We bought a house…
Well a house on wheels of sorts. We bought a 1999 Gypsey Royale Caravan.
Much of our missionary assignment involves travel. We are on the road at least a couple of days
every week or so. Sometimes we are on
the road for a week or two at a time.
When it was just the two of us traveling was easy. (Well let’s be honest we got pregnant several
months after we got here so travelling then meant stopping at every possible
bathroom opportunity to empty my pregnancy sized bladder.) We packed light and
that made moving hotel rooms or hosts homes easier. But now we are a family of three.
Joe and I felt called into missions, Peter well he didn’t
have much choice in the matter. So Joe
and I are trying to balance between involving Peter in our call and giving
Peter room to find his own call. I know,
I know he is only 4 months old but we realize that patterns start early and
habits are easier to form than to break.
So we are trying to be intentional now about being the parents and
missionaries and family we want to be even now when Peter is a non-verbal and
non-opinionated member of the family. We
are also trying to balance between doing what is best for our ministry and
doing what is best for our family. Many
times they are the same thing. But there
are and will be times when what is best for our ministry is not what is best
for our family and visa versa. So again
we have to be intentional about making sure that it is not always tipping in
one direction (whether it be family or ministry.) We felt it was important to give Peter a sense
of routine or a place of his own even when we are traveling to assemblies, or
site visits or with a team. We wanted to
make sure he had a place to unwind after the 5 hour dedication service or the 8
hour district assembly. We wanted to
start family traditions that make him thankful for where and how he lives not
resentful of it. But at the same time we
don’t want to raise him to think that that
the world is all about him and does revolves around him. All of these things and more were the things
we talked about when we were discussing our family and our ministry and the
possibility of a caravan.
On one of our journeys Joe said jokingly we could just get a
caravan/camper. He was kidding but it
started a conversation that carried on for several months. We joked about and then we started talking
seriously about it. We talked to our
friends, our mentors, our co-workers, other missionaries, our boss and asked is
this a good idea, how will it be viewed by those we will be working with, is it
worth the investment, what are the pros and cons we are not thinking of and are
we crazy for considering this. We looked
at a few caravans and we talked about it and prayed about it some more. We tabled the discussion several times and
then we would pick it up again. Until a
couple of weeks ago when we found a caravan that was in our budget and fit our
need/want list. And after looking at it several
times and talking and praying over it some more, we bought a caravan. On a Thursday we signed the papers and had
the official handover. Then the next day
we hooked it up to the field truck and drove it off the lot and went on our
first trip with it. Two countries, 6 district
assemblies, 1 field rally, around 2500 kilometers (about 1500 miles), 4
different caravan sites, and 8 tanks of petrol (gas) and a whole lot of
memories later. We made the right
decision and we are thankful for and blessed by the experiences that we have
had and that we are going to have as we see the countries of our field and set
up our home wherever the road leads us. This
next week we will be taking it back out for another assembly weekend.
Until next time: Ostrich’s look much smaller and cuter from
a safari vehicle than when you meet up with an ostrich family while on a walk
in a nature reserve. Then you realize how big they are and how small you
are. Thankfully Joe masterfully
protected our family and no animals or humans were harmed in said walk. Shortly after we picked up a walking stick
and we turned around when we came upon a herd of Kudu.
