We have been thankful to be settling into our temporary home in Scotland. It has been a joy to be in this village, meet with the congregation, worship together, and take in the beautiful and very calming scenery. We have also manage to explore some of the area as we take advantage of summer break and a short time of respite. We will certainly continue to share more of this and our adventures in the seaboard villages of the Highlands!
One of the aspects of missions life is the transitory nature it brings with it. In some sense the ground seems like it is constantly moving. If you have ever been on a boat for any significant period of time, you know of the phenomena of sea legs versus land legs. We experienced this recently on our overnight ferry. At first, everyone is stumbling about the boat, looking like a pack of drunken sailors (and no, we didn’t let our kids ingest alcoholic beverages despite how they might have looked). After a while you get used to the movement and your body starts to make the necessary adjustments to maintain a more stable balance. The funny thing about this is that once you get to stable land, you actually feel as though the ground is moving underneath your feet and you might look even more intoxicated on dry land.
Missions life can sometimes feel like this. The seas are swelling around and movement is constantly happening. In order to adjust and to survive or settle in, you begin to learn coping mechanisms as means of dealing with the ever changing landscapes. This happens subtly and often without notice.
Our kids began to experience some of this with our recent many upheavals. The transition out of Germany was hard, good, and involved many goodbyes. In the midst of all of this, several of our children stoutly declared that they were not going to make any friends during our time in Scotland. The reason wasn’t the language barriers or even the brevity of duration of stay. Rather, they didn’t want to have to loose friends again or need to say goodbye. The easiest solution? You don’t have to say goodbye if you don’t ever say hello in the first place. Loss doesn’t happen if you never posses something to begin with.
This afforded a good chance to help them think through and be genuine about the pain of loss. Losing friends hurts and is difficult. Losing a country, a national identity, a language, a culture, a former family – these are all significant losses. Various psychological tests would classify each of these as major traumatic events which can have long lasting impact. And to have all of them happen at once and then less then a year later to go through that again is difficult to say the least. However, even though without risk there will be no loss, there will also be no reward. The pain of loss tells us something of the joy of gain. That we had good friends who had an impact on our lives and this is exactly why saying goodbye is difficult.
Thankfully, this resolution was short lived and our kids have already made some friends and have enjoyed spending time with other kids. Goodbyes are hard and should not be minimized. But they also shouldn’t prevent us from opening up to say hello. Rather, it makes us all the more aware of the truths of Scripture – that we are pilgrims and wanderers in this life. This is not our actual home and we will be in a state of transition all the way until we arrive at our eternal home. And for those who are in Christ, that day will be a day of reunion in which goodbyes will be a thing of the past.
But in the meantime, the challenges transition brings are especially acutely felt by those who have been scarred and marred by traumatic events. Yet, we are able to help them learn that in the midst of uncertainty, the truth of the Lord remains – that He is good, He is sovereign, and He has provided salvation for us who desperately need it, if we will just turn in faith and repentance. And on this earth, this family is God’s provision as a forever family – not one that will stop, give up, fall apart, or disintegrate. The Lord is gracious to provide some stable points when the ship is being tossed to and fro and helps us get our feet underneath us when we have made it to dry land.
Halfway Around the Globe 