*As I read your blog, I'm always feeling a mixture of awe and envy... not a bitter envy, maybe more of a longing? I'm not so naive as to assume that your life is a vacation (!), but still, the freedom to drop school and go fishing or swimming, to experience a different culture, to enjoy the tropical climate and foods, etc....
Oh, Julie, you made me cry! Some days I wish I was in your shoes to enjoy things like being close to family and observing the seasons change. This answer may be way too personal, but here goes....We would not be here if we didn't very clearly see the Lord's hand directing us here. People often ask me if I dreamed of being a missionary when I was a little girl - the answer is a big, fat, NO! In many ways, my life is very much like yours. My primary responsibility is to my family: feeding, clothing, encouraging, loving, educating, etc, then I get to serve in my community. I just have to adjust to the resources available here and learn a foreign language while I'm at it!
I'm glad you don't think our life is a vacation, because it isn't, but one of the joys of living in a Melanesian society is participating in their concept of time. Being flexible is difficult for me, I lean toward a very scheduled approach with life and school. Somehow, we find a happy medium in between the bells that ring around 5:45 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. and order our day. We plan my expeditions with neighbors (great culture and language learning) when Aaron can be home and teach the kids, and the kids get to swim when school is done.
If I lived in the States, or even if we stayed in Honiara all of the time, I would lean towards prideful self-reliance, I think. God knows that I need to be stretched out of my comfort zone, and so we move back and forth. When we are in Marulaon, I'm kept in constant need of God's wisdom and God's strength to an extent that I never experience in Honiara or the States. I'm learning that discontent in my life is a sign that I don't trust God - just like the Israelites in the wilderness.
Thank you for your kind words and prayers - we need both to survive. You and your sweet family are welcome to come and share life with us any time. We love visitors at the Choate Bed and Breakfast (as long as you don't mind roughing it a little bit)!
*Why do you move from one island to another?
Here is my answer from a similar question in January, and I think it's still true in March:
We can't buy anything but a few fresh fruits and veggies with an occasional fish while we live in Marualon, and even those are unpredictable. So we have to come back to Honiara to restock the pantry.
Aaron also has responsibilities to SITAG that he needs to come back to Honiara to fulfill. We enjoy the contact with the other SITAG members as well.
Language learning and living in a "glass house" begin to wear on us after a while. We are certainly not "super missionaries"!
Nine and half weeks seems to be a good amount of time for our family. We begin to wear out physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually towards the end of that time. We've been told that once we learn Lavukaleve, it will be easier to stay for about three months, and then Aaron's work in the Russells will begin to resemble "office hours" a little bit more.
It's REALLY hard to pack and move every two months, but we do love living in both places and we enjoy our neighbors in both places.
*Yes, also curious about your "Path to the Cross"...
We make a "Path to the Cross" similar to an Advent calendar to help us observe Lent. During Lent we practice dying to self, but we also "intentionally choose things that help us become the kind of people God desires us to be" (from the Lent 2010 Experiential Calendar). So as a family, we open a small piece of paper each day that makes a path to a contruction paper cross. Nothing fancy or original (if you want to see a pretty one, check out Dawn's), but each paper helps us choose to either die to self or to serve somebody else.
One day might be to make a placemat with the armor of God and specific verses to fight personal temptations. Another day might be to abstain from coffee (believe me, this hits all six of us pretty hard). We have a neighborhood trash pickup planned, and a day where we each illustrate what Proverbs 28:13 means to us. Since we will be spending the majority of Lent in Marulaon, our activities will be very different than if we were living in the States or even in town, but I think following this path will help us grow more like Christ and help us appreciate Easter more.
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