Rhythm of Life (Take 2)

A month or so ago I wrote about how we're settling into a rhythm of life.  Well, in all honesty, it's not so easy to create rhythm in any life.  Take the past 7 days, for example...

Unexpected Snow

Our part of Texas is not known for snow.  A week ago Thursday, however, we had the most snowfall the area has seen in about 32 years.  I know, I know, our family and friends back east don't even want to hear it.  But, as snow often is, it was both beautiful and disruptive.  A planned 3 day weekend for the kids (due to Presidents' Day on Monday) became a 4 day weekend -- a lot of fun for them, redefining my planned productivity for me.  Yes, yes, I should receive it as a gift, and in moments I did, but I also battled with a simmering frustration due to worry about untouched to-do lists

Nevertheless, we still had a lot of fun in it all -- our Team Building Time (now happening on Thursdays) had an added peace and beauty to it, the kids played and built and explored, snowball fights occurred, and we even had a fire in the fireplace and roasted marshmellows.

An added joy for the weekend was a visit from Leslie's youngest brother James and his new bride.  More snowball fights ensued (with added intensity, pain, and fun due to James' competitive nature and stinging accuracy), plus fun dinners, enjoying getting to know Cheri, and learning a new Ninja game with the kids.

Unsurprising Sickness

Sickness is just a part of winter.  One by one each member of the family fell prey to various forms of illness of the week.  Some vomiting, some sneezing, some in the middle of the night, some in the middle of the school day, all spaced throughout the week.  We're mostly over it now (kids still sound like Sleestacks), but the weariness and yuckiness dominated the week.

Life on the Farm

We're enjoying living on a farm, and it does involve helping out in new ways.  From time to time Granddad needs help feeding the animals, and I sling Julia onto my back and squelch through the mud to lend a hand unloading feed or tossing hay.  The kids have taken on three rabbits (Monty, Snowflake, and Sniffles), which involves not only regular feeding but also weekly dumping of rabbit dung and cleaning the cage.  It also means finding bunnies hopping throughout the house at odd hours, then hunting them down and returning them to their cage.  They have a remarkable ability for escaping.

Partner Development

That's what we call our support raising, and we really do see it as asking folks to partner with us in ways that are beyond just giving money.  But it requires a lot of time on the phone and writing email -- and very little of either were done last week because of the above occurrences.  Nevertheless, we received word from two more churches that they're partnering with us.  Additionally, the rector of my parents' church (Transformation Anglican) gave me time to speak in church this past Sunday, and several folks responded.  Also, a friend and past of a new church plant in Addison (Restoration Anglican) has invited me to preach twice at his church.  So even as we focus on caring for our family, God continues working behind the scenes.

Team Kabale

Almost 3 years ago Leslie and I were officially accepted as Global Teams missionaries.  Kevin Higgins, our director, coach, and friend, said at the end of our acceptance phone call, "Would you guys pray about whether there is someone you could invite to join you?  We are Global Teams, after all, and we would like to send you out with at team."

After we hung up the phone, Leslie and looked at each other and essentially said, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  Back in her college days at UT Austin (Hook 'em!), Leslie and her sister roomed with a girl named Wendy Deyo.  The three of them grew in Christ together, and Wendy was a woman of tender -- and often radical -- passion.  (Leslie tells the story of Wendy banging on her door at 3am during the month of Ramadan demanding that she get up and pray with her.)  Wendy went off to Eastern Europe as a missionary and ESL teacher, where she met Aaron Morrow.  They returned to the States and married, and then Aaron pursued medicine so they could return to the mission field as medical missionaries.

Leslie and Wendy kept up over the years, so we knew the Morrows were done with medical school and had been preparing to go overseas.  We gave them a call one Friday and said, "This may be a bit crazy, but what would y'all think about going to Uganda with us?"  It just so happened they had just finished a week of fasting and prayer with regard to their next steps, since Aaron had finished his residency plus work in a local clinic that had paid off their school debts.  They took a bit more time to pray, and then said yes!

The Morrows (Aaron, Wendy, Micah (8), Emma Shae (5), and Mallory (3)) were living in Waco, TX when we first began pulling together as a team through Skype sessions and phone calls.  They spent the past fall in Liverpool, England so Aaron could take an intensive course in tropical medicine.  (Ask Wendy to talk to you in Scouse.)  They returned to Houston at the end of December.  Within the next several weeks they raised their remaining support, and were ready to leave for Uganda at the end of January.  Medical issues, however, have required them to stay Stateside a few more months.

