Our move to the camper is complete! Our move was swift and surprisingly unemotional for how much I fought against it, and now that we’re here, it’s comfortable. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not the kind of comfort that most Americans strive for…it’s more about the fact that we are finally being obedient to God. There’s been a shift in my spiritual life and overwhelming feelings of peace for following God’s leading.
The last couple of months have been my Jonah months…I knew what God was asking us to do, but I didn’t want to do it. Instead of running, I simply stayed in my house and refused to even talk about it with Blaise. He was pretty insistent about moving near the end, and I’m very thankful for his leadership on this issue.
Anyway, living in the camper is quite a bit different than just coming out to work on it and even spending a night here and there. Let me paint the picture for you…
The fifth wheel is 33 feet long, has an 8 foot slide out in the living area, and a walk-through bathroom. It’s not a terribly small space, as Blaise and I keep comparing it to our first apartment (which was horrible), except that camper kitchen is way better (that’s what happens when you get married at 20 and broke)! 🙂 There are a few quirks about living here, though, that require some adjustment on our ends.
First, water pressure is laughable. There’s not even enough pressure to get water from the pump in the kitchen to the shower head. It’s pretty sad, but we have a pitcher in the shower and baths resemble bath time in South Sudan. We’re hoping to upgrade the water pump to a 60 psi pump (we currently have a 45 psi) until we move somewhere that has a city water connection.
Our bathroom is a walk-through, which means that there are times when we are trapped in one room or the other while one of us utilizes the facilities. Before either of us goes into the bathroom, we are courteous enough to ask which room the other would like to be in. It’s not a big deal at all, it’s just amusing to both of us.
We have ants…and moths…and wasps on occasion…and spiders…and so on. I thought this was a problem unique to us, until I mentioned it to our friends who also live in their camper (they, too, are missionaries who will focus on church plants in North America, so they will travel the country in their camper as they plant churches in different locations). Apparently, all of these critters are just part of camper life. It’s probably best that we get accustomed to this now, because there WILL be uninvited guests living in our home in South Sudan!! At least we know that here in Indiana the bugs and critters are harmless.
I calculated that we have about 350 square feet in the whole camper. That’s about one-third of the floor space we had in our house (our house wasn’t very big), so we bump into each other and the dog about three times more than we did in the house. It’s mostly the dog’s fault…as she feels the need to stick to us like velcro, so every time we turn around we’re tripping over her. Luckily, we are currently living on a farm, so she’s getting a lot of outside time!
Otherwise, it’s just living life. Satan has told me a lot of lies over the last few months, and worry has been my number one emotion. After moving in, I realize that all of the worry was for nothing. Yeah, it’s a lot different and a little harder than living in a house, but it’s also VERY freeing to be living in God’s will.
I also have some VERY COOL stories to tell you about how all of this fits into a plan MUCH BIGGER than my own!! I’ll be blogging those over the next couple of days…so stay tuned! Also, if you would like to see pictures of our almost-complete remodel of the camper, see the post, Camper: Remodeled!