Porch Swing Dreams

Les and I have been married 40 years. YIKES, that sounds like we are old! Anyway, on to the point. From our early years together, we have dreamed about being radical in our faith walk. A few of our dreams
In 1972-1974, we talked about communal living. We were not hippies, far from it. We were young people with incredibly sheltered lives. We loved the thought of living with other Christian young couples, sharing life in an intimate, every day fellowship.
We also spent time with friends talking about a church plant, starting a non denominational church of people who were hungry for more. (Thank God we didn't try that one!)
For many years, we talked about having a home for single mothers. We thought about having a large house or even buying an old motel, the kind with separate little cottage rooms that were built in the 1930s and 40s. We would renovate it and open it to women in need of housing. Each woman could have her own little space, maybe even with a kitchenet.
Or the large house, renovated motel could be used as a temporary shelter for women leaving abusive relationships.
We have dreamed of living in an inner city area to minister to the community...love on neighborhood children, help with homework, feed the hungry, drive elderly people to doctors appointments, whatever is needed.
In the 90's, we thought that maybe when we retired, we would move to Mexico and start an orphanage. The retirement income that would barely meet our needs here would support a number of children in Mexico. I'm not sure the exchange rate works that well now.
For a few years, we thought about going to China to teach English in a high school for a year or two.
After a friend faced daily chemo treatments, followed by daily radiation treatments for cancer in Fort Worth, a   2 hour drive from her home, we considered buying a house in the Fort Worth hospital district to provide housing for people in that type situation. The need is too great for the Ronald McDonald house to meet.
We enjoy dreaming, imaging what God might do with our willing hearts, but few resources.
Don't misunderstand, we have not spent our lives dreaming about the next big thing. We have had over 100 people stay with us, for periods ranging from one week to one year. We have been very involved in ministries of different kinds with churches we have been a part of. We believe that God calls each one of us to live every day to love Him and love people with zeal. We just like to be open to what that might be.
We still enjoy sitting on the porch swing wondering what God has for us at this stage of our lives. Right now, my heart is so drawn to serving orphans. If we were young, I would be pushing to adopt children from Uganda or Ethiopia. (Our four biological children we raised are probably glad I didn't think of that years ago!) We are too old to do that. We have 8 terrific grandchildren we can pour into, which is a wonderful thing to do. I love doing that. But, still, I believe that God has so much more for us to do.
Years ago, Les decided that retirement years are the "available years". Retired Christians should not feel off the hook for ministry. Those will be the years that we can serve the most, when we don't have so many personal responsibilities. Right now, we are both working. Les sold the commercial building he had his business in and is working from home. That gives him so much more freedom, since he doesn't have overhead. Our children are all raised, taking good care of themselves. They don't need us so much. I have a wonderful job I love very much, and a lot of flexibility.
With all that considered, the doors are open for some pretty big dreams. If you drive by our house in the early morning or evening and see us sitting on the porch swing, we might be dreaming about where God would be taking us. Now, the thought of moving far away from our family is pretty hard to imaging, but, we are very interested in short term trips, maybe spend a month in Uganda, helping Katie Davis take care of the 14 children she has adopted and the countless others she serve (.http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com ).