Singapore - Tommy's perspective ...

Last year at this time Andrea and I were praying about taking a job that had the possibility of sending us to Singapore. We told the kids about it from the very beginning and asked them to pray with us. We accepted the job and for a whole long year the Stunz family has wondered if the potential of a thing would become the thing itself.

In the past year I have busied myself worrying – at times. Worrying whether the economy would mess things up and we would live in Lake Jackson forever. Worrying whether the projects I have done in the interim would keep me from going to the project I really wanted to be on – the one that would take us to Singapore.

I’ve worried about how to pay for everything. I have worried about moving to a country where we will live for approximately two years and us hating it. I have worried that we had to pass physicals and “what if we are not healthy enough?”

But you know what? Every time I have started worrying I could not worry for long because God has shown me in some way or another that He is in control and not me and that if I will just chill he would handle everything.

It is amazing how all of the timing has worked out – not always as fast as I’d like – but just right. The path we have taken in the last year is one I could not have predicted. It has had turns that were unexpected and seemed to be taking us away from the goal but each time they have worked out for the best.

As I think about what is still left to do in the next couple of months it can be a bit overwhelming. There are a hundred million decisions to be made and I don’t want to mess any of them up. But if … no … when I do make a poor decision (I am sure I already have) we will still be okay.

We have a house to sell and it would be nice if it sold before we went to Singapore. So I start asking myself, “should I give it away to anyone with cash just to be done with it?” But then I sit down and work the numbers and if the house doesn’t sell we are okay. Will it be a pain to close on a house while we are in Singapore? Yes, but we have made provision for that to happen. If we still own a house in Lake Jackson when we step on a plane bound for Singapore we will more than survive.

Our schedule is packed and Andrea and I have worked hard not to fill every second before we leave with something else. Deciding how to spend our time is sometimes harder than deciding how to spend our money.

I write this stuff not so anyone would feel sorry for us. We chose to move to Singapore and I am more than happy to put in the work it takes to see it happen. I believe the rewards far outweigh the risk and the work required to realize them. What is comforting is that it is not just on Andrea and me and the kids to make this happen.

This year has been a good lesson for me about worry. Although you would think I would have learned that lesson by now.

Fear is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow. – Andy Andrews The Traveler’s Gift

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
- Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message)