A Troubled Departure from Home

A few years ago, while a missionary in Portugal, I met my supervisor at the plane from Atlanta.  We usually got along great, but that time he seemed so taciturn and grouchy.  After a day or two, he admitted, “I had a fight with my wife on the way out the door.”  It is hard to be a long way from home and from your family; it is doubly hard when you didn’t leave on good terms.  Today we pick up the story of Jacob when he is possibly at the most lonely time of his life.  How will the crafty deceiver manage out in the world on his own?  [We will trace movement from alienation to encounter to faith, the general path each of has followed or will follow on our way to Christ.]