This weekend I was hanging out with a good friend of mine and we were perusing a local arts festival with a group of friends. All of us girls were way ahead of our husbands, surprising I know. Guys taking their sweet time at an arts festival. Us girls were commenting on how pokey our boys were being. My friend then told us a recent story with her and husband butting heads during something because of how much more she values efficiency above most else. She said all too often that her efficiency will trump the experience 9 times out of 10. Her story rang all too true with me as well. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I thrive on efficiency. The definition of a good day for me is making a list and accomplishing everything on that list, and sometimes I admit I am one of those people that will even write something on the list even though I have already completed it, just so I can cross it out. Now some of you I know are rolling your eyes, but I know some of you know exactly what I am talking about:)
However, in the midst of my efficiency driven whirlwind pace that I like to move at, I too realize how often I miss out on the actual experience. How often, do I want accomplish one thing to simply move on to the next, even when it is something I really truly enjoy. When I was in PA school, one of my professors made the comment…”enjoy the journey” (which in grad school can be incredibly hard to do:)) But that has really become my mantra, a constant reminder to slow down and take it all in at times.
I guess all my efficiency driven worldview will come to a halting stop, a glacial pace in Honduras. In a country where enjoying the journey is a little too natural, and efficiency is a foreign word to them. I remember one of my future teammates mentioned, an efficient day in Honduras was making a list and getting one of those things on your list actually accomplished that day! But you know what I think I have a lot to learn from the local Hondurans. After all life is about community, relationship, and experiences. It is not about how balanced your checkbook is, if your errands were all run that day, and your kitchen floors were washed. At the end of the day, you remember the kind word someone emailed you, you remember the sweet hug of a loved one, and the great conversation you had had with a friend.
-Renee
And so it begins. We’ve been having support conversations about Honduras with some friends and family for a while now. This past week, though, was the first time we began to share our story with large groups of people who we are a little less connected with. The prospect of this was definitely intimidating but we found that rather than being awkward or fear inducing, we really enjoyed a chance to share our story and our heart for working in La Ceiba. In fact, we both found it somewhat energizing. Being that we’ve never done anything remotely like building a support team before, this breakthrough is much needed. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by it all, we can now look forward to the many times we will be able to talk about our vision for serving in La Ceiba, Honduras.
Has it really been 8 years? So I just got back late last night from going to Grand Rapids, Michigan for my little brother’s college graduation. Which means its been eight years since I have graduated from college. I do not feel like it has been that long. But than I have gotten married, moved to Atlanta, went to grad school, started a career in cardiac surgery, Seth went to seminary, is an Assistant pastor, we have bought our first house, we have gotten and dog, and now I am 5 months pregnant and we are planning to move to Honduras. Okay, yeah it has been a while! Of course you can’t help reminiscing about the past without dreaming about the future. So I think to myself, I wonder what the next 8 years will hold? I could begin to speculate, but than again I am sure I will be way off, cuz God has a funny way of deciding that usually your plans do not quite jive with His, and He has got something far bigger and better in store. So I guess I will just have to stay tuned…:)
-Renee
It is funny how the littlest things can quickly transport you back to a different time or experience in your life. I feel like music and smells can do that to me in an instant. Maybe it was just because it was Cinco de Mayo and Latin culture was in my face for the last week. But I have had some pretty distinct “sensational remembrances” lately.
The first one happened when I walked into one of my patient’s rooms at the hospital who was a Hispanic woman. It was the smell of detergent. Now I know a lot of you may think I am crazy, but there is a distinct detergent smell that screams Latin culture to me. I have smelt it when I was in Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, and recently Honduras. It is kind of funny, but it is definitely a “comfort smell” for me.
The second was the sound of live Latin Music at this restaurant we went to last week as we were sitting outside on the patio eating chips and salsa. The song brought me instantly back to sitting in the back of a beat-up pickup truck traveling on a little dusty road on our way to run an errand in the town when we were working in an orphanage in Mexico a couple years back.
The third happened last night while Seth and I were attempting to make some pork plaintain enchiladas with this homemade tomatillo sauce. Which to say the least was good, but a lot of work. Seth had just blended this sauce that had onions, tomatillos, cilantro, salt, and limes and commented “wow get a whiff of this it smells pretty good.” Which infact it did smell really good, but I think part of why it was so good was the great memories that flooded my mind as my nose took in the lime and cilantro combo.
