Living the Dream...

The past two weeks have been a little rough.  We are gearing up for jungle camp (more on that later), homework has been increasing, Grammar is WAAAAY harder than I thought (I'm not as smart as I thought I was), this spring semester is a long one and our class is tired, and our family hasn't really been hearing from people and we're feeling forgotten...so, to make a long story short, this is a perfect recipe for discouragement, doubt, and feelings of failure.

As I was having ANOTHER meltdown over Grammar, Bill was holding me and said, "Well, we're living the dream, aren't we?"  I kind of looked up and I thought "I guess so."

What exactly is the dream of being a missionary anyway?  What did I think it meant?  Being with people of another skin colour, surrounding me, literally DYING to know who the Saviour is?  Being out in the "bush", giving medicine to people who would LOVE to NOT have to die with malaria, or measles, or the myriad of other diseases we can easily cure with anti-biotics?

Here is the reality of a missionary's dream.  There will always be more to do than there are hours in the day.  There will always be something that we can't seem to figure out, and feel lost in it.  There will always be projects/terms/fill-in-the-blank that seem to go on forever with no break, and there will always be times when you not only FEEL forgotten, you actually are.  What do we do with the dream then?  What then?

I really don't have an answer to that.  I do believe that God is the one who gave me the "dream" of being a missionary.  What I'm finding out though, is that He also gets to design what that will look like.   I don't get to design the dream for myself.  I don't get to decide the things I'm to learn.

What I DO know, is that being a missionary is MORE about God teaching me about Himself, and way LESS about me teaching others about God.  Sharing Christ in a cross-cultural context will come, in time.  But right now,  I'm learning things about God that I might not have learned had we not come into the training.  And yes, that IS 'LIVING THE DREAM.'

I Know a Girl...

I know a girl.  I'll call her Girl #1.  Actually, she's a woman, and has recently become a parent for the first time, as the sibling pair she and her husband are adopting, have moved permanently into her home.  A family has been praying for them for many years, for this journey to parenthood.  Many nights of sharing, council, tears, and prayers as they worked through God's sovereign plan for their lives, came and went.  They "adopted" that family's kids into their family, taking them on outings, and loving them as if they were their own.  They started sharing sacred family holidays together, such as Christmas and birthdays, as the couple HAD become a part of that family.  They would talk often about when God would grant them kids, how they wanted these experienced parents to be an integral part of coming alongside them, teaching them patiently how to parent, and praying with them through that process.

I know another girl.  I'll call her girl #2.  Actually, she too is a woman, and has now lived in a different country than girl #1, for 8 months.  Girl #1 became a parent back in January, long after girl #2 had left.  And even though girl #2's excitement for and with them is as strong as ever, the realization that she won't be a part of girl #1's daily life with kids, has really struck girl #2.  Struck her with envy.

Girl #2 wanted to be the one to be asked for advice.  She wanted to be the one that was called over to help out.  She wanted the thanks on facebook so people would see how amazing her sage advice was.  She, she, she.  Consumed with self, she became envious.  Instead of being grateful that others were offering their help, and others were encouraging this new mom through facebook, all she saw was that she was not a part of that picture.  Instead of seeing the Body of Christ come together and alongside them, and being in awe of it, she resented it.

In case you haven't guessed, girl #2 is me, and what I just described is my story.  I was recently faced with the deep resentment and envy that I had allowed to grow in my heart.  

The reality of being a missionary is that you miss out on A LOT of things that happen back home. We may not like it, but that's the reality.  That's now OUR reality.  We can be jealous and envious of the fact that we're not there to celebrate, cry with, encourage, laugh with, and live life with people at home, OR we can choose to let those things go,and be grateful that others in the body of Christ have stepped in to fill the holes that you perhaps left.

And maybe we ARE there for them.  Our family is most definitely praying for them.  Maybe we were a small part of the foundation they are now laying as parents.  Maybe they saw the way Bill and I parented, and through God's grace, saw it done well, depending always on God's grace.  

