It’s her birthday today!\u00a0\u00a0My wife is 35.\u00a0\u00a0I won’t be taking her out for a fancy birthday dinner though.\u00a0\u00a0I won’t be giving her a gift.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, I won’t even get to see her.\u00a0\u00a0Thousands of miles stretch between us while I am at meetings this week in Thailand for church planting and she is back in Papua New Guinea with our girls.\u00a0\u00a0Without a phone and the unfortunate incident of my computer hard drive failing, I was so excited just to be able to send her an email saying, “Happy Birthday.”<\/p>\n
Customarily gifts are given to the one having the birthday, but if I could talk to her today I would thank her for the gift she has given to me.\u00a0\u00a0She has given her life for a far greater purpose.\u00a0\u00a0She has spent what some people call “the prime of her life” in a village far away from the ‘American dream’.\u00a0\u00a0Her desires and dreams right now are not for a big home, a new car, or fancy clothes, but rather to develop an advanced literacy course for the Patpatar so the can become better readers in order to more fully understand God’s Word.\u00a0\u00a0Her mornings are not spent in front of the mirror trying to hold back time in her appearance, but is preparing breakfast from scratch, planning out schooling for 3 different grade levels for the day, figuring what other areas she can be involved in ministry, and taking care of a baby that won’t sleep late.<\/p>\n
There are no malls, no nights out on the town, no microwaves or dishwashers.\u00a0\u00a0There are however, continual battles with humidity, mold, allergies and infections.\u00a0\u00a0Yet her purpose is\u00a0not the physical, the economical, or the social.\u00a0\u00a0Her purpose is the eternal.\u00a0 She\u00a0is my partner who has sacrificed for a greater purpose to see the Patpatar church grow and become equipped.<\/p>\n
I miss you Lori.\u00a0\u00a0I wish I could be with you today and celebrate your birthday with you.\u00a0\u00a0I wish I could give you a gift to show my love and appreciation for you.\u00a0\u00a0But I want to tell you thank you for the model you have been to me, to the Patpatar, and to people all over the world of what a woman who gives herself to God can accomplish for Him.\u00a0\u00a0You are a gift!\u00a0\u00a0Happy Birthday, I love you.<\/p>\n
Aaron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s her birthday today!\u00a0\u00a0My wife is 35.\u00a0\u00a0I won’t be taking her out for a fancy birthday dinner though.\u00a0\u00a0I won’t be giving her a gift.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, I won’t even get to see her.\u00a0\u00a0Thousands of miles stretch between us while I am at meetings this week in Thailand for church planting and she is back in Papua […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6233,3,3430],"tags":[178,1982,10993,1262],"class_list":{"0":"post-583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-6233","7":"category-family","8":"category-news-article","9":"tag-birthday","10":"tag-gift","11":"tag-lori","12":"tag-thailand","13":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}