The Last Ten Days

So, we're taking a change in direction with our ministry. Instead of teaching full time next year, I'll be home schooling the kids and we'll all be helping out at the Bible school where Mark has been working. I thought I’d be LESS busy than ever once school was over and I was no longer teaching full time every day. Boy, was I wrong! If you’ve ever wondered what life is like on the mission field, here’s a peek at what our last ten days have been like. 

Wednesday – Last day of school!!! Finals in the morning, then finishing up grading finals, cleaning out my classroom, etc. Finished up at 12:30, and headed over to the Bible school for a couple of hours of helping out in the office with students making payments, etc. We celebrated by eating a late lunch at McDonalds, where Sarah and I (apparently) got nasty food poisoning from the ketchup. We helped a friend who was moving to the States with a few last minute cleaning things. Sarah and I spent the early part of the evening feeling sick, and the rest of the night throwing up. 

Thursday – Mark went to Guatemala City to pick up Michelle, a friend of ours who was coming to stay for 6 weeks. I spent the day in bed, trying to recover. Mark and Michelle arrived around 6:00. I came out  long enough to shower and say, “Hi,” then went back to bed. 

Friday – Bible school day. All six of us piled into the Jeep and headed down to the Bible school. Since it was a class day, we were busy helping make copies, getting outlines for students, handling payments, helping with the snack, etc. We headed home around 3:00 in the afternoon. I left from home at 4:00 to go to graduation. Everyone else went back to the Bible school at 5:30 for Friday night classes. It was a big night – final exams – and there was a lot to do. When graduation finished, I hitched a ride with a friend back to the Bible school and spent the rest of the evening (until around 10:00) there.

Saturday – Left around 8:00 to drop Michelle off at the Bible school, then drove to Mexico for required, once-per-90-days Visa run. Got hassled at the border in new and different ways than in the past, but we didn’t have to wait as long as usual. Arrived at our hotel to find the price had increased, and the AC was broken. The kids headed to the pool to cool down, then we spent the evening doing some shopping, since many things are half price there compared to here. Came back to the hotel to get ready for bed. Thankfully, the AC kicked in around 9:30, so we were able to sleep well.  

Sunday – Left the hotel around 9:00 to head home. Uneventful border crossing and drive home. Arrived about 35 minutes before Michelle got back from visiting a local church with a friend of ours. Just enough time to unload the Jeep and turn around and take Michelle back to the school where I used to work and where she was planning on helping out with a summer camp. Dropped her off, headed to the grocery store, where I ran into a Canadian couple bicycling through Central America who had just arrived in Xela. Did my best to help them get acclimated and offer some advice and a bit of information about the city. Picked up Michelle, headed home, and spent the rest of the evening planning for a class I was teaching the next day, and receiving visits from two sets of very dear friends who were heading back to the States. 

Monday – Got up early. Said our final goodbye to one good friend, and Mark took her to the bus station. When he returned (around 7:40) we all piled into the Jeep again to head to the Bible school. It was a very happy day, because the couple who founded the Bible school (and who had been gone for a couple of months) was back. Reunions are always so joyful, especially after so many precious people leaving! At 9:30 I started teaching a class about teaching to the extension school teachers and leaders, and finished around 1230. Mark and the girls got done helping with students, and then we headed home around 1:30. Went and said our final goodbye to our dear friends, who are moving back to the states. The rest of the evening was spent at home. <sigh of relief> 

Tuesday – I got up and walked Michelle to a friend’s house at 7:15 so she could catch a ride to summer camp. Mark headed to the Bible school around 7:15 again. (It’s enrollment time, and someone has to be there during business hours, even though there’s not a lot of traffic. He also has to make all the photocopies that they’ll need for the six weeks that we’ll be gone this summer.) I hung around home and did some much-needed cleaning and laundry until 1:00, when it was time to pick up Michelle. Found out she had made a connection with a visiting missionary team, and had been invited to go preach at a Baptist church in a town one department over. Headed home, cleaned a bit more, and then she and I left around 6:45 so I could drive us to this new church. We got home just after 11:00.

