I was born while my parents were in missionary training and my family moved overseas when I was 16 months old or so. They worked in various ministries until they finally joined a tribal work in 1980, where my Mom stills ministers. My family has had some amazing experiences, some of which I hope to post here (I did write one post about the snake in the window). My dad passed away in 1999, ironically back in the U.S. (not to make light of it, but I think quite a few people were sure that one or the other of us would die on the mission field!). About a year later, my Mom went back overseas to continue the work. She persevered in that work for several years, traveling back and forth from the field to the States to take help take care of my grandparents in their last years of life.
During that time, she reconnected with John, a friend of both my parents from high school. John has been a pastor in a small church for more than 20 years and had recently lost his wife. A rather whirlwind romance ensued and they were married in a small ceremony a few months later. John has been so good for Mom, and I daresay that she's good for him, too! It's been neat to see how their relationship has grown and it's nice for my sisters and me to know that Mom is being taken care of...John was a little nervous about inheriting 5 new daughters (and sons-in-law) and 20 grandkids, but so far, so good! :)
Both Mom and John felt like God has been leading them to return to the mission field, so earlier this year John retired from the pastorate and they began preparations to go back. They flew out yesterday and are now getting settled into Mom's apartment in the city. I am so proud of both of them and I'm excited to see how God uses them in their ministry. It would be nice if we could manage to serve in the same country (hey, at least we're in the same hemisphere!), but oh well...in the meantime, we both have Vonage phones...thank goodness for technology!
2 comments:
Isn't this technology wonderful? Total change from times as a kid where we would go months without hearing from someone "back home", and more often than not, our letters had been opened and taped back - as if we would not notice!
Did John not have any kids of his own before?
And - you have a good looking mom! Tell her I said so.
I think Mom looks pretty great, too! :) I'll tell her...
Yes, John has 2 sons and daughter, and 5? grandkids...but a much smaller family than ours! Not that we're insensitive, but I don't think we'd thought much about how they would feel about John going to the mission field because we're kind of used to the coming and going (we've got other missionaries in the family, too), but we have realized that they are having to go through some adjustments with this whole thing, too!
Yeah, I remember the 'snail mail' days! And letters being opened a taped...crazy. When we were out in the boonies, the absolute first thing we unpacked when the airplane arrived was the mailbag! The pilots learned to pack that on top...LOL! :) Recently, we found that my Mammaw (Mom's mom) had kept all the letters that Mom had ever written to her from the field...what a treasure!
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