Worth Mentioning

Haiti_Van_faves (Photo credit: vanberto)

Here are some blog posts by other folks that have impacted me or resonated with my own heart recently.

The Naked Truth About Deputation - Ministry partnership/deputation/support raising from a mom's perspective. If you want to hear the heart of missionary moms and know what it is really like, this is a great read. I have had many of the experiences and emotions she mentions. A great way to gain perspective on how to minister to your missionaries and understand them better. 

Don't Send Your Used Shoes to Africa...or Maybe Do Send Them - This post is by a blogger in Djibouti, another African country, but I have seen the same effects in Congo. Sometimes our "kindnesses" actually hurt the economy and employment rates here instead of helping. There are great needs and great ways to help, but careful consideration is essential. If after reading this you want to help in more direct, positive ways, write a missionary or expat friend and they can give you good information and resources.

The One Thing Christians Should Stop Saying - What does it really mean to be blessed? A very interesting and thoughtfully written piece. I liked it because it touches on the inner conflict I have after knowing faithful Congolese Christians, seeing the circumstances they live in through no choice of their own, and trying to reconcile my western idea of blessings with the seeming lack of blessings in their lives.

I think these were worth sharing and would love to hear your thoughts. 

Daniel and I had an interesting experience this week. I am still trying to narrow down all the photos and words to a manageable number for a blog post, but here is a sneak preview. See if you can guess what these photos all have in common.

Testimonies

Worship BG - Not To Us (Photo credit: bemky)

We just got home from church and I wanted to jot down my thoughts before I forget them because I left feeling so blessed and grateful. When the hard moments come, it helps to be able to look back through my journaling and remember these kinds of moments, the moments when I feel God's presence so strongly.

The sermon was about the importance of our testimony. Not just about sharing my testimony, but about remembering it. About not forgetting and losing sight of who I am because of it. About not forgetting how I even came to HAVE a testimony. He shared about the ten lepers, and the one who returned "praising God in a loud voice." His first testimony. 

A family dedicated their new daughter to the Lord and testifying to their love for God and vowing to teach her and train her in His Word.

After the sermon, we shared communion. The church family remembering Christ's sacrifice and giving thanks. That, in itself, is a testimony. 

Daniel's friend is a new believer and today was his first opportunity to share communion with his church. Daniel chose to skip the kids' class and stay in "big church" to share his friend's special day with him. It hasn't been all that long since his own first communion and he remembers how special it was. Two young boys showing the world that they are Christ followers. Another testimony.

Sandy, our music leader, led the choir in "Amazing Grace," and opened it by singing the first verse in a solo a cappella. Oh, my! Another.

As a last act of testifying in unity, we sang:

"For all your goodness, I will keep on singing,

10,000 reasons for my heart to find!"

There is power in a testimony. When one of God's people shares with others about the things He has done, there is power in that. It brings people to Christ. It uplifts and encourages people. It strengthens and emboldens them. It gives people hope. It glorifies God! And, I think, it must please Him very much.

Counting Down

Flowers in my yard, NB

MAF missionaries live in challenging conditions 24/7 and MAF takes member care seriously. We can't be effective in ministry if we are "running on empty" spiritually or physically. Each year we have a family conference, sort of a concentrated sabbath rest.  We spend time in worship, discipleship, fellowship, building team unity, and de-stressing.

Most often, a team from the U.S. comes to offer their gifts in teaching, encouraging, music, and serving to minister to us. Often new friendships are forged during their time here and I think by the time the conference ends and they return home, they are impacted as much as we are.

Our 2014 conference is not until April, but the countdown has already begun and folks on both continents are already preparing. Here's a little countdown of my own:

 In the five years we have been with MAF, we've attended four family conferences, in three countries, and they have all been times of restoration, encouragement, refreshment and growth.

This year, two people who are dear friends of one of our team members have sensed God leading them to come help with our family conference. Would you take just one minute to look at Mike and Debbie Martinez's blog: Sharing His Joy in the Congo and pray for them? Maybe even consider helping them get to Congo?

This year's conference theme is Joy in the Furnace. That's not a reference to the climate, even though it topped 100 degrees yesterday. Please pray for all of the people preparing for this conference and all of our team members here who are so looking forward to it!

 And pray for the MK's, the missionary kids. They need rejuvenation and encouragement too and the conference will include programs for the kids and teens.