Wednesday – Another Bible school day. We all piled in the Jeep again and left at 7:40. Stayed at the Bible school helping out and planning for another upcoming class I’m going to teach. We left around 2:00. Mark dropped the girls off, took us to the money changers, then we dropped him off, and Michelle and I headed downtown so she could so some souvenir shopping. We got home around 4:00, and Mark arrived home about 5:00. To be honest, I don’t remember what we did that night. It’s kind of a blur, but I don’t think we went anywhere else. 

Thursday – Mark headed off to the Bible school and dropped Michelle off at camp along the way. I spent the morning meeting with a friend, who told me that she and her husband are ALSO moving in December. (These partings are getting hard to handle!) They’re going to do mission work in the Middle East, and I’m very excited for them. Later, I got more laundry and cleaning done, including a long-overdue tidy up of the roof, which included moving all the houseplants and cleaning up spilled dirt. (Despite our best efforts, housecleaning gets neglected far too often, and the need for attention is especially dire right now because of all the things that people who were leaving had been bringing us.) In the afternoon, Mark dropped Michelle off, then went back to work. When he got home around 4:30, the power went off. Michelle and I used that as a good chance to head to the grocery store. While there, I got a phone call from my friend (who was leading the missionary team mentioned earlier) who said that pastor of the church in San Cristobal specifically requested that we come back. 

We headed home from the store, lit some candles (the power was still out), and had 30 minutes to get ready in the dark. We left at 6:05 to walk down to meet the bus (this time we didn’t have to drive), and rode off into the darkness once again. A very dear friend of mine shared a beautiful but difficult testimony, and needed someone to translate from Spanish to English, so I got to do my first translating gig. Must have gone ok, because the pastor also had me translate for him later in the service. We had a very sweet time of prayer for my friends, and did a craft with the congregants. Michelle and I got home just before midnight. 

Friday – As usual – Mark was up and at ‘em at the Bible school bright and early. (God bless that man for his faithfulness!) Mercifully, I got to sleep in a little, and then chatted with a friend. (This is one of the hard parts about being here – we have technology that makes communication possible, but you can’t just pick up the phone and chat while you clean or run errands.) Keeping in touch with people is so very important, and it’s hard to find time to do it.  I tidied up a bit, then we all headed out at 12:30 to go buy paint and go to the Bible school. There is a visiting team of high school students who worked on putting in a new cement driveway, creating a paving stone walkway, mowing the grass, and painting a bathroom and a classroom’s back wall. Rachel and Michelle painted. The little girls were on floor cleanup duty. I supervised, helped, and assisted anyone who needed it. Mark and David worked on getting the Bible school’s front gate fixed. (The motherboard went bad.) We tidied up and I took the girls home at 4:40. Mark stayed to finish up. I changed clothes, got some new clothes for Mark, made us both a sandwich, and was back at the Bible school by 5:40. Mark and I helped out at the Bible school for Friday night classes, which was especially busy because of the end of the semester and new enrollees for next semester. We closed up the Bible school and left around 10J0. After parking the car and walking home, we got in just after 10:15, very ready for bed. 

And that, my friends, is what missionary life is like. I wouldn’t trade it for the world!

Full Cabinets, Empty Hearts

So many of our friends are leaving right now. Correction, so many of our friends have already left. Really, we only have a couple more hard goodbye before they're all said and done, but they're not getting any easier. Some of these separations have been planned, and we knew for a long time that these precious people would be leaving our homes, hearts, and country. That still doesn't make it easier. A couple others decided very recently that they'd head back to the States instead of doing another year here. It's hard to hurry up and get your emotions ready for people you've grown to love to leave you.

The hard reality is that, despite the fact that we've shared countless Friday night Bible studies, meals, late-night chats, professional conferences, and oh-so much more, we might never see some of these folks again. They're in your life every day, and then they're gone. That's really tough. It makes the mission field seem lonely all over again, like when we first arrived. I am sure (knowing the kind of Father that we have), that more friends will come into our lives and living room (at least for Bible studies and chats), but they will never the be the same as the ones we've come to love already. <sniff>

I really don't have any reason to feel sorry for myself. Our dear friends are all moving on to bigger, better things, and I wouldn't wish them anything but the bright futures they have ahead. And, it's not like we're without friends down here anymore, either. Even though there are far fewer than there were before, the ones we have left really are precious to us as well. We really have nothing to complain about, except maybe full cabinets and empty hearts.

