The Year in Review

Today marks the one-year anniversary of our arrival in West Africa. What a year it’s been!

In the midst of studying French, traveling to nine countries, making new friends, adjusting to new supervisors, and learning to take care of ourselves in a somewhat hazardous living environment, we’ve also realized some deeper truths about who we are and Who we serve:

Sometimes He lets you be part of something big. This year we’ve seen missionaries re-energized in their quest to reach the lost of West Africa; churches planted among people groups where few or no believers previously existed; colleagues encouraged as new missionaries come join the work; and leadership re-inspired as they strategically steer our region in a new direction. It’s a privilege just to be here.

* Our marriage not only survives, it thrives by being together 24/7. We’re not only a husband and wife who live together, we’re best friends who enjoy hanging out together and co-workers who value each other’s input and respect each other’s opinions.

* We’re growing in our interpersonal skills. We’re better communicators, better leaders, and better listeners than we were a year ago. We’re learning what it means to confront rather than avoid difficult issues, tackle problems instead of ignore them, and fight for what we believe is the best course of action. We’re also learning patience … sometimes things just take time.

* Survival requires a lot of energy. Everything takes longer – food preparation, housekeeping, grocery shopping. Even though we try to be healthy, we get hit with malaria, parasites, or respiratory problems caused by dusty winds from the Sahara. We fight feelings of guilt for resting when we feel we should be working or keeping the house clean when we could be out building relationships. We have to remind ourselves that life is a constant juggling of priorities.

* We don’t really belong anywhere. America never truly felt like home because we grew up overseas. Moving back overseas made us realize how American we actually are. Our culture is so different from African culture, and finding a balance between the two can be a challenge. Just another reminder that our true Dwelling Place is in Him, not in geographic location.

* The more time passes, the more we miss our families. We’ve missed an entire year in the lives of our nieces and nephews. A younger brother is seriously dating a girl we haven’t even met. Parents are retiring from the mission field and we won’t be there to welcome them home.

* Selfish as it is, we also miss our stuff. For awhile, we were okay with the fact that this was a temporary assignment; that we’re living in a house that’s not ours, full of stuff that’s not ours. Now that Abidjan is starting to feel like home, we wish we had our stuff – dishes, furniture, wedding gifts, picture frames – so that it could really be our home.

Sometimes people focus on all that missionaries “give up” to be part of God’s work overseas. But we tend to agree with David Livingstone, an explorer and missionary who lived on this continent in the 1800s:

“People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? …

"Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.”

May His glory be revealed!