Rest Stops & Water Breaks

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Hebrews 12:1

The trip is coming.   It is only a few weeks away.   So much anticipation.

I feel like I've been running a marathon since we left the US after our last visit.   We left on a huge high after a great visit, a really fun Golf Tournament and lots of people joining prayers, hands and hearts to help in God's work in La Moskitia, Honduras.   

It only took a week for the race to get tough again.  News of break-ins and then more theft when we were here.   Reality got in our face.

At times, just as I imagine in a real footrace, I literally did have lots of dirt in my mouth and my bones ached from traversing too many roads in my Chacos.   (If you don't know what those are, you have to look them up)

More difficult, I have found, is the emotional and mental challenge of running a good race.     This missionary race requires so much more of me than has ever been required of me before.   Seriously.

We have been on the mission field for only a year and a half.    We are early in the race, folks.  And, I can tell you, we want to finish strong.

I read a great blog post that I've been processing for a week or so.   This new missionary mom's post about Messy Missions put words and pictures to the emotional part of my last year and a half. 

Sometimes, as she says, "we've felt swallowed whole by need."   When one is swallowed whole by something, it takes time to pull oneself from it.   (Unless, perhaps, we are spit back out like Jonah.)  Since the Jonah-moment hasn't happened... we have to deal with the race as it is coming. 


Our upcoming US trip is not going to include the overwhelming need we see here every hour.   It is going to include a few rest stops and water breaks.  I have not over-scheduled our family like I did last visit; we have to simply 'be still' for a bit.    We want to sit and listen to what is going on in the lives of our family.   We want to sit and listen and laugh a bit to all that is happening with our friends.  We want to savor moments as we ooh and ahh over how much babies and kids have grown.    We miss these things in your lives, friends.   Oh, how we miss them!

That being said, this visit is going to be an important turning point in our momentum, too. 

Alex (and sometimes me) will be speaking about the mission and the school every Sunday, except Easter.   We get to even travel to Alabama to meet friends that we have known the last 5 years only via the internet and speak at their church.   We will meet with the Reach Out Honduras Board for a great deal of time to iron out the growing pains that have inevitably come as God has turned the organization into something completely unexpected.     We will 'go home again' to our church in Anna, Texas, Pin Oaks Christian Fellowship where God has done a tremendous work since we last saw everyone.  

I'm going to try to blog some before we leave about the need that has recently swallowed me as I've worked to prepare the kids we work with for school this year.      If I don't get time to do that, maybe I can tell you about it in person AFTER I hear about YOU!

I feel like I'm heading into this trip with blistered feet and a parched soul.    Can't wait for a few of those water breaks with all of you!!