MozamWeek

Good morning from chilly Sweden after a rainy night! We've been thinking a lot about fundraising, support raising, partnership development, PR, project planning, budgets, and all-that-goes-into-getting-us-where-we-can-do-what-we're-called-to-do. Earlier this year I wrote about "selfish" missionaries  here . I've been thinking a lot about all of you lately! I've been reminded of how we met and why we are still in touch with each other. I've smiled and gotten a tear now and then because of some of you. We have been through a lot. I miss some of you. I will see some of you tomorrow! Most of all I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for each of you who follows our mission work, our family life and our growth as followers of Jesus. You make my day! As a missionary in need of the financial commitment of "others" to do my "job", I am often very aware that I could seem ingenuine in a relationship. Some might see me as only keeping in touch ...

We have too much. I've noticed this as I pack and unpack when moving between countries. We have to weigh and box up our leftovers (stuff we didn't give away and aren't taking with us). The things I keep to remember the life I have lived and hope to live once again someday. Some of it is necessary. Those boxes of past tax records and bank stuff... a Ziploc with about 25 expired passports. (These are actually necessary sometimes, who would guess!) Those two boxes of kitchen stuff came in very handy when setting up house again in Sweden! I needed those nine years after packing and storing that box Some of it is wonderful. Photos and albums of days-gone-by bring true joy when shared with those we love! We don't look at them often enough. We might have too many, but my friend pulled out a picture of my dad she had from our time in high school. If she hadn't saved it, I wouldn't have it. The box with a few baby clothes from our sweet tiny children... or their fi...

I know that my other international friends understand that phrase. It makes sense despite looking like it might be a typo of some sort. In June, when school ended here in Sweden, our family traveled home to the USA for the summer break. Now, last week, before school started, we all came home to Sweden. Where is home? We get asked that all the time. We don't have a good answer. There's the short answer: "Wherever we are now!" Sometimes it is more like: "Wherever we are all together." All TCKs (Third Culture Kids- who grow up somewhere outside their parents' home culture/place) understand the problems with questions like "Where's home?" or "Where are you from?" We are home in many places. We are not really "at home" anywhere, either. We don't really make a big deal about it one way or the other. We do kind of miss having a place that feels like home like other people seem to have. BUT we are also very thankfu...

Another day of wondering... is this it? Will it happen? Mikael and the team are Skyping again and I hear spurts of Portuguese and Nyungwe dialogue. They discuss a term that might not really match a Greek item in the original. Can they make it better? They discuss verb tenses and discourse markers... It's about 2:30 pm and this is another "last day" for them to check final revision of Luke. They are finally on chapter 24. Around 3:30 pm Mikael comes downstairs.  "We're done." "For the day? Do you have to work on this tomorrow?!?" "No, we are done with the New Testament." Mikael doesn't get excited very easily or visibly. It just doesn't happen. I do! I hugged him. I posted to Facebook. I offered him some coffee. Kids started coming home from school. Mikael's sister saw the post on Facebook and brought a little cake to celebrate when she came to pick up Doris the dog.  We are celebrating in our hearts. Ther...

I ended the title with an exclamation point! It is a hopeful gesture more than a show of exultation. This week marks a full two months since we moved back to Sweden as a family. A church friend asked yesterday if we are here to "recharge our batteries" before returning to missions. I sort of laughed. Yes and no, would be the answer to that one. I was reminded again during the sermon yesterday that we have to live COMPLETELY where we are at the moment. We will miss opportunities to thrive and grow and bless and love if we constantly dream and hope to be somewhere else! We can get lost in that mentality: I'll get to that once I'm ____________. We can fill in the blank with a place or a circumstance: "once I'm back in Africa" or "once the kids finish school" or "when I've finally reached that certain level of spiritual maturity." Honestly, we'll never really get "there" so lets just live the life we are in now! In o...

An important page from my passport December 7th 2017. We left Mozambique There were tears and hugs and lots of luggage and lots of notes about who will take what where and how all of our Earthly possessions have been dispersed. We have very good friends who we trust. We also depend on each other when things get tough or weird or even exciting! I love you guys. You are Jesus' hands weather you know it or not.  December 10th 2017.  We arrived in AMERICA!!! There were hugs and tears and all that luggage! We spent Christmas with my family in Birmingham AL area. Cousins were reacquainted. Sisters were reunited. Brothers-in-law were reminded how it feels to watch the flurry of activity created by the addition of the 1st sister and family to the bunch. It was a wonderful stop and just what we needed. We took the kids away from Grandma's house as little people 5 years ago. They are now full-fledged teenagers and all bigger than Grandma. It was too long to be a...

Usually at this time of my "leavings" I am becoming more and more irritated by my current country and culture. I remember times of temperamental impatience as someone took too long to find a price for my can of tomatoes... or a car managed to perform a particularly common irrational moving violation in my immediate vicinity... or a beggar asked just one more time...   I've not felt that this time. This last time. I am more filled with understanding and nostalgia. I'm much more gracious than usual. This can only be the grace of God, I think, as I pack another box and say another goodbye. Tears are always close. I well up at the slightest inclination... crossing the Zambezi at sunset... waiting for cows to get out of the road... sweating in the heat as the kids come out of the school... remembering him or her or those other ones. I sigh a lot. I've heard it is good for you. I hate crying, but my grandma warned me it gets worse with age. I'm proving her r...