One gift of this forced delay is that at last we get to spend face-to-face time together as a team before we leave for Uganda.  The Morrows spent the past 5 days with us at my parents' place in Sunnyvale.  While we searched for a place for them to live, we also got extensive team-building time simply by living together, going to the rodeo, watching movies, praying, and beginning to talk through our vision, goals and strategies.

(Wendy and Aaron)

(The Girls: Georgia, Emma Shae, Mallory, Lucy.  Julia is napping.)

 

(The Boys: Micah and Jesse)

God has provided a place for them 20 minutes away from our house.  We called a lot of people and churches, waited, prayed, and wondered.  Then, First Baptist Church in Garland graciously opened up one of their missionary homes to the Morrows, so they now have a great place to live, and we can continue building our team for the next couple of months.

Hmmmm...as I scan back through this post, I'm realizing that it's not quite communicating one of the important points.  Our Father has been weaving together circumstances and relationships to ensure that our families are well prepared and cared for in Uganda, and in doing so he's ensuring that the community of Kabale will be well served by an increasingly healthy team.  We planned very little of what has occurred -- team members whose gifts complement ours and whose kids will be great friends for our kids, and extended time together in the Dallas area, for example -- yet the Jesus we all love has indeed worked all things together for our good, and for the good of the people of Kabale.

("African Weaving" by Rachele Unter)

Rhythm of Life

So, we're settled in -- as settled as we can expect to be in this season of transition.

I take the older kids to school every morning but Wednesdays, when Granddad gets to do the honors.  They ride the bus home from Sunnyvale Elementary and are dropped off at the front of the long, gravel driveway.   Chance the dog runs to greet them, and Julia does as well whenever she's outside.  The donkeys occasionally bray a welcome (or demand a feeding) as the kids walk up the drive.  After snacks, when the weather is nice, everyone dashes outdoors to play fetch with Chance or explore the back pasture or ride the zip line or hunt for eggs or get too close to the pond or snuggle their new pet bunnies (Snowflake, Monty, and Sniffles) ....

Later in the day I pick up the walkie-talkie (that's how we stayed connected on a 10 acre spread) and call, "Bald Leader to Blue 9, Gold 6, and Pink 3, time to come in!"  "Copy that Bald Leader!"  The kids tumble in the doors to homework, dinner, baths, and sundry evening activities.  They are loving life here, although definitely missing friends back in PA and feeling some concern about having to move again in the near future.  Jesse and Georgia really like their school, and Lucy enjoys pre-school twice a week plus a Wednesday "Grandmommy Day."  Julia simply loves life (and exhausts us).  She's crawling on tables, emptying drawers into the trash, toddling out doors when we're not looking, eating packets of silicon, and making her presence known through a loud loquacity that leaves us either laughing or angry, depending on the timing.

We graciously have been given free office space at a neighbor's place of business (ID Plates).  It's a warm community of workers, and they've welcomed us right in.  Several days a week I sit in a cubicle making phone calls and sending emails to current and potential partners, working on budgets and letters, hanging out on Facebook, and handling other issues.  Leslie continues keeping the home front happening, and several times a week we work together at the house or take the younger two girls out to breakfast.

My parents are living in their garage apartment.  Formally it was called "The Cowboy Quarters," but we've begun to refer to their space as "Mouse House" and ours as "Big House."  (As an aside -- we have way too many means of communication in the house.  There are four different cell phones with four different numbers, a land line, four walkie-talkies, three computers, and an intercom system.)  This living arrangement is going wonderfully well!  Mom and Dad/Grandmommy and Granddaddy have become a natural part of our lives (and we a part of theirs), with their comings and goings adding an enjoyable rhythm to the weeks.

In most ways we're living the good life.  (We'll leave the story of the odoriferous rotting rat corpse for another day.)  God's over-abundant faithfulness is evident on a daily basis, and the occasional overwhelm our Partner Development and Uganda to-do list is itself overwhelmed by the provision of our Father.

A Mother's Love

Leslie overheard 3 year old Lucy singing the following ditty:

I like my mom
She's cherry cherry
When she's happy
She loves me
When she's wrong
She loves me
When she's mad
She loves me
And all the time
She loves me

Moving Day

This map of Africa was the last item left in our house in Ambridge just before my Dad and left a week ago.  It's fitting, I think, that the final thing I removed from our walls is a representation of what has become the focal point of our lives.  We came to Ambridge not knowing that we would leave for Africa.

