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Bitter Sweet Day

"We're going to have a race.  Get ready now, 1, 2, 3!"

Aren't they adorable!  This past week I dropped all my work and desire to #juststayhome, to head out to the island {again} to spend the day with some "missionary picnickers."  Sometimes we have people who come from far away and just want to ride the boat out to the island, walk around, play on the beach a bit, eat lunch, and go back home.  For us that go there all the time, it can be a little tiring to get up at the crack of dawn to get ready and come home late at night.  But, I decided to do it this past week because I wanted to meet these little guys.  

These are two of three little brothers who live hours and hours away from where we do here in Brazil.  I had only seen the oldest [front left] once when he was a little bitty thing.  Friday we all spent the whole day together - laughing, playing, bathing, eating and yeah, there was even a little crying on a few's part.  

It was a long but great day!

"Yeah!  You won!"

These old beach toys belonged to my boys and are #olderthanmethuselah!  
All the little kids that come to the island love to use them.

Byron enjoyed his time with the little fellows.  
He commented more than once that this is the best time of a little boy's life -
no worries, mommy takes care of it all.

Missionaries don't just "give up" their family in the States or their home country.  They also "give up" their missionary colleague family when they move to new places of ministry.  Our extended family of missionary aunts and uncles and substitute grandmas and grandpas are often tossed aside in a sense as we move on according to God's call.  Valuing those relationships as REAL and IMPORTANT is not an easy task in the overworked day and underpaid life of the average missionary.  Random traveling to visit colleagues and old places of work is expensive and takes time.

My time with these little MK fellows and their mommy and daddy was brief, but important.  By the end of the day they were calling me Aunt Michele and it felt good...


Take time to cultivate the missionary family you have 
wherever you live and work!

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  1. RenaJuly 16, 2013 at 1:27 PM

    Good post, Michele. Tiring but rewarding, that describes much of missionary life, does it not? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. cellartopJuly 16, 2013 at 1:41 PM

    Uncle Byron is a good Uncle with little ones.I know three little boys in Texas that think he is great and now Wise.And they still talk about Aunt Michele and things they did from what seems like long ago.

    ReplyDelete

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