It's a Crock Pot Life

I. Am. Amazed.

Here we are in the USA for our first Home Assignment/Furlough.

Without wasting your time, or mine, since we are all very busy (apparently our American culture has folks trapped into thinking we are so busy that we MUST read and answer texts while we are driving in our cars??), I'll just get to the point.

Guys- my whole life feels like a crock pot. There are machines that are doing the work FOR me! I feel like I can "Fix It and Forget It" with all of these things:

• Food. I made pork carnitas a couple weeks ago in the crock pot. It was glorious to pop it in and have it be done a few hours later with zero effort on my part!
• Laundry. I can have a whole load washed, dried, folded and put away (ok, my kids do that part) in just a couple hours! I have a washer in the tribe, but not a dryer!! It's amazing!
• Dishes. There is a dishwasher in the house we are staying in. This machine is so much more of a time-saver than I even realized! I put them in dirty, and add this fancy-looking dishwasher soap tablet thingy, and a couple hours later I have clean, dry dishes.

I hope this doesn't turn me into a gripe when we return to PNG next year! :) Honestly though, that is why we strive for balance over there. We are not living over there just to 'live there'. We have a job to do, a very important job! So as a mission organization, they encourage us to consider what tools/resources will help us to be most effective in that job of church planting and discipling, translating... That is why pretty much all of us have washing machines for our clothes. There might be tribal locations with a dryer, or a crock pot.. I'm not sure. But it's also why we live in somewhat normal houses, and why many of us choose not to keep up a garden or chickens or whatnot. It's not wrong to make those choices either, but we are always wanting to consider what will give us the most time to both raise our own families, and to have the most time possible spent directly with the people the Lord has sent us to reach with His gospel of grace through Jesus Christ. 

Anyway, this is going to be a different year, for sure, with all these Fix-It-and-Forget-It machines at my disposal! It's glorious, and to be perfectly simple, it's just "really, really nice!" I'm sure my daughters don't mind either- they get a break from washing dishes by hand for a year. And all of these machines equal more time they can spend with me (like it or not, haha).

The Final 100m

I remember running the 400m dash in high school. (Anyone else?) Those of us who ran it had 'affectionately' called it the 'race from hell'. Some consider it the longest sprint (the longest of the sprinting races). Because you literally have to run the entire lap around the track with full exertion, or you are guaranteed last place, or at least a slow time.

I have very clear memories of feeling pretty awesome for the first 200m (thank you 200m dash for helping with that!). But by the time I was rounding that last curve, the sight of that final 100m made me feel like throwing in the towel/vomiting/quitting track altogether- EVERY TIME. The only time I felt great running that last 100m was when we competed against the only track team in our district that was smaller and, frankly, slower, than we were. The other schools we ran against ... well they basically had a budget for a track team (a nice track to train on, trained coaches, more than 15 members of the track team, and uniforms more recent than the 80's). I will say no more. But regardless, our little team stuck it out year after year, and whenever we ran against 'that one school', boy was it exhilarating to finish in 3rd, 2nd, and even 1st place!

But back to the beloved 400m dash. Training for this sprint was everything. I didn't turn into an Olympian by any means, but I learned well that it wasn't sufficient to only train up to 400m. No, in order to finish it well, you needed to train past 400m- you need to be able to keep the pace to 500m and 600m and beyond. By my senior year, I applied this better and better, and even qualified at the League level for the first time! (Yeah I know, League level..."whoopee". But hey, see the previous paragraph for subtle hints about the prestige of our tiny little team! We took whatever we could get and we ran with it! Ouch...)

But even after learning to train better, and nearly qualifying for the US Olympic team (clearly!), I still found myself feeling so tired, panicked, and eager to quit once I approached that final 100m of the race. Why?? Why, with so much training, and after running the same race for 3 years?? Why was I so tired?? BECAUSE THE RACE IS RIGOROUS! (And because I'm no Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Yes she was one of my track and field 'heros' growing up....and Michael Johnson! I wanted his gold spikes so badly!)