I don't have good enough internet today to re-post them here, but if you want to see photos of some of our past conferences or read about their impact on our family, just click on the "family conference" label at the bottom of this post.

The Problem Behind The Wall

Stone Wall (Photo credit: sobriquet.net)

When we moved into this house in October 2012, a lot of work had gone into preparing it but it was still in need of a lot of TLC. David is still making repairs. His progress is sometimes slowed by other circumstances, including the fact that now we have lived here long enough for some of the original repairs to need their own repairs!

One toilet, from day one, had issues. Previous occupants had installed it improperly. It is an unbelievably loud toilet when the tank is filling. The tank is not level. One side is a full inch higher than the other, so parts don't align properly and they break quickly. Like within days. So we quit buying parts and the only way to flush it was to remove the lid to the tank and stick your hand in the water and pull up the thingymabobber yourself.

We have more than one toilet so my way of dealing with it was to avoid using it.

This past weekend, David decided to try a different approach. Instead of the typical "push button" on toilets here, he fixed a wire to come up through the hole where the button would normally be and made a temporary handle so that now you can just pull the wire up and it lifts the thingymabobber and does the flushing. Yaay!

The hot water connection beneath the sink in the same bathroom had recently begun dripping, so while he was in there he decided to tighten that connection. Almost as soon as he grasped it, the knob broke off in his hand and water started spewing everywhere. You can't just shut off the water to one room in this house like we can in the states, so it was a big deal to have to shut off the water pending a repair. Our Saturday agenda had just been rewritten.

When David attempted to removed the broken piece of plumbing, the next section had rusted through and ALSO broke off. That made our big deal even bigger. Here, the walls are concrete, not drywall, and they concrete right over the plumbing. David spent hours with a hammer and chisel trying to get through the wall all the way back to the broken pipe without breaking more than one ceramic tile or hitting the sink with the hammer. The power was out during all this so I was sitting in there holding a flashlight for him. Neither of us would say it out loud but we were both really hoping that the next section of pipe would not also be rusted through and would stay intact.

The next challenge was finding the right parts, but a local hole in the wall "hardware store" actually had enough of what we needed to at least get the wall closed back up and be able to turn on the water again. I won't have a usable sink in there until we find a couple more parts but at least I have water to the rest of the house and my bathroom got a good mopping!

Very often in Congo, what appears to be a small repair turns out to be a big one.

I think sometimes people are like that too. We never know when someone does or says something to us that has a hint of anger, criticism, or malice what is lying on the other side of their wall and what might be going on with their inmost parts. Maybe they have a burden or a hurt that is way bigger than we can know. Maybe deep inside they have broken places that need God's love and healing.

Party In A Jar

designed by Daniel Burton

We are studying insects in school, so for an art project I challenged Daniel to construct an insect. The only rules I gave him were that it had to have six legs, a head, thorax and abdomen, and compound eyes. He could use any materials and the insect could resemble a known species or be imaginary. I gave him an A on his insect, pictured above. Very cool beans, Daniel. 

Not so cool are the other insects in our home right now. One would think that if no people, food, animals, etc were in the building for over six months that whatever ants or bugs were there would either get hungry and go elsewhere or they would starve and die. Nope. The ants found us on day one.

After a flying roach nearly hit me in the head, one crawled across my foot, daily wiping ants off the kitchen surfaces even when no food was left out, and a poisonous centipede was found crossing the living room, I decided to take offensive action. 

So yesterday I got out my recipes and made ant bait and roach bait. Centipedes like to eat roaches, so presumably getting rid of roaches would give them less incentive to enter the house. 

Eat your heart out, Martha Stewart.

I had to ask Daniel to make the ultimate sacrifice and drink a Coke so I could have the bottle cap. He's such a martyr.

Here is the ants' reaction only five minutes after I put the bait out.  

The recipes are obviously different, but both have boric acid as their primary ingredient. Boric acid is scarce here and I brought my own from the states. We can buy bug spray, but this is much less toxic, less expensive, and smells a lot better. My cats even ate the roach bait once and were ok. I put onion in the roach bait now and Elliot stays clear of it.  

Disney - Snow White's Scary Adventure - Queen Witch (Photo credit: Express Monorail)

Inconceivable!

Today my husband said this to me over the phone:

"Don't worry about that one. I'm in some back alley somewhere. I don't know where I am or how I am going to get out of here, but I am making a purchase."

Now, what would you think if you heard that in the U.S? Something shady going down, I would bet. Here is what was really going down.

