.Each of them had been born in Queens County, just east of "the city," as New Yorkers refer to Manhattan Island. They met and were married in Queens. Their first home (in a storefront due to the housing shortage after World War II) was located to no one’s surprise in Queens as well. Family, friends and jobs were all located in Queens (or nearby Brooklyn)...

Until their big move. It was about 30 miles to the east, to Suffolk County and a nice life for the generation to come. Doris and Sal raised their children in a house just one mile from the railroad station. Sal rode the Long Island Railroad or drove on the Long Island Expressway to and from work in Brooklyn, while he and Doris lived and loved and enjoyed their family in the suburbs.

Even vacations were usually spent in Suffolk County, where there was a campground right on the Long Island Sound. Camping was full of simple, fun pleasures like cooking over the campfire; campfire stew was one of their favorites. They also loved Angels on Horseback (known to most people as s’mores).

There were two summers when Sal and Doris took the family to spend a week at Miller’s Farm in Pennsylvania. This was the closest Sal came to realizing his childhood dream of being a farmer.

For over twenty-five years Sal commuted to Brooklyn, and Doris stayed home busy raising her children and later working right in their home town. They also bought a house out on eastern Long Island, another thirty miles east of their place of birth, where they planned to retire some day.

But Sal never lost his dream of farming, and Doris was catching the dream. The commute to Brooklyn now took two hours each way, as more and more New Yorkers were moving to Long Island to raise their families in the suburbs and choke the roads. Some of Sal’s friends had heart attacks and Sal realized that he was not getting younger. In fact, his "baby" was now twenty and going away to college.

Sal was not old enough to retire. In his young fifties, he was far from eligible for Social Security. But he was strong and healthy — and he still had his dream of being a farmer. Could he do it?

Yes, he could. And he did.

Sal and Doris sold their family home. And they sold the other house, thirty miles farther east, which had been set for their retirement.

They used the proceeds to buy a sixty-acre farm.

They moved — far from Queens — far from suburban New York — and began to live their dream.

Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get thee out of the country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.

Has God ever asked you to move on?

Perhaps, like Abram, or like Doris and Sal, you were called to travel to a new land, leaving behind friends and family. But maybe the call for movement was for something other than a change in geography.

God can call you to change jobs. God can call you to minister to people who are new to you. He may be calling you to help in the church nursery.

Everyone is called to move. Even if we spend our whole life living in the same house, we have to make new friends and meet new challenges. Without movement there is no growth.

As you share in the life my parents lived, I pray that you will grow and bloom, moving in whatever areas God chooses for you.

Prayer: Lord, please guide me as I step out ready to follow you. Amen.

Beef cut into ¾" cubes (¾ pound per serving)

1 cup flour

1 plastic food storage bag (11" x 12½")

3 T oil

Carrots (1 per serving) sliced

Potatoes (½ – 1 per serving) diced

Onions (¾ per serving) chopped

Salt and pepper

Start fire ahead of time

Use thick pot with cover (such as a Dutch Oven) (For ease of cleaning, smear dish soap on outside bottom of pot before starting.)

Place the pot on the fire; add the oil.

Place flour into plastic bag; add the beef cubes.

Close top of bag and shake to coat the meat with flour.

Fry the beef cubes in the oil until brown.

Add enough water to cover the meat.

Cover pot and bring to a boil.

Doris grew up in a home her dad had built in Hollis.