Friends,
I write to you with great sadness. This month so far has been quite a learning experience, God has taught me many things through out our travels leaving Albania. It takes patience to have no idea what the plans are and have to find out you have to depart to to your next destination at a moments notice. It also is not easy to let go of control and just go with what is planned for you. This applies to things of the world race such as food, random lodging, and your ministry. Their are times when you are put in situations where you are not in your most comfortable place yet you need to trust that God placed you there because you are more than capable of doing whatever you are being asked, such as speaking in front of a church of people. Same goes for life, in this case God seems to have had a plan for me to be on the race for only six weeks (leaving Serbia August 13th).
Relax, the story as to why I am going home is not as juicy or scandalous as you may want to imagine. Adventures in Missions staff heard about how difficult it has been for me to be able to get in contact with my husband Victor who is in the Army in Afghanistan. This is where God has been teaching me the most. Being away from each other is already hard enough, then add both of us having limited internet/phone communication available, plus two very hectic schedules along with two time zones. That is where you find it is practically impossible to find an exact moment to be able to talk. It doesn’t take a genius to know that communication is a cornerstone to keeping a good relationship strong (especially a long distance relationship). So having this aspect almost completely taken away due to normal World Race nature tends to make being away from each other even harder. In month one I still had internet access enough to at least get an email out once a day, but here in Serbia I’m not so lucky. Turns out after having a talk with Adventures Staff they feel that it would be better for my relationship to go home and have a more consistent form of communication so we can continue to tend our marriage as best we can in the circumstances we were given. I can’t disagree on that, but I must admit I am so sad to have to leave this wonderful experience with some amazing people on ouR squad!
God has used this time to challenge me in many aspects of my life, from how I view love and understand people, to my relationship with him in faith, to my personal relationship with Victor. These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of good bad and wonderful experiences. Getting to see how people on the other side of the world live has made me feel so blessed in having the opportunities, family, and support I have at home. I have seen the beauty in living happily with what you have (or at least what you can carry on your back; often more than 50 lbs of it) and need, and not living with the constant emptiness of not having want you want (truth is we always want more, bigger, newer but we don’t always NEED). I found that we often feel as though God isn’t there, like he is not answering our prayers. This is not true. Truth is, he is always answering our prayers it just may not be as we would like him to. He always answers, he answers in the best most perfect way. We just need to be open to seeing how he has answered our prayers and also see what occurs in our lives some hours, days, months later… as he tends to gift us with things that wouldn’t have occurred if our prayers were answered as we would have liked them to be answered.
In my case, I can feel as though God did not answer my prayer in letting me be on the race for the entire 11 months or even my first 3 months at that! My natural reaction is to be upset for my having to go home, but he seems to have given me all the experiences he wanted me to have in this adventure of mine. It was a pressure cooker that forced me to grow and learn ever so quickly. Plus, I have prayed for a strong healthy marriage and for Victor to come home safe. God sees what is to happen in the future, so maybe my early trip home is the only way to blessed and have that prayer answered.
**So, fair warning my friends, be careful what you pray for, prayers will be answered, NOT always as you EXPECT, but always for the better!
