summer vacation and will be going back to school on March 5 for the new year.  That means our kids get to jump ahead a grade from where they were just a little over a month ago in Fresno. We came up here for a conference last week and to do some school and house hunting.  We are extremely thankful we have found a school we feel pretty good about.  But we keep coming up on dead ends with the house hunting.  It's another new cultural experience that is stretching us.  The systems are different, we don't have a GPS to help us find our way once we find something we do want to see, there is no Craigslist, and we don't know the city very well so we don't know really which areas of town we should look in or not.  It has us feeling quite out of control.

But we KNOW that God will lead us - IS leading us - because He promises so many times in the Word that He will.  And He can't fail to keep His promises. I started reading through Exodus recently and today was reading the account of the Red Sea parting.  So amazing!  I wondered what it was like for the Israelite moms who were taking care of their kids as they fled Egypt and thought about the panic they must have felt as the word spread that they were being pursued by entire Egyptian army.

How. Terrifying.

In some much less dramatic ways, I guess I feel a bit like we're trapped with what seems like the Red Sea of the Piura rental maze in front of us and the marching army of time closing in on us.  We were planning on heading back to our current home 6.5 hrs south of here tomorrow, but have delayed that by a day so we can try again tomorrow to find something.  School starts in 4.5 weeks and we would love to be moved up here by then, but how do we do that when we don't live here to look for houses - especially when we have so little ability to find anything? We need to head back to our current home soon, but feel restless not having found a new home yet.

But God did part the Red Sea for his people.  He led them to safety and destroyed their enemies.  He also provided a visible sign of his leading and presence.

Exodus 13:22

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

²² The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night never left its place in front of the people.

But we don't actually need the cloud or the fire because we have the Word that is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.  We have so many promises of His guidance and we have the Holy Spirit so we don't need to be afraid.  He will provide in His timing and show us the way one step at a time as we trust in Him to make our path home straight.

A street nearby.  : )