Thrown Overboard
With our recent unexpected move off the farm, our family feels like we’ve been thrown overboard. We talked about this over the breakfast table, and I said, “I feel like we’ve been thrown overboard, and we’ve been graciously rescued by a beautiful sailboat.”
Aspen responded, “Yeah, but it hurt when we hit the deck!”
We all had a good, healthy laugh.
We really appreciate the place we’ve landed in. The house is small, but we’re making it a home. The property is beautiful. Coffee pickers work the rows of plants surrounding the house each morning. We’re enjoying the closeness of our neighbor friends, whose children come over each day asking to play with ours.
But Aspen is right. It’s still a hard transition.
Last week, I received an encouraging update from fellow missionaries with whom we went to language school five years ago. They headed to Peru, and we stayed in Costa Rica. Their update started with this:
“Our missionary life has been 99% carving out new paths with little or no results, many obstacles, and a lot of waiting, with 1% fruit.”
I immediately texted him to thank him, saying it made us feel so NORMAL! That’s why it was encouraging.
While we can look back over the past five years at all the growth we’ve experienced, all the families we’ve been able to host and serve, the worship times we’ve led, and the people we’ve been able to love, it still feels like “99% carving out new paths with little or no results, many obstacles, and a lot of waiting.”
That’s not a pity party viewpoint; it’s just honest. We feel like, as we heal from the transition and as we get our family back onto the rails, we’re about to launch. All this preparation (that has most often felt like death and disappointment) is about to pay off. Something good is coming. (And we don’t just mean the baby!)
Thanks for sticking with us. For praying, for giving, for caring, and for coming.
Love,
Dave, Heather, Aspen, Clementine, Louis, Juliana, Huxley, Caspian, and Baby Girl! Helmuth
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