Skip to main content

Ugh, the Grief Bug Bit

Image
By
Easter evening, 2018
Easter, the mission house on Triangle Drive was filled with grandbabies, in-laws, a few out-laws, grandparents, and invited guests.  There may have been 18 or 20.  It was great, but somewhere along the line I realized I had taken no photos and forgotten to give Papa and Greyson their chocolate bunnies early that morning.  So, I felt sort of let down.  And a wave of "missionary grief" began to rise.

last week

Fast forward to  Monday afternoon:  William, our oldest, who'd been "home" over the holiday weekend rushed to get his things together to go back to college.  He'd decided to ride the newly fixed by Papa motorcyle back to school.  It was so nice to think of him going back to school, just like a normal American family.  We haven't been around to "see" the college thing.  As he rode off into the sunset and waved good-bye, it felt good and sad all at the same time.

at our house

Move along to Monday evening: we were invited to have supper at our newly married son's home.  It would be our first visit.  I felt anxious to see where my grandbabies live and eat and play and sleep.   I cried all the way there, thinking how blessed we were to finally have this moment.  We had a great time, ate a wonderful meal, got to spend some time together.  Got back in the car and yeah, I cried all the way home, thinking how little time we have left of our furlough to come back and do this again.  And dumb old me, ruminated most of the night.

 Sometimes the "grief bug" hits when you least expect it.  Sometimes it seems we turn on the bug light and call it to come on in.  But once we see the swarm buzzing around, that's when dear missionary mamas have to look for the fly swatter and take back control.  

 Missionary mamas grieve before things ever take place anticipating the future loss of connection with loved ones.  They grieve for things on the mission field while on furlough and grieve for things at "home" while on the field.  But knowing that while on furlough time is short, I have to push aside that Oh No Furlough is Almost Over feeling in order to enjoy the time at hand.  

 This morning I read over 2 Corinthians 4...

v.1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart...
v.16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

May God remind me that since we have a ministry, I can rest in God's great mercy to give me the strength to push forward for a far more grand glory in the here and now and the future.

Wednesday, I ran around town with Byron for some errands.  Needed to send off a box with UPS.  It wouldn't fit in the drop off box at the hospital where we had been told there was one.  Hmm, there went a UPS truck down the road.  Next stop, another brown truck breezed by.  Last stop on the list, a brown truck pulled up right beside us in the parking lot!  I jumped out with my box feeling like God had sent that truck to me!  Ha, ha, ha!  Little gratitudes.  Thank you, God, for a small blessing and a smile!

Labels:

Comments

  1. karen CapronApril 4, 2018 at 6:15 PM

    Thank you for sharing your heart. You are a wonderful missionary momma whose testimony brings Glory and honor to God. Thank You for your example! 💜

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aunt MicheleApril 4, 2018 at 7:21 PM

      Often I don't feel like much of an exakple, friend, but I do take my role seriously and ask for your prayers. Much love!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thank you for stopping by! Leave me a message if you would.

Popular posts from this blog

What's Next?

By
That seems to be the question every one asks us these days since we've arrived back in Sobradinho.  What's next?  What are you going to do now?  Where are you going?  A few people ask about how the boys are or things about my grandbabies or parents.  But not too many.  This week three people asked when I could start teaching English to their children again!



So what is next for The Athas in Brazil?  If you were able to attend one of our furlough meetings, hopefully you have some sort of idea.  If not, I'll try to give a brief answer to the big question.

Remember that trip we took all over interior Bahia back in the fall of 2017?  We visited over 200 communities over the course of about two weeks all within a few hours of where we live.  You can back to my post about it and review some of the details here...

Bahia Road Trip

Byron and I plan to begin evangelizing some of the nearest and neediest communities that we visited on our trip.  We came back with evangelism materials.  By…
1 comment
Read more

Pressing On - Marriage on the Mission Field

By
That's us on our first furlough in 1998.  Byron was 33 and I was 32.  No gray hairs, no flab, two cute little MK's.  We'd been married for about 10 years and on the mission field for 4.  We stayed in Winston-Salem that year at one of the mission houses of Pleasant View Baptist Church.  We stayed for a whole year.  Byron worked some for a friend with a automotive repair shop that year and I stayed at home with William who was almost 4 and baby Dalton who turned two while we were there. We traveled together to visit all of our churches that year and made several big trips to Georgia and Maryland to visit with family.

Our first term of service on the mission field had been rough.   Language school, learning the ropes, figuring out how to deal with colleagues, two new babies, low finances.  Somehow we had made it through together.  We were okay and things were alright.  Now we were first term survivors on our way back.

Byron and I had met in Bible college.  We had some classes t…
Post a Comment
Read more

Our Graduate

By
This Friday evening the youngest of our clan will finish up high school and move on to the next stage of his life - summer!  Oh, and then college and what not.

It's been an incredible eighteen years...


Greyson was always a cutie-pie with his blonde hair and blue eyes in a country where that was a rarity.  Word is that when he was around five or six years old on the island camp people would ask to take photos with him and that he would oblige for a small fee.  Cute and knew it?


For the most part he's been a joy, even though he doesn't comb his hair very often and making his bed doesn't come easy.  Perhaps his musical right sided brain could never deal with the structure of making a bed each day?  I'm hoping he'll learn at college!


As the last in the nest, Greyson enjoyed a few years of being an only child.  Byron and I got to take a long awaited road trip around southern Brazil with Greyson in tow.  We made some great memories and enjoy some sweet bonding moments...


…
1 comment
Read more