Trips to the Tribe

School is out and Chris has spent the last three weeks in the bush. The girls and I joined him for the first week, and then we came back to town and worked on moving. Again! It was our fifth move in the past 12 months, and we are all looking forward to being settled in this house for the next 12. We will be the dorm parents for the next school year and will have five high schoolers joining our family in August.

The church in Pal continues to meet together for prayer and singing and teaching. The teachers are all doing great at putting together lessons from Scripture, and we are encouraged to see them studying, making notes, and communicating truth carefully. Thank you for praying for them! The ladies recently starting meeting together again for their own Bible study. This is something we have encouraged over the years, but it tends to fizzle out after the initial enthusiasm wears off. Please pray that the ladies will see the importance of meeting together like this and will commit to making it a part of their routine. Many women haven’t learned to read, so it is especially important for them to come to the meetings so they can hear the Word of God read and have some honest discussion about it.

We didn’t get our wish of returning to the States for the summer, but God has provided good places for our boys to be. Cole is working at a Christian camp in Maryland with a friend, and Micah is working at Walmart in Indiana and helping with the youth group at a church there. Things are going well for both of them, so we are thankful even though we miss them.

The girls had a good time in the bush hiking to all their favorite childhood spots. We even got to take a few senior photos for Maisie there. Now, after moving and setting up their rooms again, they are getting into the swing of summer vacation with a lot of sleeping in and playing games with the few friends that are also still here for the summer. Maisie will begin her senior year in August, so she is starting to apply to colleges and for scholarships. Strange to think we will soon only have one child at home…

We will all return to the bush in about two weeks for another visit. It is strange going back to the house where we spent so many years as a family. Our kids grew up in that house. It is the place where we weathered many trials as a couple and as a team. I taught my kids math and did minor surgical procedures in our school room! So many memories. And now our ministry is much different. Now we are mostly just mentors and consultants, which is the way it should be. And the fact that, in this new phase, the termites are starting to eat holes in our floors feels kind of appropriate–as if our house has become an hourglass, a visual reminder that time is passing with each grain of sawdust those little buggers eat. When all four of our kids are graduated and gone, and we are free to spend more time in the bush, will our house still be standing? Will the Pal church need us to make longer trips? How can we best help them grow at that stage? These are questions that can’t be answered now. So this summer we will make the most of the time we have to be in our old home, encouraging and uplifting the believers there who are trying to follow God in their daily lives.