Last Thursday we arrived home from ‘the best holiday ever’, to quote Beth! We had just spent a week at the headquarters of Serving in Mission, being trained and equipped for what lies ahead. As well as some wonderful sessions on living cross-culturally, transition, raising TCKs (third culture kids), spiritual warfare, support-raising, prayer and dealing with conflict to name just a few, we were so blessed by the opportunity to meet and spend time with others preparing to go! It was wonderful to explore and wrestle with some of the challenges we are facing, and will face, with people who are in the same boat (or plane). What a privilege as well to learn from those who have already served God overseas and are now continuing to serve him by sharing their wisdom and experience with people like us!
Beth and Sophie enjoyed being God’s ‘secret agents’ as they learned how God has used his people through history to fulfill his mission of salvation for the world. They made some really special friends and learned about the countries their friends have been to or are going to, as well as sharing what they themselves know about Uganda (it has mangoes and lions…). We praise God for the leaders who have given them some great tools for the transition ahead.
Speaking of transition, I could not finish this without sharing the ‘wobbly bridge’ with you! Imagine being asked to think of walking across a plank of wood balanced on two large balls as an analogy of how it feels to enter a new culture and try to adapt to life there. Now imagine being taken outside into the fresh Suffolk countryside to actually walk across said bridge! It’s amazing how physically performing that task helped to teach us lessons not so easily absorbed in the classroom. Lessons about how our pride means we’d rather cross the bridge without asking for help, about how we wobble much less when we do have someone holding our hand, lessons about the wobbles on the ‘up’ ramp before we even set foot on the bridge/take off in the aeroplane and the slips on the ‘down’ ramp as we start to feel at home in our host culture.
Thank you, friends, for being there to hold our hands through this wobbly but exciting time and praise God that his hands are always there for all us, whether we’re wobbling or walking on firm ground.
