Over the past many months, when we have shared that we were required to return to the U.S. for a 5-week international missionary training laughed at it, asked us if we were going to teach it, or were just confused why we would have to do it. We did do some training and coaching as you can read here if you missed it, but God had more for us. As we have concluded the training and are a week away from getting on the plane to Manila, we wanted to share some snapshots of what really was one of the most spiritually significant summers for our family that we’ve ever had.
Morgan has shared that her highlights of the summer training was getting mentored weekly by one of the MK2MK college students who grew up as a missionary kid in Jordan and is now at Virginia Tech. One of our prayers was that she would be seen and encouraged and God provided. She shared that the MK2MK training really helped her process much of her international life and struggles and she enjoyed the community.
We noticed that she really thrived as part of the teens program was to teach the elementary kids some of the lessons and she loved teaching the younger kids and we heard she was very good at it. The thing she is most motivated to do going back to Manila is keep doing daily devotionals with Bible reading that she learned how to do this summer.
When we debriefed, Colin shared that the most helpful part of the training was that it helped him not feel alone and that we’re not crazy for doing what we’re doing and other kids are doing it too. He shared he learned a lot about how important it is to stick up for others even when it’s hard and wants to do more of that when he goes back to school. He played a starring role in a musical the kids all performed at the end of the training and was a natural.
One of the fun things at the end of the summer was hearing that the MK2MK workers really saw a lot of natural leadership in Colin over the summer and that he naturally came alongside some of the younger kids in the program. It shouldn’t be a surprise that by the end of the summer Colin was known by more people than probably any of us 🙂
When we talked about what she learned this summer, Kaelyn impressed us by sharing that she learned a lot about Jesus and how to live in a different country. When we asked her if there was anything she wanted to do differently in the Philippines as a result of XTrack she shared that she noticed that a lot of times when people got hurt no one noticed or did anything and that she wants to help her friends if they are hurting or sad.
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Kaelyn grew up a lot this summer and we’re thankful for the timing of us doing this training – any prior year she would have been in the nursery program and she benefitted so much by being in the elementary program. The metaphor she really resonated with was a plant being uprooted and planted somewhere else as she feels transition deeply.
It did not take long for Christine and I to realize that we were more tired and hurting in some ways than we realized. One of the amazing things about this training was the many resources available for missionary care and we took advantage of as much as possible. But living in a community of people doing what we’re doing was refreshing and so helpful. Our “abnormal” was normal because everyone else is living similar lives!
We had many breakthrough moments as we were able to explore how some survival patterns from early on cemented into normal life patterns that have hindered us in some important ways from dealing with the stress of our reality well and with a supernatural dependence on the Lord. We received great input for each of our spiritual and emotional well-being as well as great input on our marriage and our family.
As we come into the final year of our previous 3 year commitment to IGSL and have some big decisions ahead of us once again, this was a significant summer of the Lord gently reminding Christine and I of how He wants us to walk with Him and showing us some of the ways we try to manage things on our own in a high stress city. And this summer was the first significant experience where our kids were also learning in new ways how to follow Jesus at their level. The summer has opened up our family dialogue and we are far more prepared to go back as a family than we were a couple months ago.
Thank you for praying! Wwe needed the equipping, relationships, and care that this training provided in a big way. Desperate might not be too strong of a word, but we have been so thankful that God saw our needs (even ones we weren’t aware of) and provided abundantly.
We can’t thank you enough for your prayers and if you gave to help us cover the cost of coming back for the training. We feel ready to return to Manila and more importantly, we are more united as a family and we have a clear picture of the steps we need to take with one another when we return to our ministry at IGSL training leaders for the Great Commission in Asia. Thanks!