It's a strange thing when you're the one the staying and everyone else is going. When we left to move to Guatemala, we had to dispossess ourselves of just about everything we owned. So, strangely, that process is familiar. Last weekend we even went over to help a friend do that very thing. After all, we'd done it before, and could be of assistance. Only, this time, WE were the ones doing the taking, not the getting rid of. What do you do when you're leaving the country with only the suitcases you can afford to convince the airline to let you take with you? You leave a lot. Where do you leave it? With the ones who are staying behind.

So, over the past week, a strange assortment of things has been arriving. Some things have blessed our daily lives tremendously. More olive oil (very expensive here - and we were almsot out). New clothes for our girls (one of the benefits of having kids who are the size of adults).  Office supplies (very needed, especially since we'll be home schooling next year). Other things, though, were unexpected luxuries. Better sheets (they  make even a cheap bed seem nicer). A machete (seriously - this made Mark giggle with glee). A giant bag of craisins (there simply are no words for what a blessing this is since you can't find them here).

It's always interesting to see what people get rid of, or even what they had to begin with. A grown woman with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles travel facial tissue packets? Awesome. A young couple with a zebra foot pillow that provides massage and heat to tired tootsies? Awesome. A no-nonsense veteran missionary teacher with the most beautiul umbrella I've ever seen? Awesome. It's no wonder we love these people.

They ate differently than we do, so the food they brought will bring adventure to our meals for the next few weeks. They dressed differently, so our girls will be more colorful than they were in the past. They bought better quality kitchen items than we did, so we will be blessed with things that will last us for years to come. Which is good, becuase I want to remember them for years to come, too.

Here's to full cabinets and empty hearts, a hard reality on the mission field, but one that speaks volumes about the wonderful people God has put into our lives. They will be missed.

Third Culture Milestones

TCK - Third Culture Kids. It's a term for children who grow up on the mission field, and who aren't really a part of their first culture, or even their second, and therefore sort of have a unique (third) culture all their own. We heard and read about this a lot before we moved, but are only now starting to really realize what it truly means. Case in point:

When a girl in Guatemalan culture turns 15, it's a BIG deal! Here, it's considered a milestone that marks the difference between childhood and womanhood. The family often throws an elaborate party (much like a wedding) where everyone dresses up, there are ceremonial elements to denote the girl's new status, and the celebrant usually starts dating after her quincienera.

When our oldest daughter turned 15 last year we had to drive three hours to Mexico (a whole other country) so she could see the movie she'd been wanting to see for over a year in English. She wore jeans and ate popcorn. While she might have thought about how cute the superhero was in the film, she was most definitely NOT going to begin dating any time soon. 

When a girl in American culture turns 16, it's a BIG deal! There, it's considered a milestone that marks the difference between childhood and early adulthood. The family often throws a party (usually involving lots of fingernail polish and giggling) where the girl's friends spend the night or hang out together, and the much-longed-for driver's license finally becomes a reality after a sweet sixteen party.

Our oldest daughter turns 16 this week. We have elected to skip church (which we rarely do) and go out to eat at a small, local restaurant that she really likes. And, while she'd love to get her driver's license, since we aren't ever in the States long enough for her to take driver's education classes, that's probably not going to be an option for her until she turns 18. 

That's a third culture kid.

Here's the thing, though - sometimes I feel sad that my girls are missing out on both American and Guatemalan cultural milestones, but I think what they're getting may ultimately be better in the end. Both of these big birthdays are ostensibly about growing up, but their respective celebrations are also pretty self-focused. This past year my baby girl may not have had much of the latter, but she certainly has experienced the former. Allow me to explain.

