About the Blog Title

by Megan

I love words. They make me happy. I wear terms like "wordsmith" and "grammarian" like badges of honor. Using just the right word in just the right place brings me tremendous satisfaction. This also makes me a big nerd, but that's another story.

As much as I love words, however, there is one word that never sits well with me.

Home.

As in, "Where is 'home' for you?" or "Are you going home to see your family this Christmas?"

When people ask me these questions, I cannot craft a good answer. Maybe it's because I've lived in five different states and have left pieces of my heart in each one, or maybe it is because the length of time I have spent in those different states does not correspond to my feeling of belonging there.

So this move to Pennsylvania is complicated for me. Do I have connections to Western PA? Absolutely. I went to high school and college there, and my parents and younger siblings live there, not to mention my husband's extended family. But traveling to Pennsylvania has never felt like coming home. It's not that I don't love certain things about it (like the fact that our families are there). It just never felt like MY home. Lindon, having spent 26 years in PA, has no such qualms with calling it home. In fact, for as long as we have been married, he has talked about our trips to Pennsylvania as "going home," and I have always corrected him by saying, "Home is where our house is. We are going BACK to Pennsylvania to visit." That's a word nerd at work.

So what will happen when the place where my husband is from, the place where most of my family lives, and the place where I live all meet? Well, I guess I will be home. But what will that feel like? What will that look like? How much does a sense of belonging play into feelings of home? What about the sense that I am FROM a certain place? And to what extent is a sense of homelessness justified this side of heaven? I don't know the answers to these questions, but I guess I will learn.

This blog will be, in part, a place for us to come to terms with what "home" means for our family life and ministry. It sounds a little nerdy, but the implications feel very practical for me. You can watch my wrestling (or floundering) from the sidelines, but I would love to have you enter the conversation, too.

Have you lived many different places? If so, where do you consider home? If you've lived in the same place all your life, what makes that place feel like home? Anyone else out there ever feel "homeless"?

The Big News

Dear Friends and Family,

As 2011 closes, we wanted to update you on what has been going on with the Fowlers. Our second son, Shields Lee, joined our family on December 6. He has been a source of great joy to us, as is his older brother Levi (now 2). In July Megan bid farewell to the law firm where she had worked for nearly four years and came home to care for Levi and continue her freelance writing. With that transition Lindon started working full time as a maintenance assistant at a condominium where he worked during seminary. He also completed a two-year pastoral internship at a local EPC church.

Though our job situation has changed somewhat, we find ourselves in the same situation in which we ended 2010 – looking for a full time pastoral call for Lindon. With Lindon’s ministry giftedness and resourcefulness, we felt confident he would be a strong candidate for any position. But it turns out Lindon’s abilities were no match for a horrible economy; many churches have cut staff, halted plans to add staff, and not replaced staff members who left.

As we have added members to our family, our desire to live closer to our extended family has also grown. Many times we talked about Lindon getting a “regular” job in Pennsylvania so that we could live near family while we search for a ministry opportunity. Lindon traveled to Ohio in mid November to attend a presbytery meeting of the Presbytery of the Alleghenies (EPC). This trip was a risk because we did not have any idea what might come out of it. We asked friends and family to pray that the trip would produce helpful contacts for Lindon.

God most definitely answered our prayers. Lindon received particular help from a pastor in Slippery Rock, Pa., who expressed real enthusiasm for getting Lindon involved in the church while Lindon looks for a full-time call. Lindon returned from presbytery on Sunday, and 24 hours later he had a phone call with a contractor in Slippery Rock who needs assistance. Now Lindon has some work lined up in Slippery Rock and a church where he can volunteer. With these two pieces of the puzzle in place, we have decided to move to the Slippery Rock area to be close to family, continue the job search, and explore church planting with the EPC.

We write all of this to you because many of you have been praying for us for years, and we thank you for your continued love and support. We plan to move on January 14, though there are still many details that we need to finalize. Please continue to pray for our family, that the Lord would provide Lindon with a job in ministry, that the job would come soon, and that our transition would be smooth. There is much more that we want to say but cannot fit it in a letter…so we started a blog! See the address below (and to see some recent Fowler family photos). Thank you for your partnership with us over the years, and we hope you will continue to pray with and for us in the years to come!

All for Jesus,

Lindon, Megan, Levi, and Shields Fowler