You know you wanted them too....
(Photo credit: Complex)

So here's where I'm at, being as honest as possible. We have been learning language and culture for about 3 years now. First Tok Pisin, and the last almost 2.5 years, Tigak. If you've followed our progress as we've had our CLA evaluations, you know that we are about 3/4 finished learning the language. That's right. There's your cheesy analogy. You knew it was coming! We are staring at the final 100m, and I. AM. TIRED. Despite spending 4 years in training, becoming equipped to be great learners, understanding the cost and the sacrifice of leaving much behind to go and make disciples in the 'uttermost parts of the earth'... despite all of this equipping, I find myself getting very tired. Why? Did I do something wrong? .. NO! It's because the race is rigorous! The Apostle Paul talks about training for and running a race well. You train rigorously, and you do not run aimlessly. No, you run hard so as to win the prize. Nothing easy about it.

Granted, this final '100m' of language learning is some of the toughest. It involves trying to grasp the elements of language at a discourse level (how to naturally connect paragraphs and thoughts, in essence). And because we are at this level of language learning, we are able to dive deeper into the culture. We are learning the "why"s, the motivations, and the beliefs that lie beneath the actions and behaviors happening around us.

I think some of my tiredness makes sense, because at this stage, when we sit down with a language helper/friend to explore these deeper areas of language and culture, it's much more taxing mentally than the early days of pointing to pictures of animals and trying to memorize them. But it's not just the language learning, it's balancing so much every day that is becoming more difficult for me.

So I need your prayer, that the Lord will grant me the energy I need each day:

• to get up and make the coffee and drink it, 
• to sit as His feet and let Him teach me His Word (fancy talk for "read the Bible"), 
• to savor my time homeschooling my dear daughters, to enjoy them for who they are, and raise them in His ways
• to delight in making meals for my family
• to be content in my work of taking care of the home so as to be a joy and helper to my husband
• to be a diligent language and culture learner in this last 100m, because the CLA days are nearly gone!
• to listen and hear His voice regarding any discipleship I should be doing at this time of learning
• to have wisdom in balancing all of the above, and not to put undue guilt or pressure on myself, because that is not of Him

Would you please stop scrolling for a minute and pray for those things? I am your sister in Christ, and I would be very grateful for your prayers, because I am very tired, but I want to run this final 100m whole-heartedly, and with as much strength and zeal as possible, so as to cross the finish line WELL!

Thank you!

I'm looking forward to the free banana, granola bar, and water bottle at the end of this race.

(Photo credit: "For the Win USA Today", Rio Olympics 2016)

Doing Ministry as a FAMILY

Our kids are in this with us. They've been in it with us since day one. Since they day the Lord blessed us with children, we wanted to glorify Him among the nations together as a FAMILY. We believe that once He gave us children, our responsibility was to raise them in His ways. And what is "His way"? To bring glory to His Name by reconciling mankind back to Himself through the death of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. By loving our kids within our family, we model and teach them His loving, just, and merciful character and relationship toward us! And by having them minister alongside of us, we model and teach them His heart for mankind.

Some of the ways our kids are involved include:

-helping to give out bandaids and medicine each afternoon.

-answering simple requests at the door (we actively encouraged and helped them learn the national language so that they can feasibly do this. And they are learning bits and pieces of the tribal language as well).

-building relationships with the Tigak kids in the village. They play with them, cook food together over a fire, and sometimes Naya even does a litte "Bible study" with some of the girls her age.

But just last week, my children were actively involved in ministry in a very different way, 

bless their little precious hearts. Here's how the story goes.

One of the ladies, a believer, came and sat with me outside our house in the afternoon shade. Meanwhile, several young kids played together on the tire swing.

After some time,  the mama of one 3-year-old boy stood at quite a distance and called for him to come. (This young woman is also a believer, we are pretty sure.) She called for him several times, but he did not respond. Finally, she called again and as he continued to swing, he turned his head and looked toward her... and then looked away again. A couple good minutes went by, and I looked toward her, and she was still just standing there at a distance. She called him again, and he didn't respond.