It's been a tough year for Rachel. I won't elaborate, but things at school didn't go well, to the point that we chose to pull her near the end of last semester. The day-to-day challenges were really rough, and she could easily have fallen into bitterness, blame, and a loss of faith. Instead (as she so often does), she decided to grow in maturity spiritually, emotionally, and academically. This past semester she has been home schooling (i.e. being entirely responsible for educating herself) and embracing the chance to gain true fluency in Spanish.

More than that, though, she's been pressed into service the last few weeks because of an emergency staffing shortage at the Bible school where her dad works. Overnight she become student, secretary, and staff. She's there helping (in a second language, no less) every weekday, Friday nights from 5:30 to 8:30, and Saturdays from 8:00 to 1:30. All while preparing to take three AP exams. All while doing the rest of her school work. All while being responsible for keeping the house clean and doing laundry for our family. All with a smile on her face.

My daughter didn't get a big quience anos party. She's won't get her license for her sweet sixteen. We didn't do anything official to shout from the mountaintops that she's now well on her way to becoming a grownup, but she's more than confirmed that in the quiet way she has daily grown and walked in maturity with the Lord. I guess you could say she chose a third option, and one which seems so very right and appropriate for this awesome third culture kid.

Just so we're clear - she's still not allowed to date, though! :)

Science, the Bible, and Truth

I would like to first start out and say that I am a complete Bible believer.  I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, and is perfect.

I also would like to say I am a full believer in science.  It was my major in college, even though I didn't graduate.  In my last career I had to use a lot of chemistry and biology to do my job.  I also try to stay on top of science news by reading articles. The ones that interest me most are about evolution.

 
 I believe the Bible.  Many people, friends mostly, will argue and say the Bible has been proven to be wrong or science now explains everything.  And that is the problem.  Science has not explained everything.

Science is not all knowing.  There are many things being discovered today that go against or change even recent scientific ideas. 

My example of this would be the reef that was just discovered in Brazil.  It is 600 miles long.  600 MILES!  And it was only discovered this year.  Europeans came to Brazil in the 1500's, and there were indigenous people before that, and no one had found it. 

If scientist are only discovering a 600 mile long reef now, why would I trust them to know exactly how the world was made, or how long we have left on this earth?

This is what I would say to science - prove things completely.  Don't do one experiment and say, "See, this shows God doesn't exist," and then the experiment is not re-testable or refutable by other scientists.

It is often brought up that people like me don't believe in some science because of the Bible.  But here's the thing, no one believes the world is flat anymore. Everyone knows that sickness is caused by germs, and the sun does not revolve around the sun. Even Christians believe in scientific things that have been absolutely proven.

So before you call me stupid, ignorant, or dumb for believing the Bible over science, maybe you should make sure you have at least turly discovered everything about this world before telling me there is no world after this one.

Read the Bible Straight Through

Most Christians I know want to read the Bible straight through. Most I have talked to usually only make it to Deuteronomy.  I have now read through the Bible twice, so I believe I can give a little advice.

Now there are many apps, websites, and even Bibles that you can buy that will give you a disciplined way to read through the Bible.  If you are one of those people that can do this, like my wife, this blog is not for you.  This blog is for people like me - people who love the Bible, want to read the whole thing, but are not disciplined enough to do reading programs.

So, here is my list of reading tips:

Pick out a reader's Bible. For most of us we have a favorite Bible. Mine is a Zondervan study bible.  It is bulky, hard to carry around, and the notes get me off topic quite often. So, I bought a small reader's Bible and used only that one for reading.  It fits in my pocket and I don't have to worry about losing my place.

Read a translation you want to read. My favorite translation is the New American Standard, so the first time I read through I used that one.  The next time I did the New Living Translation. This time I am reading the New King James.  I trust the NAS the most, but reading other translations is fun and will let you see the scriptures differently.
 
Recognize that reading straight through is hard. The first time I read the bible straight through I did it the classic way - start in Genesis and end in Revelation.  This is very hard, as the Old Testament can weigh you down. Also, for me, Psalms seemed to last forever when I read the Bible straight through.  This last time was much better.  I started in Genesis, then read four Psalms, then Matthew, and back to the Old Testament.  I found this way didn't keep me mired down in the Old Testament, and I had the hope of Jesus to keep me going.

