Chris in Chula Vista 4 July 2011
Hello, all! OK, little bit... Lori's BD is the 4th of July... little firecracker, she is...
For our '20th anniversary in mission service', we decided to do a little project and scan in a bunch of non-digital photos to show a bit of our 20-year journey.
BE SURE AND CHECK THEM OUT
What a trip thru the wires of memories!! SOOO many memories, so many people...
It made me think of taking our kids... then Ruth 10 and Hannah 5 years of age... to live in Mexico. Not just 'nice and safe Mexico', but first a really poor neighborhood next to the dump in Juarez (all the 'Juarez killings' were just starting then, in fall 1991) for 7 months, then to Tijuana and another poor region to live in. Initially, we were working in some really poor regions of TJ, like Grupo Mexico, then when the rains came and displaced 300 families, we worked with the TJ government to bring healthcare to those 300 families living in blue-tarp tents in Valle Verde... and our 2 kids with us all the time! At that same time, we began working in Tres de Octubre, one of TJ's hardest colonies to work in.
Our first trip 'home' to Michigan, I had no less than 2 'church leaders' and a number of 'concerned' church-members pull me aside and question what was going on: "it can't be God calling you, because those places are so aweful... taking your kids there? You are SOOO wrong for doing that... "
Seriously.
We continued on. We stayed keen to the security issues, especically for the kids.
(What turned out to be the hardest thing was the 9 times we were robbed, cleaned out twice. Always break-ins when we left the house, twice while at church. The stuff stolen from the kids was hard on them)
Of course, we did constant security assessments. We talked to our national partners/friends, and gave them blanket permission to tell us if we need to not go, or not to take our kids. They were taking their kids. They promised us to watch out for us. They did nothing less. There WERE a few times they advised us to change plans.. and we did.
Twenty years of in-your-face working in some of Baja's gnarliest places... yeah, a few tense moments, but NEVER anything unsafe.
Definitely, our two kids saw bits of the real world from the belly-up... and I think they are more grounded than many, many others...
In the mid 90's, Lori and I traveled to the midwest for the wedding of a close friend (kids were with grandparents in MI). At the reception, I ended up sitting next to a guy whose parents were missionaries in South Africa during the Apartied years. He told me a few stories from his childhood, about how growing up working with the poor, and being afforded a 'global perspective' in Africa has made all the difference in his life. He could see that I was a bit 'stewed' about all the difficulties of 'living foreign' and having our kids with us. He told me (prophetically), "never regret taking your kids out of the American comfort zone and living abroad... it makes them world citizens, and God will bless them."
That guy was totally right.
Seeing all those pictures with our kids, helping at outreaches and walking around in poor colonias on a regular basis... seeing what grounded kids they grew up to be, raising their own kids now...
I have found that when I respond to God's call, HE will 'sort' all the issues... including kids in foreign service
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