Home Sweet Home

Where to start? If I started from October 17 to today, to share all that has happened I would end up writing a small novel. Flexibility, patience and endurance have been my greatest companions these days. I’ve lived in three different houses, lead a World Race squad of 17 people, opened our Women with Children center last week at our inauguration, and done more planning and arranging and moving than I maybe ever have before in a month’s span of time. At the end of some days I felt like I was stepping out of the tea cups roller coaster at an amusement park. Being a host for a World Race squad is a lot different than being a racer. However, I thoroughly enjoyed coordinating all the food shopping, meals, daily ministry, transportation, interpreters, and all the other thousand daily things that come up between. I learned a lot about myself and even shocked myself a few times when I would find myself interpreting for the team on a Sunday morning, or managing the various work projects for the day, or packing all my stuff up to move to another house for the following week or two. It’s been wild. It’s been a growing month for me. I’ve found my voice, my values I defend, my battles I want to fight, my grace that puts on a smile and turns the other cheek, and my energy that holds out ‘til my head hits the pillow. As I sit here by the beach taking a two day sabbath to rest (finally) and to reflect on this month, I’ve discovered some of the things I’ve missed this month. 

Consistency- I’m a nester. When I don’t have a consistent and stable living environment I feel like my days reflect the instability. I’m very flexible but when there are no parts of my life that resemble any consistency, I feel like things quickly fall to shambles.

Quiet, alone mornings- Mornings are sacred. Not having any personal morning space to read my Bible and just be alone with my thoughts, prayers and plan for the day was hard, and a lot of days I felt its effect when irritation would butt in its ugly head. 

Trust- On an island by myself. When the sleep was little, pressure intense, plans in disarray, and emotions high, I would quickly find myself in ‘the depths of despair’ (thank you Anne of Green Gables for this phrase). I felt like I couldn’t share with anyone personal needs I had or the difficult situations I was going through. 

Rest- None stop. Going hard for three weeks without taking a day for myself in the moment was the only option I felt I had. This caused me to continually suppress emotions, pains, and conversations I needed to have and emotions I needed to express. 

So what does any of this have to do with the blog title ‘Home Sweet Home’. And no this is not an announcement that I’m coming home for good. I plan on returning to Costa Rica the first of January Lord willing. There, it’s official:) This past month has felt like I’ve been ‘away from home’ and now I’m just returning home. There’s nothing like the feeling of walking back into your home after being gone on a trip and thinking to yourself ‘home sweet home’ or maybe even saying it out loud. Sadly, some people have never felt that feeling. Can you imagine? They constantly live in a state of inconsistency, instability, loneliness, and fear. Never experiencing the sweet relief of entering into a place and thinking ‘home sweet home’. If my handful of days of feeling these things results in a future lifetime of a woman or child being able to call a place ‘home sweet home’ it will all be worth it. It’s already worth it knowing I’m living in obedience to God’s working and leading in my life. The ministry I am playing a small part of down here will give women and their children an opportunity maybe for the first time to have the thought and feeling that they are in a home, a sweet home. 

I’ll be home in the US in a week to enjoy the Christmas season with family. Bring on the Hallmark, decorating, puzzles, fires, baking, cookies, music and traditions. It will be hard to be away from the ministry and people here in Costa Rica for a month but knowing I’m coming back makes it a little easier. 

Chocolate!!! I will be bringing back chocolate that we personally make down here. It’s 66% cacao, made with only our own cacao beans that we hand harvest and unrefined sugar (see my latest FaceBook post for more information on our chocolate and why it’s the best!!!). The smaller 1 ounce bars are $5 and the bigger 2.5 ounce bars are $10. (They make excellent Christmas gifts!) A percentage of each bar will go towards my support raising for my next several months in Costa. Leave a comment below or FaceBook message me to put in your order!