Journey to Romania. Part 7: American Sojourn
We moved to America with two small children, seven pieces of luggage, about five hundred dollars in JeJe’s pocket and a credit card debt for our airline tickets. The LORD immediately blessed JeJe with a job doing electrical work (he is a licensed electrician). Dear friends opened their home to temporarily provide a place for us. About six weeks later we were able to rent a small apartment in Yorba Linda.
Shortly after we moved in, my aunt called. She wanted to let me know this was her family and I wasn’t a part of it. She called because my grandmother’s sister had passed away and there would be a family funeral. We attended the service and saw just how “outside” the family they had decided to put us. Hurt as I was, Jesus said to keep loving…and my husband said, “let it go.” He often spoke of Joseph and his brothers and how both Joseph and God had handled that situation.
JeJe and I moved into the American “Grind” of working, spending, working and spending. We purchased our own home and nice cars, went on great vacations. About four years later it all began to change.
JeJe came home from work and told me he was not satisfied with our lifestyle. He missed serving God and someone had asked him that week, “How much money do you need for it to be enough?” That remark caused him to stop and consider things. There was no amount of money that brought him the happiness that serving God and being in fellowship with Him brought. He told me that he was praying for God to do a change in us.
I thought to myself, “Don’t pray that!” After all, we were going on vacation to Hawaii in a month, we both drove nice cars, owned a home and provided good things for our children. Who wants to change that? I think I feared more what might come, and that it might mean my giving up control. You see, I had brought many fears and qute a bit of baggage from my past into our marriage.
As I went to bed in the stillness of the night God spoke to my heart. “Coleen, how much is enough?” He had my attention. He had been trying to get it for quite a number of months, but I was too busy to hear His voice any more. We had been through a leukemia testing/scare with James and I had been called in for an extensive biopsy just a month or so before. Was I not grateful my son’s test came back revealing nothing more than a serious allergy? Was I not happy to have my health and an amazing husband who loved God? That night I prayed, “Thank You for all I have. Forgive my ungrateful/unsatisfied heart. You are enough for me, God.”
That was the beginning. Within a month, the Real Estate market I worked in as a buyer/seller crashed and all the sitting/pending deals I had fell right through my fingers…over five million in sales. We sold our home to get out from under the payment and moved to a smaller house to consolidate our debts and pay our bills. One night my fight for control came to a crashing end.
by Coleen JeJeran, Missionary to Romania