I was shopping downtown with a couple of MAF wives/friends, enjoying a day out of the house, and saw a refrigerator. We are still using a loaner and I knew David was out shopping for one so I called him to tell him I found one and ask him if the price was good. 

David had gone to a store, found a refrigerator, and attempted to purchase it. They were willing to sell him one, but they only had the floor model and they said it would take a couple of hours to get one from "the warehouse." In Congo time, that could possibly mean sometime the same day, or not. So David asked if he could drive to the warehouse and pick it up. That is how he ended up where he was when I happened to call him.

But you need to fully understand the kind of morning he had in order to appreciate shopping in Kinshasa. We had decided that with our family being smaller now, and the power issues being what they are and freezers keeping cold better than refrigerators, that it would cost the same amount to buy a very small refrigerator and a separate small freezer as it would to buy one full-sized refrigerator. So that is what he was attempting to do. They also only had the floor model of the freezer. After David drove to the warehouse to get the refrigerator and freezer, they only had the refrigerator. He had to drive to another place to pick up the freezer. See how much he loves me?


I arrived home from my morning with the ladies to find a new refrigerator in my kitchen. 

We plugged it in. Then the power went out. Within five minutes. Really. At least I was able to laugh. 

So if you've never been here, shopping is an inconceivable experience. It is also inconceivable to me that we have been here less than four years and this is our third refrigerator. I am really grateful to have this one and I hope it lasts a good long time!

My washing machine is a girl, and she has a crush on my husband.

How else does one explain her habit of malfunctioning on me and then working like a charm the moment my husband comes home. She hates me. 

Obviously I’m joking, but we do sometimes make things personal in our own mind that really aren’t. At least I do. One of my goals this term is to try not to do this and to also remember who the real enemy is. It isn’t my washing machine, my noisy neighbor, the reckless and rude drivers, the corrupt policeman, or even the electric company. We know the real adversary is Satan, but sometimes we assist him by being our own enemy as well. 

For me, it’s the trap of looking inward instead of upward. Of being ungrateful. Of feeling entitled.

During furlough, I finally got my hot little hands (Yes, they are hot, I live in Africa.) on a copy of One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp, thanks to a dear friend.  I know, I know, everyone else read that book ages ago and this is old news for most folks. I have really been enjoying it. I am going through it slowly, taking time to reflect and absorb. Here are some of my favorite quotes so far:

“Jesus didn’t institute the Eucharist around some unusual, rare, once-a-year event, but around this continual act of eating a slice of bread, drinking a cup of fruit from the vine. First Corinthians 11:26 reads, ‘whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup” (NIV) –whenever.”

She quotes Alexander Schmemann: “Now, in the Bible a name…reveals the very essence of a thing, or rather its essence as God’s gift….To name a think is to manifest the meaning and value God gave it, to know it as coming from God and to know its place and function within the cosmos created by God. To name a thing, in other words, is to bless God for it and in it.”  

                                                                                                                    Does the old hymn “Count Your Blessings” come to mind? Name them, one by one. By doing so we are blessing the Lord and in return, we learn the secret to being content.

She writes about replacing the habit of discontentment with a habit of seeing God’s gifts as grace and accepting them with thanksgiving. 

Why is it that we interpret everything that is bad or hurtful as a personal attack from someone/something/somewhere and blindly overlook so many of the truly personal acts of grace intended for us that the Father bestows on us every day?

I am looking forward to the rest of the book, to learning about the author’s journey and transformation and to see how God might use her story in my life. 

Elliot: the picture of contentment.

Kinshasa Journal 2: Robocops and Refrigerators

Thanks Nick Frey for the photo!

We’ve been here almost a week! Where did the time go? 

Here is a list of highlights and “lowlights” from our first week back in Kinshasa.
We arrived late on Thursday evening. On the way home from the airport, I got to see the traffic robot, aka robocop. These new aluminum and steel traffic officers were built here in Kinshasa while we were in the states. You can see more photos, some video footage, and read more about the robocops HERE.

Upon arriving at the house, we were pleasantly surprised at the work our team had put into cleaning it and stocking it with enough food to get us started until we could go shopping. David Francis had done some plumbing and wiring repairs so that we could have electricity and showers. There was a welcome banner for Daniel from one of his friends. The beds were made with clean sheets. We were UNpleasantly surprised to see someone else’s refrigerator in our living room when we walked in, because it could only mean one thing. Sure enough, our refrigerator that we bought shortly before we left for furlough was not functional. 

