Before and After

Tomorrow a team of high school students from my (Josh’s) former youth group arrives. They’ll be here for 2 weeks and then our family leaves for the States the day after they do (July 1^st). We’ve been looking forward to this time, both because we want to hang out with the team and show them our world, and also because we know that the next 2 weeks are going to fly by and we will be sitting on that plane heading home before we know it.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not leaving without mixed feelings. We’re looking forward to coming back and getting more involved in the work here. But as our first term here draws to a close it does cause us to reflect somewhat.

Ella’s looking forward to seeing Prince Caspian, I am too for that matter. I always wondered what the 4 siblings were like after their Narnia experience. Were they different? Did people notice? Did they try to explain as best they could about their experience? Did they get frustrated when people didn’t understand? One thing was for sure, when they got back to England they found it hadn’t changed at all.

I’m not trying to compare Brazil with Narnia, but our reentry may feel similar. In some ways I think we won’t know how much we’ve changed until we get there. Please be patient with us if we seem a bit slow, if our girls dance in the aisles during worship or if we exhibit some other unexplainable behavior.

We are so looking forward to sharing with you all in person about our past 2 years. Many of you played a huge role in making sure we didn’t crack under the pressure. We are grateful for all of your support.Our family just before leaving for Brazil in October, 2006

Our family last week, June 2008