Backcountry Flying

Thin.

Do you ever get to the end of your day, and just feel thin? Not the kind of thin where your pants fit better--but the kind of thin where your head feels wavy and your emotions are a little too close to the surface? I've been feeling thin lately. Part of the problem is that I'm sick. Part of it is that my baby is sick. Part of it is that we have both been sick for most of the winter.

Part of it is that it IS winter.

Part of it, though, is that there's just so much to do. Right now my list includes scheduling immunizations, meeting with a lawyer to put together our paperwork, applying for our residency visa in Indonesia, making a packing list of everything we'll need for four years, buying everything that we'll need for four years in Indonesia, and staying on top of schoolwork. The least stressful thing in our lives right now is actually the main thing we are supposed to be doing: meeting with people and asking them to partner with us. That's easy and exciting. It's all the other stuff that's getting a little wearing. Maybe you feel the same way... that the peripheral things in your life are distracting from the main thing, and it's making you feel a little thin.

As always, God's word is there to give me sustenance and some much needed spiritual calories.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God. And the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ." Philippians 4:6-7

"Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in all the earth." Psalm 46:10.

We are a part of a much bigger story than today. Yet God cares about this day and our lives, and he offers us rest and peace in the midst of all of it.

{Joy}

World's Worst Missionary Blogger!

During our ministry partnership training at Mission Aviation Fellowship, we had a session on how to effectively blog to keep people connected to our ministry. I thought, "Here's one session I can snooze through... I've been blogging for years." And look at me! It's been months without a post--I'm the world's worst missionary blogger! (Well, actually, Pete would be the worst. I don't think he's ever written a blog post in his life. He was really excited to start a video blog about our MAF experience, but after recording himself for three minutes he realized that he had set up the camera in such a way that cut off the top half of his head. And apparently that was the end of that.)

If I had to pinpoint one reason why we haven't been documenting our exciting journey to Indonesia, it's probably because that journey has been very, very busy. Up until last month, Pete and I were both in school full time while meeting with as many people as we could to invite them to partner with us. Any moment that we have to reflect on the experience has gone into our prayer letters.

I don't think we accounted for how much work school, ministry partnership and parenting was going to be over the past few months. We thought, "We don't have to go anywhere for work, so how busy could we be?" Turns out busier than we've ever been in our lives, with hardly a spare moment to rest. We each were putting in about 20 hours of ministry partnership per week (phone calls, emails, meetings, paperwork...), plus 35 hours of schoolwork, while simultaneously trying to keep Anders alive... which proved very challenging during the "this open safety pin I found on the floor looks really tasty!" phase around nine months.

While sometimes I get the sense that people are bragging about their productivity when they talk about being busy, we do not pride ourselves on being really busy. To me, "really busy" is an embarrassing symptom of not being able to order my life in a balanced manner. And Pete doesn't have any illusions about the amount of downtime that he needs in order to be productive in work. He needs a lot, and he didn't get it. But God carried us through our embarrassing predicament. We often reflected that our life consisted of several buckets, and we felt like we were only dropping teeny tiny drops into each bucket every day. But by the grace of God, all of our buckets were and are brimming. We each got good grades in our classes. Our funding is on track. Our marriage is healthy. Our baby didn't actually swallow any of the curious amounts of open safety pins that he found on our floors. It always seems impossible until it's done, right?

We're far from "done" but it doesn't feel impossible anymore. We're about 40% of the way toward being fully funded, which means that we're on track but still have a lot ahead. We also have one more semester of school before we walk the graduation stage together in May. But our schedules are not nearly as busy as they were, and we can feel ourselves starting to breathe. I only have one class this semester (a far cry from the five I was juggling last). I'm two weeks in and hardly feel like I'm in school at all! This means that I can support Pete as he plows full steam ahead in school and ministry, just like he supported me during my difficult load last semester.

Now that I have time to be still, to snuggle with my baby instead of simply warding off choking hazards, and to spend time with the Lord without having to put "pray" on my overloaded to-do list, a few things have started to settle in. Like, we're moving to Indonesia in early November. That's, umm, huge. In all the busyness getting there, sometimes I forget that we're actually going there. It really is an incredible journey, and I'm thankful that I have the time to reflect on it more.

{Joy}