It did not take us long to feel like we were back in Congo again. Friday night the car we are borrowing from MAF broke down on a dead end road and we did not have working phones yet. Not that anyone could have easily come to help us because the reason we turned down the wrong road was because our road is under construction and is completely barricaded and we were trying to find another way to the house. The nice thing is that in Kinshasa if you have some francs in your pocket you can always find a couple of guys willing to help you push your car. All we had was a twenty dollar bill so we really made their day. For a lot of people here twenty dollars is more than a week’s wages. Then on Saturday evening we spent nearly an hour stuck in a traffic jam. The kicker was that we were only about one minute from our destination when we got stuck.

We’ve already had several power outages, including one that lasted about thirty hours. David has already repaired the same light fixture four times. Two voltage regulators have fried. I no longer have a dryer, which means scratchy towels and hoping the mango flies don’t find my clothesline. We haven’t found a vehicle yet. 

David jumped in with both feet and started working in the hangar on Monday, but today he stayed home to try to address some issues here in the house. We discovered the refrigerator had zero refrigerant in it, so there is a leak somewhere. If we can find the leak, we can get it repaired and save a lot of money versus buying a new one. We are grateful for the loaner refrigerator while we sort this out. 

This doesn't look like much but it is a big deal to me. Our 12 volt lights, internet antenna and router are set up to run on battery power. The batteries are charged by solar panels, but they are not holding their charge well anymore so when the power is off or it is too cloudy our internet quickly begins to fail, followed by our back up lights. I was running up and down a ladder several times a day to turn the inverter off and reset the router to get internet back, or to turn it off altogether to try to conserve battery power for running the lights. David lowered the inverter today so that I can reach it without the ladder. That beautiful green light means we have internet! No more ladder in the hallway. Yaay! It’s the little things, folks. 

So, we are definitely not in America anymore. But we are doing well. Since this is our second term and not our first, now that the jet lag has worn off it does seem a lot easier to adjust. I know how to cook here already, how to pay bills, how to shop, how to run a generator, etc., so it doesn’t feel like a mountain of stuff is being thrown at me to learn and navigate. I already have friends and acquaintances here, which is a huge thing. During the last several months leading up to our furlough, David and I both had health issues we did not know about until we got to the states, but which were contributing to our mental and physical fatigue and stress and probably affecting how we (or at least I) related to our team. Thankfully, we have a very understanding  team, and we are both feeling much better now.

We’ve learned some things. Firstly, next time we go on furlough or an extended trip we will label where we store the parts for the water filter. That’s sort of important and at 1:00am after a flight across the ocean one’s memory is not what it should be. 


Secondly, I am learning to take better care of myself and to minimize stress as much as possible here so that I have more energy for my relationships with others and for the things I have to do. For example, we have one room that stays cooler than any other room in the house, so that is where we now have our home school day. It’s amazing the difference that ten degrees can make on a person’s overall well being and temperament after several hours each day! 

Robocops aside, life here is just as difficult for most Congolese as it was when we left last summer - maybe more so. The police are destroying the wares and stands of the roadside vendors in the name of "cleaning up and beautifying the city." There are new laws going into effect regarding what parts of the city the taxi buses are allowed to run in. Taxis are the primary mode of transportation for most people here. The prevailing attitude of those in power seems to be the end justifies the means without regard to who gets hurt in the process. Please continue to keep Congo in your prayers!

Exciting Times and Heartache

We are busy, busy, busy packing, shopping for things we need, and tying up loose ends. It seems for every thing I scratch off my list, two new items appear. Finishing the first furlough and returning for the second term is a big deal to us, almost as big as actually finally getting to go to Kinshasa the first time around. So, I revisited the first post I wrote when we arrived, Kinshasa Journal. 

It covers our entire first week in Congo and is pretty long, so you may or may not be interested in reading the whole thing. It was fun for me to read my first impressions in light of what I know about Congo and life there three years later. Honestly it made me shake my head at myself and laugh at myself a little. This time around, I think we have more realistic expectations. Everyone there was a stranger the first time around, but this time we have reunions with friends to look forward to! 
 
Tomorrow we take Emily back to school so that will be a long (6 hours one-way) day and a sad one. Then when we fly out on Wednesday, we will be down to a family of three. Being 7,000 miles from my kids is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I won't sugar-coat it, it stinks.