Hmmm, it is funny how little things get you excited for missions. I guess even sometimes God uses mariachi bands, detergent and cilantro as little glimpses and tokens to take with us in our daily grind to get us pumped for what we are about to embark on.:)
-Renee
As we began this whole mission process people both in missions and others we would bump into as we began to tell them our story and why we wanted to go move to Honduras and do mission work, the same question would inevitably pop up: “So why would you pick up and leave your life you have here to move to one of the most impoverished places in the Western hemisphere, I mean, it seems like your life here in Atlanta is pretty great, you have a great group of friends, a church you love, and jobs you enjoy and feel challenged/fulfilled in?”
The truth of the matter is…we do! We love our lives here in Atlanta. Two weekends ago we had an incredible time enjoying life in Atlanta, hanging out with friends, playing tennis, cheering Seth on at his soccer game, going to a local festival with friends, going to one of our favorite mexican restaurants on a date night. And this past weekend was another reminder of how we are pretty content with what we have going on…We enjoyed a great weekend hanging out with Seth’s brother and sister-in-law who came down to visit from Michigan. And to top it all off we got to go to a private concert at our church put on by one of our fav bands, “Over the Rhine”. So the question arises amongst all this…”why would we want to leave all this behind?”
But the reality is, we are not called to be happy and content. Life is more than just hanging out with friends, going to festivals, and eating at our favorite local restaurant. And as easy as it is sometimes to think that that is all we are called to do. We arent! Whether it is here in Atlanta or preparing to go to a third-world counry, I feel like whenever I am starting to get this smug feeling of contentment and entitlement God throws a curveball in my direction to grab my attention and say…deal with this! In a good and painful way at times, we need to be reminded that we are made for more.
So when someone asks us, “why would you want to leave all you have behind?”. We can tell them, because we are not running from something and not trying to find something we don’t have here in Atlanta. Rather, through this process of preparing for the mission field God continues to remind us that he has something else in store for us…something that involves eating “baleadas” at the local Honduran restaurant, and cheering my husband as he plays soccer with some of the local boys of La Ceiba, and tending to the medical needs of a single mother of four in a little cinder-block clinic…
-Renee
To say that our lives are going to change a lot over the next year or so is probably putting it lightly. As if it wasnt enough that we are in the midst of fundraising with the plan to move to Honduras in a little over a year. But we are gonna welcome a new little member to our family in mid- September. Yep we are pregnant! It is crazy God’s timing, I guess not really crazy, more providential. We always said if we have a little kid before we leave we want him/her to be at least 6 months old, if all goes as planned our new little bundle of joy will be about 8 months old when we plan to leave for language school in Costa Rica next spring. So if you are sitting there reading this and putting it all together, yep you are right…we will have a puppy that is 11 months old, a new baby, and well on our way towards the mission field by the fall…I know a little insane. But life is an adventure and you might as well jump in with two feet rather than watch the waves!
-Renee
This is where Renee and I will be working some day. The building that is just under construction will eventually house both the med clinic and the seminary.
The rural community center is continuing to move forward in La Ceiba
Powerful series about a pastor living with ALS
So last weekend marked the end of the an era for us, for our household, for 59 Warren Street. Our roommates of almost 4 years moved out. It was and still is bittersweet. While both of us were ready to move on and have our own space again, it was way more than just parting ways and saying good-bye to roommates, it was saying good-bye to your brother and sister.
Three years and nine months ago, the four of us embarked on a journey that we were excited, nervous about and not quite sure where it would take us. We bought a house together. Many of our friends and family thought we were crazy and that it would never work. We moved in and had our share of growing pains and adjustments especially the first year. But the four of us made this house our home and in the process learned a lot about love and grace.
It has been a week now on our own again. The house feels a little too empty, a little too quiet and not quite right. While I know all four of us can say with certainty that it was definitely hard at times and these years have stretched us and challenged us, I know and am pretty sure the other three would agree that these years will be missed and looked back upon with fond memories!
Renee
