Sorry, friends, for the long pause in connecting with you here. It has been a whirlwind of three months with much happening. Here’s a quick recap:
Mary & the younger four arrived back in the States on February 1. After seven months of globe-trotting, we’ve learned how to do this airport-and-layover thing a bit better. Travel was graciously uneventful, and we made it safely back to Indianapolis for a sweet reunion. We stayed for the first six-ish weeks in Oakland City with “MEGS and Pegs” (Mary’s parents… “MEGS” being the acronym for “Most Excellent Grandfather, Sir”, and rhyming with Peggy’s actual name).
We got a wonderful week overlapping with Auntie Staci, who is living in Hong Kong to work with a ministry in the Philippines. It was so wonderful to see her before she headed back the way we’d come for another year.
Bob and Habiba made a quick visa run from Perth to Bali, Indonesia, the weekend after the family left, then were back in WA for the remainder of their training courses.
Bob went with his class for three weeks of camping on a wilderness beach (see his post for their topics). Habiba’s group continued their twelve weeks of lecture there on campus in Perth.
March 10th weekend Mary and the kids moved back into our house in Fort Branch. It’s a joy to be back “home”… the kids were ecstatic to be back in the house, the yard, the neighborhood… and the neighbor’s lives. 🙂 We are so blessed! Our precious friends who’d been renting from us (and moved out early to let us settle back in more quickly) left the house SO much like we’d left it, that it was a bit like stepping back out of the wardrobe after having spent what felt like a lifetime in Narnia (if you’re a C.S. Lewis fan), to find that nothing has changed at all here. It was a strange re-entry, but one full of gratitude.
Bob came home on March 24, and what a sweet time it was. We are so thankful for the extra time he got to spend seeking the Lord there in Perth, drawing near to God, and ministering to many of the young men in his class and room (once our family left, he moved out of our rental house and into a dorm room full of 19-22 year old guys – he even got a top bunk!).
Habiba launched into outreach phase with her team from Young People’s DTS on March 30. They went first to Nepal, and will continue on to Manila, Philippines. Internet and contact with their schedule and time difference has been a challenge, but their team appears to be doing well and having a fruitful outreach.
In the meantime, we’ve been LOVING being back home with family and at Bethel Memorial, our home church. Reconnecting with our dearest friends and seeking God together with them in person has been such a precious gift. We are trying to spend our time here very intentionally, spending life with our beloveds, and embracing the giving and receiving of ministry within the amazing Body of Christ.
(Our 1st-3rd grade Children’s Church class’s “graffiti wall” of praises for who Jesus is on Palm Sunday – such a joy!!)
We spent Palm Sunday with the Atkinson side, celebrating, eating, and Easter-egg dying (and hunting) with the cousins who could come (we missed Ben & Annie!).
This Easter afternoon we spent with Mema and Papaw Fichtinger, sharing the rainy day and lots of love.
We are so thankful to be here right now! Our family’s next steps are formulating more definitively as we continue to seek God about the specifics in His invitation for our family to live full-time invested in missions. More coming soon!!
(Oh, and for all my resistance to taking routine “bumpies”, as they call them, THIS is coming soon, too! Only six-to-seven weeks to go!)
