{"id":4412,"date":"2019-09-07T02:50:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-07T07:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/?p=4412"},"modified":"2019-09-07T02:50:15","modified_gmt":"2019-09-07T07:50:15","slug":"into-the-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/2019\/09\/07\/into-the-unknown\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So I was looking back on my phone for some pictures and realized that I’ve hardly taken any photos for the past month or so as we’ve been getting ready for Taliabo. As random as these photos are, that’s exactly how fragmented our brains feel right now. These photos don’t include water shortages, food poisoning, moving to a guesthouse, cleaning our old apartment, sleeping in a room with a broken AC and the windows sealed up, taking worm meds, and celebrating our 10 year anniversary! It’s been a blur of preparations. We have made list after list. We’ve packed and sorted and weighed all of our belongings for transport and even stored some of these in town for our breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Celebrating Independence Day\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Making some chai to drink with a friend even in the chaos<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Still rocking the moustaches from my family’s package last month.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Finally finding the right kind of broom<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Exploding rotten eggs are not in any way pleasant. Neither is finding out that most of the rack is also on the verge of exploding. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A goodbye feast with friends was refreshing in the middle of all of the preparations.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Yes, that’s a butter knife. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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My faithful companion, the mini whiteboard, along with my 6 week menu<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Keeping the kiddos occupied while we finish up team meetings.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So, you can see, it would be really easy to lose track of the meaningful things in the middle of the flurry of activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But our coworkers graciously watched Finn for a few hours yesterday, and we got to pause and reflect on these past 10 years. It was wonderful to stop and take a deep breath and recognize God’s incredible hand in sustaining and guiding us through some really deep valleys and really high mountains. Almost 10 years to the day, we are opening a new chapter of our lives together as we head enter into what God started so many years ago. And even in the weariness that comes from moving and transitioning, we are excited to take another step of faith toward God and into where He’s calling us. There’s a subtle thrill beneath the sweat and toil. It’s contagious. Even Finn is excited in all of the upheaval. He knows this is what we’ve been planning and talking about for a while now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know this next leg of the marathon is just beginning. It will be hard. It will be new. It will probably undo us at times. But even heading into the unknown, God will be there. He is not unknown. We know Him.We know His character. We know He always shows up. He will continue to tenderly mold and shape us into the people that look more like our Savior. We will make new memories and friends, put downs roots, and get to see the multi-faceted grace of God through His church and in our lives as we serve alongside the Taliabo church. And I hope that thrill of what God has planned will carry us through this next transition with joy and bright hope for tomorrow. Keep us in your prayers dear friends!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I was looking back on my phone for some pictures and realized that I’ve hardly taken any photos for the past month or so as we’ve been getting ready for Taliabo. As random as these photos are, that’s exactly how fragmented our brains feel right now. These photos don’t include water shortages, food poisoning, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1068,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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":[40,1],"tags":[1977,28,83448,786],"class_list":{"0":"post-4412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-overseas","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-moving-in","9":"tag-preparation","10":"tag-taliabo","11":"tag-transition","12":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}