It was a simple note - just a short response to a e-mail conversation we'd been having. But it closed with an invitation to have our family come and stay with theirs for as long as we wanted or needed while on our upcoming furlough next year.
That sentence alone pricked my eyes with tears of gratefulness for faithful friends.
The truth is that we have more than our fair share of very special people in our lives. These are people who despite years of not seeing one another and infrequent personal contact (prayer letters don't count) throughout those years, are willing to open their homes and their arms and their hearts to the crazy and ever-expanding, somewhat nomadic Garcia "tribe."
And for that I am so very thankful. As we enter this final year before furlough, I know that for me personally emotions are going to be so heightened. Packing and moving top the list of "things I truly hate to do" - yet my entire life as a missionary kid and now a missionary mom has revolved around this. So I can feel the countdown in my bones and I can foresee the chaos that is to come, but the great thing is this: when it's all said and done, there will be faithful friends to pick us up and patch us back together again.
My prayer is that I may I remain focused and useful to my God in the meantime!
That sentence alone pricked my eyes with tears of gratefulness for faithful friends.
The truth is that we have more than our fair share of very special people in our lives. These are people who despite years of not seeing one another and infrequent personal contact (prayer letters don't count) throughout those years, are willing to open their homes and their arms and their hearts to the crazy and ever-expanding, somewhat nomadic Garcia "tribe."
And for that I am so very thankful. As we enter this final year before furlough, I know that for me personally emotions are going to be so heightened. Packing and moving top the list of "things I truly hate to do" - yet my entire life as a missionary kid and now a missionary mom has revolved around this. So I can feel the countdown in my bones and I can foresee the chaos that is to come, but the great thing is this: when it's all said and done, there will be faithful friends to pick us up and patch us back together again.
My prayer is that I may I remain focused and useful to my God in the meantime!
1 comment:
I know what that means! TO find someone willing to host you... wow! We struggle every time, and are now looking at it again - what with four boys, three of which will be teenagers, and one girl.. it is hard to find someone willing to take us in. (I know we only have four kids normally, but this summer we are hosting another missionary's child because that is what is best at this time.) I've seriously thought of tenting for two months on occasions just because we can not afford a hotel or rental unit, but no one is excited to take in six (or seven) people. :(
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