Don't get condemned and don't stop reading. The first time reading the Bible straight through took me seven years.  If you get stopped for a while, don't get condemned, just pick up where you left off.  This is where having a separate bible is nice because if you lay it down and don't use it, the marker will be in the same place as you left off.

Enjoy. This is not the last time you will read the Bible. It is complex and beautiful, but this isn't the only time you will read it.  Most people take reading the Bible straight through as a very serious thing.  If you were reading a normal book, you would not worry if you missed a small part.  I have read certain sections of the Bible a hundred times or more and I still find new things in those passages.  Plus, the next time you  read it straight through you'll catch whatever you might have missed then.

Hopefully these hints will help.  Remember, it doesn't matter what other people think - it is your relationship with Christ, not theirs, so happy reading.

Please Help

Gyan distributing audio Bibles in Nepal.

As many of you know,  I had a chance to go to Nepal last fall.  It was an amazing experience.  With every mission trip there are things that you see that get put on your heart.  This happened with me in Nepal.

Christians are the minority religion in Nepal.  Hinduism is the largest religion, followed by Buddhism, then Islam, and finally Christianity.  Christians make up only 1 percent of the total population.  While it is not illegal to be a Christian, it is certainly not easy.  Christians face social persecution including being kicked out of their community, losing jobs, losing their families, etc.

Because of the lack of a Christian population in Nepal, it can be tough to get a Bible. With the high illiteracy rate, if a person does get one he or she may have a hard time reading and understanding it.

The Children Rescue Mission out of Redding, California, has seen this need and is doing what it can to meet it.  Gyan Pantha, who was our team leader in Nepal, has set up an account to be used only for getting Bibles to Nepal.  Gyan is a great man of God who has personally told me all money raised for Bibles will be going only to buying Bibles.

The Bibles he is giving out are audio Bibles that our solar powered. These Bibles are also being used in communities, with people setting the audio Bible in the middle of a room so people can listen in  groups to the word of God.

The Bible is the single most important thing for a person to have in order to grow in their relationship with Christ.  That is why this project is so important to me. Please consider giving. Any amount will make a difference.

Click this link to contribute: https://www.givedirectcharity.org/donate/?cid=1153. To make sure your donation goes to the Bible Fund, type "Bible Fund" in the comment area.

You may also send your donations through our servicing agency online at https://www.worldoutreach.org/donate. (Simply click on the pull-down menu and select 'Farrier, Mark and Andrea - Guatemala'.) We will pass all funds we receive onto the Children Rescue Mission Bible Fund. Just make sure to let us know you want it to go there when you send it.

Think of how much your Bible means to you. Don't you want to be a part of bringing God's precious Word into someone else's life and community? 

Nepal

I have been wanting to write a blog about my trip to Nepal for some time.  But, it has been difficult to say the least.  The trip was eight days long, yet we did so much.  I made new relationships, helped hand out presents to children and adults, taught, listened to some great teaching, learned how to squat to use the bathroom, and so forth.

How do you narrow that down to one simple blog?

Well you can't, so I have decided to write about one thing that blew me away - something that amazes me even now.

Christians represent one to three percent of the population in Nepal.  Speaking to people about Jesus can start a small riot.  When people decide to accept Jesus, they do so knowing they may lose their families, their jobs, and their communities.

Because of that, the choice is not lightly made.  This creates a strong Christian community in Nepal where people help each other out. There was one way I saw an example of this that was so awesome.

Nepal is a very poor country.  Human trafficking is a big issue since many people are uneducated and fall for the schemes traffickers use to trick people into going with them.  Most are taken to India. The boys are used for mining and the girls are forced into prostitution.  Once they are used up or hurt they are discarded into the streets. Most never get home again.

With this in mind, and because there are a lot of orphans in Nepal, Christian families have taken it upon themselves to help as much as possible. 

So, they build these giant orphanages where they take care of thousands of children.

(No, I'm just joking.)

There is no money to do that, and the government makes building an orphanage in Nepal very difficult.

