Dustin and a team from YWAM transporting a 95 year-old woman after she was helicoptered out of her home, way back in. She could no longer care of herself, so the guys hiked her, plus her wheelchair, for about an hour to her granddaughter's home. Which is why it's so hard to describe an average day in the mission field...
Yoya, Belen, and I at a recycling art class I gave on Tenglo Island. 
The kiddos on Osorno Volcano enjoying the snow!I guess I'm still used to four clearly-defined seasons, because it always surprises me how they blend here. As we drove down a volcano the other day, where we'd played in the fluffy snow, I marveled at the orange flowers bursting forth on the trees, catching the brilliant light of the sun. My hydrangeas shrivel and die one week, and the next you can see the buds forming. The lawn white with frost in the morning and my roses blooming steadily.
Squished between the ocean and the Andes, our weather is fairly temperamental. Or just mental. The seasons sort of look like this:
Summer: somewhat rainy
Fall: rainy
Winter: very rainy
Spring: rainy
But it sure does make for an emerald green south. Dustin and I often say Southern Chile would be perfect if it'd only do all its' raining at night : ).
With both excitement and sadness we are in our last rainy winter here in Puerto Montt. I'm a great disliker of "lasts", I much prefer "firsts", they are so full of promise. "Lasts" are so charged with melancholy, a tinge of regret. Perhaps some think that going "home" is easy, or natural. I'm afraid it is not.
I find myself worrying a bit about the kids. When we were home on furlough last time, we had gone to a church event and Sophia had tried to play with two of the little girls at church. They totally shunned her. She was just trying to introduce herself as she does with all the little Chilean friends she has: you go up, act like a ham, inititate a game of 'tag' and you're in. I thought maybe Sophia didn't notice the rejection. But two years later (yesterday) she said that she was sad that little girls in the states don't like her. I hugged her and told her that God is preparing special friends for her, but inside I was like, "Lord, oh Lord help! She's Chilean inside, how will she fit in there?". There are many things in a mother's heart.
We are trying to navigate the seasons...
They blend and blur...
Sarah
Squished between the ocean and the Andes, our weather is fairly temperamental. Or just mental. The seasons sort of look like this:
Summer: somewhat rainy
Fall: rainy
Winter: very rainy
Spring: rainy
But it sure does make for an emerald green south. Dustin and I often say Southern Chile would be perfect if it'd only do all its' raining at night : ).
With both excitement and sadness we are in our last rainy winter here in Puerto Montt. I'm a great disliker of "lasts", I much prefer "firsts", they are so full of promise. "Lasts" are so charged with melancholy, a tinge of regret. Perhaps some think that going "home" is easy, or natural. I'm afraid it is not.
I find myself worrying a bit about the kids. When we were home on furlough last time, we had gone to a church event and Sophia had tried to play with two of the little girls at church. They totally shunned her. She was just trying to introduce herself as she does with all the little Chilean friends she has: you go up, act like a ham, inititate a game of 'tag' and you're in. I thought maybe Sophia didn't notice the rejection. But two years later (yesterday) she said that she was sad that little girls in the states don't like her. I hugged her and told her that God is preparing special friends for her, but inside I was like, "Lord, oh Lord help! She's Chilean inside, how will she fit in there?". There are many things in a mother's heart.
We are trying to navigate the seasons...
They blend and blur...
Sarah
2 comments:
Oh Sarah! How I relate to your thoughts, worries, and prayers! Being a missionary mom means so many things...and our kids figure in on so many seasons we go through. I, too, worried a great deal about how my kids would adjust. They didn't adjust well last yr. They wouldn't leave our sides, and had to sleep next to us the entire 3 months. They were so confused, frightened, and just could not understand the customs, cold, food, lack of routine...it was all so much. You are always in my prayers, all of you!! Peace to you all.
Especially praying for you and the 3 children as you transition out of Chile and into the States and wherever God takes you and the family next.
Yes, as a Mom, it surely is hard to watch your kids go through rejections and other hard time. I want to protect them for those kind of pains I experienced at a child too.
I feel especial sadness that it was church kids not knowing how to welcome and include Sophia.
Miriam
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