Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Saturday, October 24, 2015
What does it feel like, right before moving to Peru?
I’ve been saying that I need to sit down and write for the last few days. Our big move is getting so close, and I’ve been lying awake at night trying to process what is coming, but nothing helps me do that like putting pen to paper (well, fingers to the keyboard, that is). And I really want to help all of our prayer supporters to walk this journey with us, so writing about what we’re going through is a win win!
For most of September we were in a weird sort of limbo where we knew we were so close to meeting our financial need, but not quite close enough yet to purchase tickets down there. That changed a couple weeks ago and we got the go ahead to set a travel date. Within about a week the remainder of our support came in, and since then our lives have been a progression from one item to the next on our To Do Before We Move list.
One of the top items on that list has been to spend time with people. So Derek and I have been trading off with Finn quite a bit to spend one on one time with friends here, and we’ve also enjoyed spending time as a family with some of you in the evenings as well. These times with friends have been so refreshing because we’ve been able to just invest in our relationships and talk about exciting things ahead without any support raising agenda or notions there of. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think we’ve felt this sort of freedom in our interactions with our friends in years. I’ll explain:
Derek and I both loved serving on staff at a church with the sweetest body of believers ever, but between the two of us, we were responsible for recruiting the vast majority of the volunteers needed for church to happen, and so it was often hard to have truly platonic, agenda-free interactions with people. Right after moving to Birmingham Derek joined the congregation as a staff member, and I went on staff not too long thereafter, so we didn’t really have friends here before taking on those roles. Now, for the first time, we can go to church without wondering if people cringe inside when they see us approaching them.
Anyway… freedom from that has been beautiful. For the record, I would totally go back to church work - especially somewhere like Cross Creek, if God led that way. Every job has its ups and downs, but Cross Creek Church is truly a special congregation, and we are so thankful for the time we had growing, living, and serving alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ there!
OK, back to our move. We really are excited about it, but some of the logistics and the initial culture shock part of it are definitely sobering. And travel with Finn has never been fun, but travel with Finn and 7 checked bags is going to be truly challenging. Our initial leg of the trip will get us to Lima at close to midnight on Friday night, and then we’ll go through customs with all of those bags and an overtired toddler. Then we will attempt to move ourselves and all of those bags to the adjacent hotel for the night for a few hours of sleep (hopefully). Then we’ll wake up, return to the airport (thankfully the hotel and airport are connected by a flyover walking bridge) with all of the bags, check them in again, and take another short flight to Arequipa, our destination. Then we will find our contact from the language school who is supposed to pick us up and transport us and our stuff to our apartment. (I sure hope his vehicle can handle all of the bags!) Then we will have 9 days to adjust to life in Peru before becoming full time students.
Please pray for us on Friday, November 6th, and Saturday, November 7th, friends! Those 2 days are what keep me up at nights right now. I have no doubt that God will carry us through, but I guess my faith isn’t strong enough to keep me from running a play by play in my mind of how we will survive those days whenever I have a moment of pause.
As far as language school goes, I’m really pretty pumped. I love learning and I usually really enjoy classroom settings. Derek’s probably a little more apprehensive about that than I am, as school was never a huge love of his. Our language school program will include both class time and conversational practice time with a tutor, however, and I bet he’ll do better than me at that second part. I will really have to work at overcoming my introverted tendencies.
So that’s most of what I’ve been thinking about lately. We’ve been doing a lot of packing and repacking, repeatedly trying to weed out additional belongings that we can do without for the next 2 and a half years. That process really hasn’t been too bad, though. Finn has never held too closely to any of his belongings, and Derek and I have both moved enough times that this process is old hat. At least it feels that way now. Maybe we’ll feel differently after getting to Peru with only a fraction of the things that have defined home for us.
We’re planning an official thank you video that should be posted on here in the next week or so, so stay tuned for that. We truly are so thankful for everyone who has walked the support raising journey with us and encouraged and prayed for us so faithfully. More on that soon!
- Laura
For most of September we were in a weird sort of limbo where we knew we were so close to meeting our financial need, but not quite close enough yet to purchase tickets down there. That changed a couple weeks ago and we got the go ahead to set a travel date. Within about a week the remainder of our support came in, and since then our lives have been a progression from one item to the next on our To Do Before We Move list.
One of the top items on that list has been to spend time with people. So Derek and I have been trading off with Finn quite a bit to spend one on one time with friends here, and we’ve also enjoyed spending time as a family with some of you in the evenings as well. These times with friends have been so refreshing because we’ve been able to just invest in our relationships and talk about exciting things ahead without any support raising agenda or notions there of. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think we’ve felt this sort of freedom in our interactions with our friends in years. I’ll explain:
Derek and I both loved serving on staff at a church with the sweetest body of believers ever, but between the two of us, we were responsible for recruiting the vast majority of the volunteers needed for church to happen, and so it was often hard to have truly platonic, agenda-free interactions with people. Right after moving to Birmingham Derek joined the congregation as a staff member, and I went on staff not too long thereafter, so we didn’t really have friends here before taking on those roles. Now, for the first time, we can go to church without wondering if people cringe inside when they see us approaching them.
Anyway… freedom from that has been beautiful. For the record, I would totally go back to church work - especially somewhere like Cross Creek, if God led that way. Every job has its ups and downs, but Cross Creek Church is truly a special congregation, and we are so thankful for the time we had growing, living, and serving alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ there!
OK, back to our move. We really are excited about it, but some of the logistics and the initial culture shock part of it are definitely sobering. And travel with Finn has never been fun, but travel with Finn and 7 checked bags is going to be truly challenging. Our initial leg of the trip will get us to Lima at close to midnight on Friday night, and then we’ll go through customs with all of those bags and an overtired toddler. Then we will attempt to move ourselves and all of those bags to the adjacent hotel for the night for a few hours of sleep (hopefully). Then we’ll wake up, return to the airport (thankfully the hotel and airport are connected by a flyover walking bridge) with all of the bags, check them in again, and take another short flight to Arequipa, our destination. Then we will find our contact from the language school who is supposed to pick us up and transport us and our stuff to our apartment. (I sure hope his vehicle can handle all of the bags!) Then we will have 9 days to adjust to life in Peru before becoming full time students.
Please pray for us on Friday, November 6th, and Saturday, November 7th, friends! Those 2 days are what keep me up at nights right now. I have no doubt that God will carry us through, but I guess my faith isn’t strong enough to keep me from running a play by play in my mind of how we will survive those days whenever I have a moment of pause.
As far as language school goes, I’m really pretty pumped. I love learning and I usually really enjoy classroom settings. Derek’s probably a little more apprehensive about that than I am, as school was never a huge love of his. Our language school program will include both class time and conversational practice time with a tutor, however, and I bet he’ll do better than me at that second part. I will really have to work at overcoming my introverted tendencies.
So that’s most of what I’ve been thinking about lately. We’ve been doing a lot of packing and repacking, repeatedly trying to weed out additional belongings that we can do without for the next 2 and a half years. That process really hasn’t been too bad, though. Finn has never held too closely to any of his belongings, and Derek and I have both moved enough times that this process is old hat. At least it feels that way now. Maybe we’ll feel differently after getting to Peru with only a fraction of the things that have defined home for us.
We’re planning an official thank you video that should be posted on here in the next week or so, so stay tuned for that. We truly are so thankful for everyone who has walked the support raising journey with us and encouraged and prayed for us so faithfully. More on that soon!
- Laura
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