That is after all our greatest desire for them, that they would remember to parent with God's grace, and not their own efforts.

Spring Break 2013 (Part 2)

Well, after a few days of taking in the local activities...

...we decided to take a day trip into Maine.  But before we got there, we toured a little submarine, located in  Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  What a load of fun that was!

                                          The kids in front of the sub.

                  Not sure what we're doing, but we're having a blast doing it:)

                   They never asked for directions, so we never found Nemo;)

                                            Liam cookin' up something.

                                 Would YOU like to sleep in these bunks?

                               Eli, making sure of our position and heading.

Next stop, Maine...

...and the beach!

                  Why are there no people there?  Because it was C O L D!!!

Yet a good time was had by all!

            You can take the girl out of Florida, but not Florida out of the girl:)

                                                    My love and I.

                                The kids enjoying walking on the rocks.

Thanks again Pavkov's for a great time.

Spring Break 2013 (part 1)

A couple of weeks ago, our family had the opportunity to go visit dear friends in New Hampshire, for our week of spring break.  We had many fun times together, and just enjoyed being in their home.  We did as many "New England-y" activities as possible. It was a great week.

We drove through beautiful Vermont.  The roads were quite windy and hilly, and Simon soon got car-sick and threw-up.  I (Debby) was not far behind:(  So Bill pulled into the first little stop we could find, and it looked like a small convenience store.  We soon found out it wasn't.  It was a little ma + pa maple syrup business.

We watched the syrup being boiled down...

...and then got to taste the light amber syrup they were making that day.  YUM!

On to New Hampshire!  Having lived in Florida for 19 years, the mountains were just beautiful to see.

We all got to try our hand at target practice.

..and looks like someone found a friend:)

Ethan helped Miss Andrea make one of our favorites, pao de queijo, to go with our Brazilian-style rice and beans.  Also YUM!!

                                      Do YOU think she made enough??

Scratch Cooking Week (Part 3)

Last week Thursday was Liam's day to help me in the kitchen.  We had invited one of our teachers and his family over for dinner, and Liam wanted to make beef stew and dumplings.  I've never made a dumpling in my life, and wasn't sure how it would go.  But, we made them, and the meal, along with roasted potatoes was actually quite delicious.  Along with the meal, Bronia made her famous chocolate/mocha cake.  Delicious!

                                      Liam cutting up the vegetables...

                                          ...rolling the dumplings...

                                  ...and enjoying the fruit of his labours:)

                                              Bronia's delicious cake!

Then on Friday, our class had a potluck, to celebrate the end of scratch week cooking.  Ethan is helping me pull pork apart, for BBQ pork sandwiches.

     I just love potlucks with missionaries.  The variety is always amazing:)

Scratch Week Cooking (Part 2)

Day 2 started off like the rest, with oatmeal.

For lunch we had baked potatoes with the leftover lentils dal, and some sauteed mushrooms and onions.

For dinner is was Eli's turn to help.  He chose sweet and sour pork over rice, and it too was delicious.

Wednesday saw Bronia making potato pancakes, with sauteed sausages and onions and tabbouli salad.

And for dinner, we had  Bill's homemade pizza, which is quickly becoming famous.

So far the week has been delicious!

Scratch Cooking Week

So LAST week, we had some classes designed to teach us how to cook meals from scratch.  When you're in a remote tribe, you usually don't have the luxury of fresh ingredients, prepared items or electricity for different appliances.  So, all this week, we've been cooking from scratch, with the kids helping.

Our days start like any other, with oatmeal.  We've done this for years, and this week is no different.

Monday for lunch was one of my favorites, Lentils dal over rice.

For dinner, Simon chose beef/potato pie, and he helped make it.

Then, yesterday, Eli helped me make banana bread from scratch, which I've done many times.  However, I've never done it without the aid of an electric mixer.  But we both managed to get it all mixed...

...And out came two lovely loaves.