Father Abraham had many sons.

I love the story of Abram/Abraham. I always have been in awe of the miraculous faith of an ordinary man, and the courage it took him to take action on his faith. In fact, I named my youngest son after the biblical character thinking the shared name would somehow infuse him with the same amount of strength of character as this ancient man...or at least a measure of it.

I often think about Abraham and all that God asked of him, and admire his fortitude. As a mother of four boys I often ask myself if I would be able to sacrifice one of my sons if the Lord asked it of me. What would I do when God said, "Go," and it meant personal sacrifice greater than my sons or I have ever known? We don't want to leave our home, our family, our friends, our pets. We don't want to say, "goodbye." But we've been asked to.

Three weeks from today we will take the greatest step of faith that any of us has ever taken. We will pack up our home for the summer, load our car, and our family of six will head from the east cost of this great country to Nampa, Idaho. It will take our family over a week to arrive at our destination, but for us...the real journey begins after we arrive.

I have been a stay-at-home mother for eight and a half years, homeschooling for three of the last of these years. As a rule Richard and I don't often leave our boys. Not that it is a personal conviction for us, we just are happier together. But now I am faced with leaving them for five weeks while we receive the necessary training to become full time missionaries with MAF. It is a notion that causes me anxiety, and fear. Both Richard and I have lost a great deal of sleep over leaving our boys in the hands of others. You see, for us we do not fear disease, violence, poverty, or death. No, we fear doing the wrong thing as it relates to rearing our sons. So, needless to say the decision to enter into a lifestyle that means periods of extended separation from our sons has NOT come easily.

Over the past few weeks I have been seriously doubting my ability to step forward in blind faith. Weak with worry and fear, Richard and I layed in bed last night and began to pray for guidance from the Lord, and protection for our boys. We prayed into the night for each of them individually, and then for us as a family. We prayed in earnest that if we are to continue down this unforeseen road, that God would give us the peace that each of us would recognize easily.

And peace came in the morning. Not with the sunrise, but during the Sunday School lesson I was teaching at church. I had glanced at the lesson and prepared a snack and some fun games...but I had not really read the words. As I read them to the class I could hardly believe my own mouth was forming the words. The lesson read, "Abram lived in a nice place named Haran. He lived there with his entire family-his dad, bis brothers,and is wife Sarai. One day God spoke to Abram and said, "Leave this home you know, and the friends you love, and go to the place I will show you. You will help people and I will bless you."

Wow! I've known this story for years, but it was as though I was hearing it for the very first time. The parallels to our lives were uncanny. We live near Richard's parents, his brother, and my sister. We have grown to love our home here in Concord and the people in it. We love our friends, we love our families, but we have been called to have the faith of Abram. We don't know what country we will travel to, or what people group we will help, but we have to have faith the God is a good leader. We have to chose to have the faith that this good leader will bless our obedience, and protect our sons on the alter we are now placing them on.

How better for our boys to learn the faith of Abram?