"Surrender Dorothy..."

After a wild storm took her away from her home in Kansas, Dorothy Gale began her now infamous journey across the yellow brick road in hopes of being able to return home to her beloved Auntie Em'. As she trod the canary colored causeway, Dorothy encountered extraordinary beauty, unique characters and the wicked witch who brought unspeakable terror hoping to destroy her as she wrote "surrender Dorothy" with exhaust from her flying broom. Okay, maybe it doesn't sound scary now, but as a young child watching the annual presentation of The Wizard of Oz, it brought chills. Along the road Dorothy met strangers who became friends and together they found that they were smarter than they knew, had more heart than they believed and had the courage to face their challenges together and instead of surrendering [spoiler alert] they defeated the evil witch.

Almost three years ago a group of people from Rock Bridge Community Church began our own journey. Our road wasn’t yellow or brick and there was no storm at the front of our trip but the storms did come and from there the similarities arise. We’ve faced an enemy that wants to destroy us and he has spared no weapon in his efforts. Unexpected location changes, personal tragedy, along with financial and facility challenges seemed to await us at every turn, but there was something else there too… strangers. Strangers who became friends and they brought with them brains and heart and courage and together we never surrendered.

Our journey began 'portably' in a school, and then another school and all along we had prayed for a home of our own. Several times along our not so yellow and never brick road we thought we had found our way ‘home’ but in each case, instead of a building to call home, we found more road.

In The Wizard of Oz, the wizard informed Dorothy that the ability to go home was always within her own power, just three clicks away. In our more real world we are thankful that the power did not rely on ourselves. If if had, we would have clicked our heels ages ago and ended up in the wrong home – at least three times.

Instead, we’ve faithfully walked a road peppered with storms, the attacks of our enemy, flying monkeys and a bunch of new friends to celebrate the good times and make the hard times a little easier. Okay, there were no monkeys but we have been faithful amid some crazy stuff. And now it seems we stand at the precipice of launching into the work that will lead to us having a home of our own. The light at the end of our portable tunnel is approaching and it is beautiful and exciting but we must stay the course. Let's take the joy [and let's face it, glee] we feel about eventually not being portable and turn it into the work of cleaning, demolishing and building all that we can to be the best possible stewards of the money God provides for us to get the work done. And even more importantly, let's take the energy and excitement we feel about what God is doing and share it with our community today, not waiting until we get into our new home.

Rock Bridge Chatsworth, I am truly proud of your perseverance. You have stayed the course, fought the fight and most of all you NEVER surrendered. And now we are in the strongest growth pattern we've ever seen and lives are being changed because you've moved about a million chairs, hung and removed miles of curtains, ran enough cables to reach from Chatsworth to the moon and back, and pushed thousands of tons of carts back-and-forth - and that doesn't include the endless hours serving our local school staff and community events.

So hang in there and continue the faithful work of 'portably' sharing God's love with our community. Soon enough we will stand in the place He has set aside for us and live out those infamous words "...there's no place like home"