Pray for our travels, for all of our luggage to make it intact, for Josh and Emily as they stay behind and for us as we re-adjust to life in Africa. 

Behind Enemy Lines

BEhind Enemy Lines (Photo credit: 182 mier)

Our Sunday School lesson this week was a study of Romans 7:14-8:2, and opened with the question “If your life were a war movie, which one would it be?”

While the focus of the lesson was on our personal struggle with our own sinful nature, my mind kept wandering to the spiritual war declared by Satan against Christ and all who represent Him. Jesus referred to Satan as the ruler of this world, so I guess the movie title I would choose is “Behind Enemy Lines.”

Some have asked me how last week’s coup attempt and shootings in Kinshasa will affect our plans to return to Africa. 

(If you are not sure what I'm talking about, you can read a news article about it HERE. A friend of ours in Kinshasa shared her first-hand experience HERE. Cindy's post is long but worth the read.)

Thankfully, things quieted down quickly and our plans have not been altered. The physical battle was a very tangible reminder though, of the spiritual battle being waged in the Congo and elsewhere. 

As Christians this side of heaven, we are behind enemy lines whether we are in the heart of Africa or the heartland of America. Will we hunker down and lay low while lost souls are dying, or will we put on our armor and stand firm?

 “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (Eph 6:11-13)”

We can stand, and be the avenue through which someone sees the light of the gospel. And in the end, we win!

     _____________________________________________

David's surgery went well and he is recuperating nicely. The surgeon says we can return to Congo as scheduled as long as David lets me lift all the luggage. Thank you for praying for him!

The MAF Blog published the Top Ten Blog Posts For 2013 . One of my posts made the list, which I think is kinda cool beans and a very nice surprise. There are at least nine great articles in the list so you should check it out.

Another Announcement and A Long Hello

Josh and Kristen came for a visit! We got to close out 2013 and ring in 2014 with ALL of our kids and many of our friends. I am so, so grateful. 

While we had an opportunity, we asked a friend to take some pics.

We aren't the easiest or the most cooperative bunch to photograph, but at least our personalities are shining through.

I love this man! He's pretty amazing.

                                                     The goodbyes have begun. We said goodbye over Christmas to our extended families. This week we said goodbye to our oldest son and his fiancee.  Billy Sprague had a song years ago that said "heaven is a long hello." Saying goodbyes hurts a lot, so I am trying to focus on all the hellos we have said over the last six months and looking forward to the next round of hellos.                                                               One thing we did not expect was that in the midst of shopping for supplies, packing, and saying our goodbyes, David will go to the hospital Friday and say goodbye to his gallbladder. We know God is in control and that having to have surgery here is way better than having to do it in a third world country, so we are looking at this as a reminder that God is taking care of us. We would appreciate prayers for a quick recovery for David and for our travel preparations. 

Our First Furlough Christmas and a Big Announcement!

This year we did our Christmas in multiple phases to accommodate the schedules of our families. First we drove to Emily's school to get her for her break. All of us then drove to Josh's to have a Christmas party with him and Kristen. A few days later we went to Tennessee and had a birthday party for my dad and two more Christmas parties. Here are a few highlights.

Josh's contribution to Kristen's tree: the sock monkey I made for him last year.

David always used to read Luke chapter 2 at the beginning of every Christmas celebration. When the kids learned to read, they began asking if they could read the Christmas story.

Emily and Kristen

The perfect ornament for someone who lives for bacon.

Sock monkeeeeees! Very cool beans!

I don't understand how a kid who turns the Raggedy Ann and Andy ornaments around backwards on the tree because "they are creepy" can then proclaim that this is "awesome."

Meeting up with Jim and Nancy Smith for lunch. They are dear friends and fellow missionaries that we met in Congo. It felt a little strange to be seeing them on this side of the Atlantic but it was a real treat to get to spend time with them.

We had a very nice Christmas season and we are grateful. We also feel grateful and blessed to share this very Cool Beans announcement: We have reached 100% in our ministry support and are going back to Congo on schedule! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to the many who pray and give and make it possible for us to go. We are ambassadors for Christ but we also represent you and we are honored. 

Happy New Year with love from the Burtons!

