Paradox

We just returned from our month-long training in Colorado on Saturday. Wow! It was such a busy, insightful, exciting and challenging month! The last two weeks of the training focused on cultural acquisition, conflict styles, stress, and rest, among other topics.

One of my favorite concepts that we discussed was the idea of thinking and talking in paradox. Meaning, allowing things to be equally good and hard at the same time. Typically I focus so much on the positive that I like to ignore and not even give much acknowledgement to the negative. What this does, however, is undermine the pain and force me to push it off to deal with at another time. I am learning that it is such much healthier to allow myself to feel the good and the bad at the same time. So, here are my currently paradoxical thoughts that I am dealing with...

I am so excited about the friendships that we made at MTI with incredible people going all over the world. It was extremely hard to leave those new friendships- knowing that we understood each other so well, but don't all get to live life together in the future.

We are really looking forward to applying everything that we have learned this past month to life in South Sudan. It will be really great to start ministry again and get to know a new culture. At the same time, going to a new culture means leaving an old one. We are beginning our goodbyes and long process of packing and it is very difficult. It is painful to leave our friends and families and the thought of adjusting to a new culture sounds exhausting.

Thinking in paradox is hard (for me at least) because you have to acknowledge the negative, but it is good because it causes you to be honest with how you are really doing.

That's all I have the brain capacity to come up with at the moment, but I am trying to think of more :). I know this new way of processing will bring freedom to be more honest and direct with how I am feeling. Praise the Lord for new insights!

Mission Training International

Will and I are about to begin our third week at Mission Training International (MTI) in Colorado. The first two weeks were language training and we are about to move on to two weeks of cultural training. Here are the top five things about our time here so far.

1. Colorado is beautiful! I mean, we already knew this, but man, living in the midst of mountains is breath taking! It is so gorgeous in this area! Here are some pictures of hikes we have been able to do in the area so far.

  2. Missionaries are great people. We are here with over 30 other adults (and lots of kids!) and they are really kind people. I guess you would expect missionaries to be kind, but we have been blown away by the love and compassion of the people we are here with. We are so grateful that God is sending these great people to spread His love all over the world. The people that are taking this training with us are going everywhere including the Dominican Republic, Southeast Asia, Austria, Kenya, and many other countries. There is even another couple here who is going to South Sudan! We are very grateful for the friendships we are building with people here and grateful that God is calling His people all over the world!

3.   Learning a new language can be fun and manageable. Over the past two weeks, we have been learning a method of how to learn a language.  I have to admit, learning a new language is NOT my favorite part about moving to a new country. However, after this training, I am looking forward to it a lot more and much more hopeful that it can actually be a manageable task if I am diligent and plan it out well. I’m so grateful for the new skills we learned for language learning!

4.  Pre-Field training is VERY beneficial! We are only halfway through the training and I already feel like it has been worth every penny. The staff here is extremely knowledgeable and all have a lot of experience in the mission field. This has been a great time of “filling our backpacks” with great knowledge that I know will be very beneficial on the field.

5.   God is faithful! Okay, we already knew that one too, but seriously, He is so good! We are incredible grateful for everything we are getting to experience here and know that it will lead to life-long friendships and great knowledge for our future in the mission field. We are also so grateful that we are getting very close to finishing support. We only need around $600 more per month to be fully funded! If you are interested in joining our support team, please go to http://www.whm.org/give/missionary?ID=51266.