No, what they do is take children into their homes.  Now, these are people who are poor just like everyone else in Nepal, but they know the scriptures say to take care of orphans, so they just do it.  They can have four additional kids live in their house besides their own without any questions asked, and these families take in four kids, raise them as their own, and when those kids get old enough to move out they get four more.

This, to me, is walking out the gospel in the purest way.  They see orphans and they say, "We will take care of you, and raise you as family."  It is always amazing to see the gospel walked out in such a simple way by people who do not expect any praise, but they will be rewarded in heaven.

*Disclaimer: These are the things I heard in Nepal. Because of translation issues I may not have heard everything correctly. If I got certain details off, I apologize.

Sometimes Things Are Hard

Ugh. Sometimes on the mission field you soar, and sometimes you hit the wall. We have done the latter, folks. It's nothing specific. There's no giant tragedy or drama. Nothing tangible or terrible is wrong, but things are also just not right. Not easy. Not feeling happy happy. Last year at this time we were kindasorta just starting to get over our initial culture shock and find our sea legs (mission field legs?). I don't know why or what exactly happened, but somehow the waves of everyday life have caused us to feel off kilter again. Yo ho ho, a pirate's life for us.

Thankfully, we understand that this happens sometimes, no matter where you are or what you're doing. It's part of life. We've done it before. We'll do it again. God's promises are no less real in the tough times than they are in the easy ones. We're just finding this especially challenging because it is hard enough to proceed without equilibrium when you are on home turf, but even more so when the world around you still feels so foreign.

Learning a language is rough. Learning a culture is rough. Working in a place that has some core values which are pretty different from yours is rough. Watching your loved ones give their all and still struggle is rough. Still struggling yourself after you've given your all is rough. The quicksand of one rough thing after another is... well, rough. (Are you sensing a theme?) Perhaps roughest of all is that underneath all of the other stuff is the endless throb of, "You're not making a difference... you're not making a difference... you're not making a difference..."

That really sucks.

Honestly, it would all be enough - all of the changes and challenges, all of the heartache and helplessness, all of the struggle and strife - if we just didn't feel like our work was for nothing. I know that's a lie from Satan, and that Satan is a busybody and a poopyhead. I know God wouldn't send us somewhere where our efforts would be wasted. I know that we're planting seeds and watering what other people have planted. I know that God honors and uses even our most feeble of efforts, and He promises to use the foolish to confound the wise. But, by golly feeling foolish is getting awfully old, and our efforts do seem pretty darn feeble right now.

So, um... this is where I sum things up in a really cool way, and tie a scripture bow on everything to make it all sunshine. Sorry, the rainy season has lasted longer than usual, so I'm even all out of sunshine these days. At least I still have the Word. God said in Zechariah 4:10 that He doesn't despise humble beginnings, but rejoices to see the work begin.

Oh, Lord Jesus - sometimes it feels like we're at more of an ending than a beginning, but I know you know more than we do. I can at least faintly recall the feelings of hope you planted long ago, and the glimpses you gave which told us we'd be fruitful for your glory on the mission field. I guess that means there's more work to do, 'cause I know you don't lie.

I can't say that I'm rejoicing much these days over the work you've started through us, either. For now it will have to be enough to know that you are rejoicing. I'll have to abide in the idea of you boogying in Heaven over the oh-so humble and messy beginnings it feels like we're slogging through. After all, that's what your Word promises that you're doing.

We desired that our lives would make you happy. Would make you smile. Would make you rejoice. That's all we ever wanted, even more than fruitfulness that we could count and quantify and package into neat little boxes that make us feel good. Thanks for the reminder that we're doing what we said we wanted, even if it doesn't always feel that way. I just have one request - turn up the music a bit louder, would you? I could stand a bit of dancing right now.

Missionary Momma

Being a missionary mom is tough. :(

Before we left, I reminded the Lord that I had kiddos, and He promises in Isaiah 40:11 to lead gently those who have young. And, as always, He's been faithful, but not necessarily in the way that I expected.