Mary Had A Baby Pooch

Nativity scene on display in Perstorps kyrka, Sweden. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For those of us who are detail people, I don’t know if there is a single truly accurate nativity set or painting out there, anywhere. Even discounting the fact that no one knows what Mary or Joseph looked like, how many shepherds, etc were there, or even what the manger looked like, every single nativity scene or figurine of Mary the mother of Jesus that I have seen depicted her as being radiant, with perfect hair and beautiful skin and a nice flat tummy tucked behind her belt. In real life, Mary had a baby pooch. She had, after all, just given birth. She probably also was exhausted and had circles under her eyes. Joseph might have looked a little haggard too.

When I was a kid, I used to let it bother me that most nativity scenes I came across depicted Mary as a blue-eyed blonde. Didn’t anyone read their Bible and know that Mary and Joseph were Hebrews? I have since seen many different nativity scenes featuring several nationalities but it no longer bothers me. I guess I decided that the intended message being conveyed wasn’t that Mary looked like this or that but that Jesus came for ALL mankind. 

Sometimes we can get so caught up in the details of something that we miss the simplicity. The beautiful, simple truth of Christmas is that God loved us and sent his Son, and loves us still.

I hope your Christmas this year is sweet and simple, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Merry Christmas!

Tis The Season

We are off in just a bit to northern Missouri to get Emily! We will have her for three weeks! Ironically, even though we spent the last three Christmases in Africa, the first Christmas we will experience without all three of our children will be here in America. Our oldest has grown up and has responsibilities now and has to work. So we are taking Christmas to him tonight and celebrating a bit early!

I had sad news in my email box this morning. A year ago, I wrote about "Operation Clean Kinshasa" in THIS POST. The police are at it again. As you can see in the photo above, there are many vendors all over Kinshasa who set up tables and sell whatever they can to get by; fruits and vegetables, bread, phone cards, etc. Police are cleaning up the city by clearing out the vendors, and they are doing it in cruel fashion - by assaulting people, destroying and burning their tables and inventory, etc.

In Kinshasa most people live hand to mouth, using each days meager wages to feed their families for that day. To have to begin again with no inventory and no money is devastating and frightening. As in the U.S., shoppers generally spend more this time of year. Expats are buying extra food and goodies for the holidays and this could have been a good time of year for the vendors, but as long as this clean up operation continues, it is not safe for the vendors to even attempt to restart their businesses. Instead of a season of extra earnings, more food in the kids' bellies, and good cheer, Kinshasa vendors are having a season of violence, loss, and fear.

Please pray for those affected by this, the vendors and their families, the police who are being ordered to do this, and the working people who are now having a difficult time finding affordable wares. Satan would have this serve him as a way to distract people from the real meaning of Christmas - that God loved us and sent His Son to save us from our sins. Pray that instead, people will look to God to be their salvation, their refuge, and their provider.

A Homemaker Displaced

christmas tree ornament (Photo credit: zaimoku_woodpile)

Last weekend we drove to Tulsa, OK and spoke in our old church there. Except for the horrible weather, which prevented many people from being able to come see us, we had a wonderful time seeing old friends and catching up with one another.



Besides speaking in churches, we've been doing a lot of this kind of activity:


What is this? It's basically a meal, a dessert, or just coffee at someone's home. They invite their friends to come and learn about our ministry in Congo.  It's much more personal and informal than a church presentation and allows for more direct interaction with the guests.



We came home recently and discovered that the lovely couple we are staying with had put up their Christmas tree and decorated the house while we were gone. I was very surprised at the mixture of emotions I felt when I saw it. I was excited and happy, yes, but some little thing inside me was disturbed. I couldn't put my finger on it at first. I just knew I was less happy than I thought I ought to be. Later it came to me. We haven't been missionaries for all that long and this is our first furlough, so maybe there's a name for it and I just don't know it. I was conflicted because even though the tree was beautiful, it wasn't MY tree. The ornaments weren't MY ornaments. Self-centered? Probably. I just felt a bit displaced, like I was home but not really, even though the family we stay with loves us and we love them.

I feel really convicted about it. I thought about Mary and Joseph, and how displaced they must have felt when Jesus was born, again when they were in Egypt, and yet again when they went to Nazareth.

And then there's Abraham: "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents," Hebrews 11: 9.

We don't live in tents, but we do live in temporary locations, in other people's homes.

It's nice to be rooted. I remember that feeling. But I am beginning to think there are things I can learn and gifts I can receive only by being uprooted and transplanted. It's a gift to read about Mary and Abraham going to foreign lands and to really know what it feels like to be displaced and foreign. How precious to think I might have something in common with her: knowing what it is like to be a mom raising children in a strange country without the closeness of extended family!