spent some wonderful time with good friends after church today and got to talking. scott told us that he has spent some time really thinking about things since we left for png ... not because of anything we did but just because.
well, I am all about revelation so I begged him to fill me in
he said that they had watched the movie kung fu panda and that was when it struck him
there are no coincidences; no accidents
so true
we felt the Lord calling us, strongly, to go be missionaries in papua, so we did
we up and sold the car
and the house
and most everything else that we could drag out to the driveway for the annual town-wide garage sale ... what we didn't think we needed went to value village
in some ways, I wish we would have known that it was only going to be half a year
in most ways, I am so glad we get the chance to completely start over, pretty much from scratch, like being given a new lease on life
not that I desire all brand new stuff; far from it. I just think it is totally cool that, though things did not work out the way WE would have orchestrated them, we listened and did what we thought He was asking us to do, and we have not one single regret
it was a time of huge confirmation of who we already thought we were, both as a couple/family and as individuals
I travelled to some amazing places I have only read about in books
I ate things I never knew existed
I drank water from a tin roof, soothed weary bones in the baltic sea and breathed in orchids and hibiscus daily
I got hotter than I thought humanly possible but didn't pass out or die
I slept peacefully and soundly for five months straight ... a feat in and of itself
I got to help seventeen incredible young men and women see the value in their own written words
I taught twelve other amazing kids how to learn outside of the box, and heard them beg me to never stop, over and over again
I "knew" for one of the first times in my life that I had heard from the Lord, specifically
and I got to see myself for who I really am ... and I was more than ok with it
this week ended our official term as missionaries in that neal started back to a full time, paying job, and I no longer teach twenty-nine students in the blazing heat, but my own two boys, in the livingroom of a friend's house, thankful and fully aware of the gift I have been given
it is oddly dream-like when I look at my pictures from the third world country I called home for a while
I doubt I will ever get the chance to go back
... I always wondered, and now I know
people ask if I have changed and I am reminded of a wonderful quote one of my National students wrote in her journal, having newly discovered Anne of Green Gables:
"I'm not a bit changed--not really. I'm only just pruned down and branched out. The real ME--back here--is just the same."
4 comments:
"WOW" \O/ Love Mom :-)
I find it all absolutely excellently amazing and wonderful.
Hurry up and come visit me in TN
I can't tell you how many goosebumps I had reading this. You are wonderful.
So here I am catching up on your blog tonight (er... this morning... too much coffee again; I need to stop that)... anyway, catching up, thanks to my slothful google reader which hasn't picked up any of your recent posts. So I was thinking you hadn't posted in a while and decided to click over anyway and say hi, and lo & behold, there are like 4 or 5 new posts. Hmph. Stupid google reader.
Anyway... I was at dinner with a few girlfriends tonight and somehow a couple of them started talking about, of all things, missionaries in Papua New Guinea. So of course I thought of you, and here I am to tell you so.
I mentioned to you (I think) that my d18 plans to work w/missionaries in Madagascar for a year. When i was talking w/Tanya, the woman w/whom she'll be working, I mentioned that even though she intends to go for a year, Hubz & I wanted her to commit for just 6 months, b/c that way if she got there and found that she really didn't like it at all, she could stick it out for 6 mos and not feel like she "quit" early or failed to keep a commitment. And Tanya said that she & her hub had encouraged E to commit for a year since that is what she desired, and if she had to come back before then for whatever reason, they would not and she should not consider it to be a "failure". "Whatever our plans are, God will have her in Madagascar for as long as He wants her to be there," she said. And I am so thankful for that perspective on their part. And so it is with your family-- despite your plans, God had you there for as long as He wanted. I guess that is really the only way to look at it!
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