Two Weeks Sunday Funday

Our weekly vlog:

And we also did our first YouTube live, answering some questions we had been given:) It is NOT 5 minutes or less:

Two weeks guys. Two.

I always step into high gear two weeks before a big transition- finalizing and realistically cutting down my to-do list, trying to think of all the last minute stuff so it doesn’t catch me by surprise (but some things always do). Even my appetite changes.

We have done a good job with hitting all our main goals and living life well for this home assignment. We are excited and ready to return to Brazil.

But what they don’t tell you is that the better you do something- the more you open your heart- the greater the connections and love and vulnerability: the harder it is to leave.

My hardest goodbyes (from Brazil and the USA) are always after the sweetest times.

Not all goodbyes are hard. Sometimes you just know it is time. Sometimes God blesses with this unexpected peace about everything. But just because a goodbye is hard doesn’t mean it is bad. In fact, you could say that most hard goodbyes are because the time together was so good.

And so it is because right now is so good: squishing in time with friends and family and learning and growth...that it makes goodbyes harder.

Thank you for the hard goodbyes. 

Reads from the Interwebs: 

1. After Jim Elliot: I think it is so important to look back and realize anyone (ANYONE) that we have put up on a pedestal shouldn't be there--and if we can't find any faults, or think they are practically perfect, something is missing. And most of them would tell you the same thing (the ones that don't...watch out for them). I mean, just look at the Bible: lots of messed up people. The only one I can think of that wasn't was Daniel, and it makes me wonder sometime. He just seems too perfect sometimes. I know that I personally put way too many missionaries on a pedestal, and that just wasn't healthy. I think we should read--and hope my daughters will--about past missionaries and what God did through them, but I hope they are honest, open looks at all aspects of missionary life. 

2. The true Purpose of Home Assignment: almost done with ours!

3. On World Earth Day: so I missed that it was Earth day last week, but I have been increasingly convicted about how I treat nature and use resources the past couple of years: and I think it is a godly conviction as well as a practical one. I am not talking about feeling all guilty about global warming, I am talking about having a healthy perspective that God created the world, and it is a gift to be used wisely and carefully, not just for my convenience and gain. Unfortunately, I have seen many Christians take a stance that current American consumerism/packaging/way of life isn't something they need to look into and seek the Lord about, but that it is just something made up by the media. God help us all. 

4. Enneagram type and Anger: these articles always get me. And so far, they have always been right.

5. A distant look Back at Missions, part 2: Why (in the past) have missionaries left? So interesting. 

6. My most valuable, non-renewable asset 

Easter Sunday Funday

Our weekly vlog:

Our vlog about Easter will be out soon...it takes me a bit of a turn-around these days to get things posted. But, please check out this video about the Easter the kids at Living Stones had! 

Jesus is Risen Indeed! Last Wednesday we had a really great meeting at the Community Church of Greenwood, and had so many questions that later we will be doing a YouTube Live special, answering the rest of the questions about us, Living Stones, and missionary life. We had some dear friends come for the weekend, which was horribly rainy and yucky outside, but fun and warm at the various places we tramped about. Easter was so sunny and special with family and friends and Jesus. 

As the girls get older (especially Sofia), they understand more and more of what is going on: we have been coloring a picture for Lent every morning for the past month and a half, and it was so neat to see how Sofia could understand the Easter story so much better when it was given in small bite sized (coloring) pictures. We have also been preparing the girls for returning to Brazil, to which Sofia said "Oh! I will miss Grandma!" and it made my heart sank. But then she added, "And I will miss my mints!" (that Grandma gives her) And I thought that we might get through this heartache just fine:).

Reads from the Interwebs:

1. When you're sharing Jesus as an Outsider: YES! This makes so much sense! Things are changing in the USA, and while to me, as a missionary, it may even make it feel more like home--to many in the USA it is a scary time, because maybe, just maybe, you are being called to be more of a missionary yourself: "But we can no longer assume agreement about these things. Which means that even if you look the same and speak the same language and are living side by side with your middle class, white American neighbors, if you're a Christian, you are now a cross-cultural missionary. Effective evangelism in America requires that you understand a different worldview." (Is it bad that this makes a little happy?) 

2. What your pastor's sneakers say about their theology: This is a funny look at an important issue. The church of High End put it well: "I hope I would have the good sense never to take the job as a lead pastor where I am paid more than double the salary of the lowest paid full-time church worker. That means if I make $100,000 a year, the full-time church custodian ought to make at least $50,000. If I have benefits, she should too. Churches should set the bar on living wage for all staff." If we, the church, can't figure out this living wage stuff and make it work in real life, how can we (me, I definitely mean me) complain about the government/companies not doing it???

3. Money and missions: Do you have a plan for retirement? I posted this for me. Because no, no we do not. 

4. What it's like to travel when you have a "bad" passport: wow. How have I gone this long without realizing that for "others" the word is "Immigrant" while for me (aka American/European, probably white) the word is "expatriate"? It is important to read articles like this. 

5. Stories of Transracial adoptees: Guys! It is so true: I want to hear the good, happy stories where no one is bitter--100%! But we need to give space and listen to all the stories--even the not so happy...and even bitter ones--like about racism (see story #4, or adoptees, or LGBT pain..,) Redemption begins in telling and listening to stories. 