It was 8 1/2 years ago when my Dad and I drove a Uhaul from Austin to TX to Ambridge, PA, a Uhaul loaded up by our Austin community, and would be unloaded by what would become our Trinity community.

And now it many ways it ends as it began.  My Dad drove up from Texas to be with me as our Ambridge community loaded up our Uhaul trailer (much smaller this time since we're not not carrying as much to Texas and Uganda).  The community that came was actually a good representation of our life in Ambridge.  It was a mix of people from the Trinity community from across the years, from the Church of the Savior (our home church in Ambridge), and even folks we hardly knew at all through friendships in Young Life.

Joe Afflerbach and Alex Ielase deserve particular mention.  They were there from start to finish, organizing and packing our remaining worldly goods into a surprisingly small space in both the Uhaul storage space and the trailer.

It was a more difficult several days of packing than what I had anticipated.  I had just returned from a wonderful time with my wife's sister's family in Northern Virginia for Christmas, sending Leslie and the girls on ahead to TX via a plane flight, and leaving Jesse with his cousins in VA until the final packing was done.  I thought Sunday I would be done with the packing on Sunday, piddle around Monday and Tuesday, and be on the road by Tuesday morning.  Both my wife and Dad thought that was unrealistic -- and they were right!

There was a LOT of work to be done in the three days I had left to myself, and it would have been impossible without my dad's presence and the guys and one gal who showed up to help on Tuesday.  But let it not be forgotten or ignored that my three days of hard packing only happened because of three months of hard packing by my wife!

 

Packing for us was uniquely challenging since we had to consider what we would put into storage for three years, what did we want to bring with us to TX for easy access during our time of transition, and what would be packed to be ready to be sent to Uganda.  It's hard to choose -- and as we choose, it's hard to decide what we truly need and want for the next season of life, and to let go of the rest.  Leslie did most of this hard work.

Through that mysterious mix of God's grace and hard work, we did indeed get packed up.  Dad and I then had the anticlimatic moment of being unable to back the trailer out of our unfairly steep driveway.  Yet once again, as I mentioned in the previous blog post, we encountered God's provision.  Dad said we needed someone with a four-wheel-drive vehicle, and I knew of no one.  We decided to call it quits for the night, and instead make the hard decision of where we would dine for my final night in Ambridge -- the well known, memory-laden but not quite as tasty Rook's in Ambridge, or the newer but more delectable Sharp Edge in Sewickley?

I chose the latter because of thirst for Beglian beer, but found it much too crowded and the wait too long due to hoards gathered for the Pens' game.  As we turned to leave, there sat the Rev. Canon John Macdonald, Trinity professor of mission and director of the Stanway Institute, having dinner and a drink with his wife.  Through them we discovered their daughter Perry had the very vehicle we needed.  (We did end up spending our final evening at Rook's, Black & Tan in hand Pittsburgh style -- Guinness and Yuengling.  And had the wonderful surprise of bumping into the Grossman's!)

So the next morning I left early to pick up Jesse from VA, while Dad worked with Perry and her brother and, after a series of setbacks, finally got the trailer out and on the road.  We met just south of Morgantown, West Virginia, and made the three day trek to Texas.  Three Hines men on the road -- Granddad, Dad, and Jesse -- and it was such fun to watch the joy of Jesse as he hung out with the two of us, switching between Granddad's pickup and the family minivan, talking about everything from the challenges of changing schools to the inconsistencies between the Star Wars movies, books, and comics.

As we made our long drive through gray days of mist and rain that couldn't quite veil the beauty of the countryside, Leslie began to set up our transitional home at my parents' place in Texas with the help of my mom.

We were happy to reunite in Texas, and to begin this new season of focusing not on how to make a new home in Sunnyvale, but on how to transition well into life as missionaries, both in this final season of preparation and in the coming season of moving to Uganda.

One final thought about moving:  It is upheaval.  Everything is heaved, and everything is up, unsettled.  This applies not only to the boxes themselves, but also to the emotions that are...if not in turmoil, at least in upheaval.  Saying goodbyes, letting go, and not being able to settle down fully since we are not yet at home.  My parents' home is a wonderful place to be, but it is their home, not ours.  Our home is waiting for us in Kabale, and we're ready to be home.  But our thoughts, hearts, things, spirits are in transition, and not yet at home.  So we're learning what it means for our home to be in Christ, as a family.

So we've put the map of Africa on the wall by the door of my parents' house in Texas, where we see it coming and going, calling us homeward.