We’ve been back in Manila for about two weeks.  When people have asked us about how our transition back has been, Christine’s captured it as “We face planted in the dirt!” Emotions were high from leaving family and within 24 hours of arriving in Manila, jet lag and all, our kids started school.  Morgan started high school (which is weird), Colin started middle school, and Kaelyn started 3rd grade. A lot of change amidst a lot of sadness and grief.  Our cars ended up at the mechanic within 48 hours of being back and we had a car break down 5 out of our first 8 days of being back. Add that to another wave of culture shock – the spiritual warfare and questions of “Why are we here again?” felt intense.

Part of the intensity of the transition was because of how restful and restorative our summer was even though I (Brian) was working a lot of the time on finishing my Ph.D. coursework. We had restful space, healthy rhythms, and meaningful and very memorable time with both our families. Many prayers were answered in terms of what we needed to recover from the last couple of years. But the highlights by far were celebrating Christine’s parent’s 50th anniversary with the family and celebrating my mom’s retirement from the full-time staff at CRU after 46 years on staff with a great vacation with the whole family to mark the moment.

So, as the dust settles, our first couple weeks back have been a reminder of our life between worlds with echoes of the reminder that our true identity and citizenship lies with Christ and His Kingdom. Philippians 4:4-8 has been the perfect passage for us these few weeks that God is using to keep our eyes on Christ. And slowly we are finding rest and reconnecting to the joy in what He’s called us to do here.

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This week was the first week of the new school year and we welcomed over 70 new students from over 20 countries. They are starting the new curriculum that we’ve been working on for the last couple of years so please pray for them and for our faculty as we begin to train with the next 10-15 years of Christian mission in Asia in view. And continue to pray that we live out Philippians 4:4-8 amidst culture shock, Manila madness, fears from the current dengue fever epidemic, and the pressures of our organizational responsibilities. There’s a lot we can be anxious about, but it’s been a comfort to see God reminding us this week that He is greater than the fears and all of it.

In Christ,
Brian & Christine

We included this picture because it’s an image of tranquility and peace amidst how much change and stress we’ve had. All our kids had a rough first week of school with all of them adjusting to new loads of work.  But Kaelyn joined the swim club and has taken to it quickly. Colin tried out for the middle school play/musical and was given one of the larger parts – so he’s equal parts excited and terrified, and Morgan is enjoying the high school courses and has started doing Model United Nations. Please continue to pray for them as they each have their own cross-cultural and third culture journeys to navigate. But we’re thankful for God’s faithfulness to them!