6. All the Easter Billboards: I love Easter--and took full advantage of two community Easter egg hunts to let my kids get tons of candy. And to visit churches we have never been to--with tons of people we don't know. I love all the open doors and hospitality of churches all over the city, and think that is how Christianity should always look. But, "It is much easier to welcome blurry, romanticized strangers on Easter Sunday than it is to welcome the darkest parts of each other in the weeks and years afterwards. Or, more succinctly: Relationships are hard. Grace is hard. Love-your-neighbor-as-yourself is so hard, especially when you don’t understand your neighbor, and when you’re not sure you even love yourself." 

7. Six R's of successful home assignment: Love this! Our goals, finishing in three weeks, are: 

"Rest

Recoup (family time, self care)

Report to our churches

Remember where we came from (enjoy American culture again)

Raise our support team

Return to the field as capable workers ready for another term of service"

8. Best morning routines for Enneagram types: This is fun (and true)

Sunday Funday April

Our weekly vlog:

Caid asked when we had free to get together with some friends and I scrolled through our calendar and said "April 29th. That's the last free night." It's down to that, my friends. Each week is filled with wonderful times, and during morning devotions I ask for grace to be able to enjoy and focus on each thing, without getting overwhelmed with all the other things around it. Many times I do, and sometimes I don't. Still working on it! Some highlights were Thursday morning prayer meeting at WRI and the encouragement we were given, and on Sunday Caid preached and I shared about Brazil and it was beauty and joy for our hearts. You can watch it yourself on a link I posted on Facebook!

Reads from the Interwebs:
1. One read that will change how you think about Immigration: “The child of immigrant parents is supposed to perch on a hyphen, taking only the dose of America he needs to advance in America.”
2. How setting a minimum viable day proved I'm not actually failing all the time: “I can do four things a day.” I said out loud to myself. “I can look after the kids, cook, clean the house, and homeschool. If anything else is added to my day one of those four things will not happen.”
3. Twenty Easter foods around the world: I enjoy things like this! It has Brazil eating Pasoca, which we do, but in my area we eat it all the time, not special for Easter. 
4. A letter to the grandparents of my third culture kid: This article had me sobbing in the bathroom--too close to home and change and all that--my word. 

April Sunday Funday

Our weekly vlog:

We had another lovely week, with one of the most perfect Saturdays ever--Spring in full bloom! I always forget how impressive season changes are (in Brazil it is hot, hot, hot, and rainy for our four seasons). I am suddenly too hot in my coat and boots and have to figure out how to dress for Spring, and then realize I don't have any spring clothes. I ask my husband what the weather is going to be, because it actually matters for what I wear (I live in flip flops in Brazil: they work for sun and rain). Sofia keeps asking if we are done wearing coats now, and keep answering "I don't know Honey." She loves that she has snow boots, rain boots, play shoes, dress shoes, and sandals (again, mostly just sandals in Brazil), and she looks out the window to see what shoes she gets to wear that day.

We got to go cabin camping with my family for the weekend, and it was pretty amazing! (Video coming soon!)

Reads from the Interwebs:

1. How the Rapids showed me Beauty    “Will you still follow me?”

            “Well, yes,” I answered.

            “What if she never walks? Plays soccer? Gets married?”

            A teardrop swelled at the base of my eye.

            “What if I take her home today?”

            Boom! The weight of my fears laid out before me, would I still follow?

            Slowly I answered, “Yes, but please be patient with me.”

2. Lament on the First day of Spring:  "Racial reconciliation isn’t something anyone in the church should be able to choose to be apathetic to. And yet, there are many who believe they don’t have to engage because they aren’t feeling it and weren’t born facing it. It’s a flat-out privilege for anyone to say they aren’t feeling itand it’s not their thing."

3. Get ready for Ramadan

4. Yes, I'm Judging you: :"Humans are hard-wired to make judgments. We can say that we are open-minded and accepting and not bigoted until we're blue in the face, but when someone comes along who tries to justify raping a child or stealing our car or owning slaves, we suddenly become very judgmental indeed."

5. The Best Bookstores in all 50 States

6. Poets around the World printable packet: because apparently April is poetry month!

Last of March Sunday Funday

Our weekly vlog:

We are heading back to Brazil in six weeks and I am definitely feeling the crunch. There is just so much here (to learn and to buy), and so many options to everything! I put together a list of things we need for ourselves and for ministry, if you would like to be a part of that. We spent a lot of the week trying to consolidate childhood memories/pictures from life and so much stuff that takes up storage while we are in Brazil. I am putting together an Instagram account just for memories (the baseball caught at a game, Sofia's first onesie, our graduation tassels...) to remember/write something about them, and then make a photo book to be able to look at all of them. As the girls grow up, we can take pictures of their best artwork and school projects and add them to the Instagram account--and that way keep things more mobile and less cluttered. It all sounds like a great idea--we will see how it actually works!

Reads from the Interwebs:
1. The early Christians knew how to respond to violence
2. Sitting in the Dust with the disgraced American church
3. TCK lessons: after everyone leaves: I so appreciate the continuing conversation on this!
4. A distant look back at Missions and Attrition: I find these so interesting...it has a bunch of facts and statistics about missionaries.