So because of the relationships I've been gradually building with these ladies, I went over to the swing, stopped it, and told him (and all the children), "Your mama called for you, but you didn't answer. You need to listen when she calls you and obey what she asks of you!" He looked at me and again I said, "Listen to her voice, and obey what she tells you." He just watched me. So I gently lifted him off the swing. As I did this, he began to get off the swing on his own, and started walking toward her.

'Great!', I thought. But then he turned around to get back on the swing. So I helped turn him around and coaxed him toward his mama, saying the same thing to him again. This time he made it farther, and I was sure we'd accomplished the goal! ... Until he took off sideways to mess around with some big 'flower pots'. (Gahh!)

So I lifted him up again and put him on the right path toward his mama, repeating the same thing yet again. As we approached his mama, with me keeping him on track, I kept saying the same thing so that she might hear it as well. Finally she picked him up and took him home.

This prompted a great conversation with the lady I had been sitting with. I asked her if she thought it was good what had happened between the young mama and her son. She asked, "Are you asking if she was wrong, or he was wrong?" Before answering, I talked with her about how God treats us as His children. When He speaks to us, does He follow through on what He says? Does He keep His Word? I explained that we have the responsibility to teach our children who He is. That is the best way to parent them, because it shows His character: loving, trustworthy, faithful.

Ultimately I asked her if it was right that the little boy didn't respond to her the first time? She said no. But I asked her if it was helpful for his mama to stand far away and yell his name over and over (and not doing anything else)? She thought for a brief second, then said no.

Look at those angel faces... ready to 'minister' at all times! :)

I told her that when my kids were that age, I had to help them to obey what I told them, and to obey the first time I said it.

AS I'M TELLING HER THIS, MY DARLING CHILDREN HAVE BEGUN RUNNING AROUND US IN CIRCLES, SCREAMING AND BEING SUPER SILLY! So I tell them, "Please stop and go somewhere else, we are trying to talk."

Naturally, RIGHT ON CUE, my children.... KEEP RUNNING AROUND US, SCREAMING AND BEING SUPER SILLY. So I tell them to go inside the house because they didn't obey me. One child obeys (PTL). The other child sits down next to me and says, "No." (!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?) I say to her, "I asked you to go inside. Now go inside." She stands up and whines, "But I don't want to go insiiiiiiide!!" Beginning to feel the fruits of the Spirit drift beyond my reach, I tell her firmly to go inside and sit in her room until I come and talk with her. Thankfully she obeyed, albeit stomping and making disgruntled noises.

I turn again to my believer friend, and ask her, "Did you see that? See, even my own children have trouble obeying my words."

She giggled with understanding, then asked me, "You said that when your children were young, you used to help them to obey you. How do you do that?" So I explained that when they were young, I would ask/tell them to do something, and if they didn't obey the first time, I would go to them and gently put them in position, or take them to where I had told them to go. I explained that I can't do it out of anger, and that they learn that I expect obedience the first time I ask them to do something. These are things we can do as parents that demonstrate the character of God to our children. He follows through with His talk. He doesn't say something and then not do what He said He would do. He also doesn't lash out at us in anger (but nor does He condone our sin).

This is where a lot of good conversations happen-
sitting in the late afternoon shade, wherever a breeze is found.

As we wrapped up our talk, I explained to her that it wouldn't have been good for me to speak to my disobedient child right away (and in case you're wondering, they both received consequences because they both disobeyed, not just the one child who disobeyed more times), because I was feeling angry and would've spoken to her out of anger. But I essentially put her in a position of obedience (in other words, I didn't remain standing at a distance calling for her over and over and letting her get away with her disobedience), and let myself gain control of my emotions and thoughts before I spoke with her and corrected her.

As she left, she said thank you for the encouragement in parenting. And as I left, I couldn't help but laugh at how my children are ever present with us in this ministry... sometimes in ways I am not quite so proud of, but ways that He uses very strongly to demonstrate to the Tigak ladies that I am not perfect just because I am the 'white missionary', and to demonstrate to them that it is very possible and in fact tangible to raise up our children in His ways!

I dedicate this post to my darling daughters. While I appreciate your ministry, do please learn to obey the first time. ;)