Home, Jane!

Home, Jane!
As I write this we are approaching the border of the US and Canada at Sarnia. It is a beautiful day and we have mixed emotions. It is always good to get home and settled again, but on the other hand we have had such a blissful time and the thought of all the mail (bills!), banking, messages and dirty laundry is enough to make us dizzy!

We are so grateful for this gift of sabbatical time and our hearts go out in a special way to our church family of West Plains who made this possible, my Mom who gave us this funky, perfect vehicle for the trip, and to our wonderful family and friends who encouraged us and supported us all along.

And we could not finish without a grateful word to “Jane”, our mostly dependable GPS who save many a trial of figuring out where to go and how to get there! We have finally given her our home address and soon she will have a well deserved vacation!

We have been overwhelmed with the beauty the one God of us all has created – there have been so many inspirational and prayerful moments and most of them not in a church at all!

When we started out 10 weeks ago on April 15th we had 111,545 km. on our vehicle. At this present time as we roll down the highway we have passed the 132,000 km mark so it would appear that we will have logged about 21,000 km or 12,600 miles (for our new US friends!).

As a variation of one of my Mom’s favourite expressions says:

“Home, Jane (James), and don’t spare the horses!!!”

Thanks for sharing the journey with us and we can’t wait to see you all soon!
Love and thanks to everyone!!
Rip and Joyce

PS: It is Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 8:45 pm and we have just pulled into “home” and we are so glad to be here safe and sound. Amen and good night all!