Concordia TheoBLOGical Seminary

The following article is something our Relocation Coordinator, Marsha Zimmerman, just wrote for the Sem Wives newsletter. It’s addressing them as the time approaches when many of them will be heading out with their husbands either for their calls or vicarage placements. But she offers some terrific practical counsel that would also apply to prospective student families just gearing up to move to Fort Wayne. - Scott Stiegemeyer

Many of you will be sitting in Kramer Chapel on April 22^nd and 23^rd anxiously waiting to hear where the Lord desires your husband to serve as either a vicar or pastor. It is one of those milestones in life that you have been eagerly awaiting for so many months. As you reflect back, you realize there have been so many hours, so many papers, so many dreams, so many hopes, and so many challenges while your husband completed the necessary course work to get to this point. Throughout it all, you have been there with him sharing the journey. Now it is time to once again pack and relocate, to start anew. For most couples and families, it is the wife who attends to the emotional and logistical aspects of this process. As a nurturer, you tend to focus on how everyone is adjusting. That is a heavy burden to carry. What about you? How will you cope? Who is caring for your adjustment?

You need to remember that relocating is an emotional event. There is even a medical term for what you will be experiencing. It is called relocation stress. Perhaps you experienced it when you first came to the seminary. Remember how there were times when you felt moments of anxiety, loneliness, apprehension, confusion, restlessness, insecurity, etc. Those times when for no reason, you found yourself in tears. It may happen again as you move to a new location. These feelings are real. They may last for a couple of minutes, a couple of days, a couple of weeks or longer. These emotions surface because you are leaving your comfort zone, your friends, things that are familiar, etc. Half of the battle is recognizing that you may experience these emotions and that they are perfectly normal. You will not be alone in all of this. Your fellow sisters in Christ will also be experiencing some of these very same emotions. It is not a time to fear or be apprehensive of such emotions; but, rather, it is a time to embrace them. As humans, we only long for those times and things that touch us. As you experience missing the seminary and members of the seminary family, it means that you and your family were touched in some special way. That is a good thing, a wonderful thing; a thing for which to be thankful. Now it is time to once again connect with new people. Don’t let the sadness and pain of leaving keep you from opening your hearts to friends yet unknown. God has a plan for you. He will and does care for His children, for each of us individually.

If you allow for it, relocating offers many opportunities for growth and for making new memories. There are many positives associated with relocating: meeting new people, expanding your experiences, learning new customs, investigating new sites, tasting new foods, making a home in a new setting, etc.

As you start this new phase of your life, share your thoughts, fears, concerns and apprehensions with your Heavenly Father. After giving them over to the Lord, consider trying some of the practices other sisters in Christ have used to cope with all of the changes associated with moving. Note how all of these require you to take an active role.

• Maintain a strong devotional life personally and with your husband, family
• Actively learn about your new community
• Engage others, don’t expect them to reach out to you
• Exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle
• Make a detailed list of things that need to be tended to
• Remember you don’t have to accomplish everything on your list in 24-72 hours
• Spend time each day doing something you truly enjoy
• Smile, laugh and enjoy life
• Embrace the present
• Aim for a balanced life
• Be thankful—consider keeping a journal for daily entries
• Simplify your life any way you can – less can be more
• Praise God for all He provides – learn to be content with what you have

As you are packing boxes and pondering what new adventures await you, may the song and prayer in your heart be:

Lord, take my hand and lead me upon life’s way,

Direct, protect and feed me from day to day.

Without your grace and favor, I go astray;

So take my hand, O Savior and lead the way. Amen

God’s richest blessings as you go forth serving Him.

Marsha Zimmerman
Relocation Coordinator