Once upon a time . . .

Once upon a time, a fair maiden sailed to a land far across the sea, in great hopes of sharing the best news in the world with a people yet unknown to herself. Arriving on these dusty shores, she got to work, learning how to survive.
Fast forward 5 years, and all was finally going according to plan. In those intervening years she had learned a few languages and other teammates had joined her in these endeavors. Though the timing was later than she would have imagined, this fair maiden was finally learning the language of these people whose lives were so different than hers. She had bright hopes and goals of being used, together with her wonderful and perfect team, to share this great news with these people, and even to translate the very special book that told all about it, when they finished learning their language. Life was hard, but things were slowly coming together.
And then they came undone. It started with an unexpected proclamation from some of these illustrious teammates, saying that they didn’t feel God leading them to work with those specific people across the sea anymore.
Though this fair maiden was rather confused and a bit heart-broken as her picture of the perfect team working together in harmony came crashing down around her, she decided that she was to do no other than continue on with her one remaining teammate.
That was the plan: the two fair maidens, who had briefly returned to the land on this side of the sea, planned to journey back to the land of these people whose lives were so different and continue with their work there. Things were continuing on after the loss of the other teammates.
And then they weren’t. The remaining teammate of the fair maiden continued to be troubled by the health woes that had brought her to this side of the sea, and though she had been seeking help far and wide, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to cross the sea at the same time as planned.
Thus the fair maiden continued preparations for the journey back across the sea on her own, to be joined by her remaining illustrious teammate when her health improved.
And then her preparations stopped, as she was told by her fearless leaders that there had been a large sighting of dragons (or other unsavory characters), and so she was not to venture back to that land quite yet. A three-month delay was put on her journey, though no promises were made as to what would await her at the end of those three months.
And that is where you find your fair maiden today. A bit confused as her illusions of the perfect team with glorious ambitions not quite going according to her perfect plans, and yet she has not given up hope, since she knows the One Who makes all plans, and makes all plans good. She has decided to take this time she has been given to pursue more knowledge that will be able to help her in her activities across the sea. She asked me to send forth the village criers, asking each of you to pray to the God of this land and that to restore peace and give her fearless leaders wisdom in this three-month period.
(Not) The End (but just another curve in the journey).
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Yes, in case you didn’t understand from the story above, these last few months have been full of changes. In late June, we were told that the Pryor family was leaving our team, believing that God had called them to a different ministry. My remaining teammate, Jen, has seen some improvement in her health, but it still wasn’t good enough for her to return to My Country the middle of October as planned. Because of that, she was deciding to postpone her return in order to continue to seek healing first. But she was hoping to come as soon as she could. However, last weekend I was told by Ethnos360 leadership in West Africa that I needed to delay my return to My Country from next weekend until likely sometime in January, due to security concerns. God seems to have opened the doors for me to go to Dallas, Texas, these next two months, to continue my studies. I plan to take two courses that should be very helpful in our work among My People: Discourse Analysis and Tone Analysis. Then I hope and pray that I’ll be allowed back in January. But I’ll keep you posted. Thanks so much for your prayers in these uncertain and changing times!