Our oldest daughter is a sophomore. Let's just say her adjustment to life in Guatemala, and especially her new school, has not been an especially easy one. I'll spare you the details, but it was bad enough that before the end of her first semester last year, her dad and I were ready to pull her out of school and home school her.

But, then we asked her about it.

Instead of giving a knee-jerk reaction based on her emotions (which most definitely would have led her to come home for her education), she prayed. She sought the Lord. She put His desires above her own, and told us that she felt like He wanted her to stay there to help her classmates and the few friends she had made, and that there were benefits to staying at school that she felt outweighed the challenges.

My kid.
My precious little girl.
The one who used to be my tiny baby.

She prayed to God and got a Word from Him about her life, and her plans, and her ministry here. That's the kind of thing that makes a mama super proud, but that doesn't mean it's made it any easier to watch her walk it all out. Often (almost daily) things are still pretty tough for her at school. It takes everything within me not to walk into the office and tell them that she's done, and then take her home where I know she'd blossom once again in home schooling just like she did before.

She'd be happier. Her life would be easier and more convenient. She wouldn't be as stressed out. She'd reopen old doors of opportunity that had been closed to her when we moved. She'd have more time for herself, more familiarity, more comfort, more peace, more fun, more, more, more...

You know -

More of all of the things we very willingly walked away from in order to serve the Lord in Guatemala.

More of all of the things that we decided were worth living without because the benefits of life here far outweigh the challenges.

More of all of the things that make it hard for our loved ones when they look at the life we've chosen.

And, why did we choose it?

Because we prayed to God and got a Word from him about our lives, and our plans, and our ministry here.

<crickets> 

(Ok, God - I see what you did there.)

Like I said - being a missionary mom is tough, but I really wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Enough!

My handsome hubby (left) with his cohorts in Nepal!

Mark's been gone for over a week. I've only been able to Skype with him once and message him a handful of very brief times. The last one was at 2:00 in the morning days ago, during which he warned me that he would have even less access to internet over the next several days than he has already. I've had enough already!!! <sniff sniff>

Mah hubby's gawn, an' I got de blues.
<insert sad harmonica music here>
Oh, yeah, I sed my hubby's gaaaaaaaaawn, an' I got de bluuuuuuuuues.
<more harmonica, and maybe a bit of twanging string bass>
I got dem blu-u-u-ues, I got de missionary wife blues.
<snazzy sort of 'mwah mwaaaaaah' musical ending>

Only, not really.

Yes, I miss my husband. Yes, I wish he was here. Yes, life is easier when he's around in oh so many ways. And, yes, we're super excited to see him on Sunday. But, we're also fine. He's doing exactly what God has asked him to do. He's telling people about Jesus, loving orphans, encouraging and strengthening those who are doing the Lord's work in Nepal. I'm doing exactly what God has asked me to do. I'm teaching and equipping Guatemala's future leaders, praying with and for those in need, supporting and loving my colleagues. What's not to love? Honestly, I can't imagine a better life. It's like God showed us the sweet spot and then allowed us the blessing of living there every day.

He's so good.

That doesn't mean things are easy, but they are good. Some of my students have recently shared deep hardships and challenges with me. But, they've shared them with me. I see grinding poverty all around me, and often (as was the case yesterday) all I can do is offer some simple food, a Bible, and a few dollars. But, I can offer simple food, a Bible, and a few dollars. Perhaps hardest of all, my friends and family are struggling with profoundly difficult and painful situations, and all I can do is pray. But, I can pray.

I went into mission work with an idea that I was going to change the world for Jesus. And, I am, but it looks different than what I expected. The things I do now are the same things I've always done, but I do them more often and more willingly. Somehow I find myself less hesitant to enter in to the heartache, and the struggle, and the poverty, and the challenges, and, and, and... than I ever was before. I don't have any more answers, but I've realized that's ok. I never was the answer to begin with, but He always was, is, and always will be.

 That's enough for me. It's enough motivation to jump into the thick of things. It's enough equipping to enter in where I don't feel equipped to enter in. It's enough comfort for when things get hard. It's enough peace for when I can't find peace any other place. It's enough, because He's enough.