Am I the only one who, every single year, when July rolls around, the realization hits that the upcoming Christmas is now closer than the most recently celebrated Christmas? I mean, it's the middle of summer! Christmas is supposed to be a loooong way off at this point, not almost peeking over the horizon! There are times when I'm convinced that a day in summer is only half as long as a day any other time of the year. I call this phenomenon - summer.time.ness.
Last time I wrote, we were heading into June with our sleeves rolled up - or maybe with sleeves cut off since it's sweltering here ;) As most of you know, Miguel and I took the position of Team Trip Coordinators this year for FCA Domincan Republic. Prior to this year, FCA DR partnered with another local organization for hosting teams in one of FCA's multiple locations; but we wanted to be able to connect mission teams to more places where our staff is working and be more intentional in cultivating recurring relationships with our staff and the coaches and athletes being ministered to.
Part of this strategy has meant creating the ability to host teams in three locations now, instead of just one, so that our staff members, spread out in these areas, each work with only several teams a year. This allows them the ability to continue with their normal ministry and discipleship work without too many distractions while still receiving the blessing of having teams add additional support and contribution to work projects for several of their coaches each year. This does, however, mean for Miguel and myself the responsibility of traveling to where each team is located. Since most teams coming down are connected to sports and schools, the vast majority come during the months of summer-break (June-August); this happens to the point of having multiple back-to-back teams where we would be telling one good-bye and welcoming another one sometimes within less than 24 hours. July finds us right smack in the middle of all this flurry of mission trip activities! This week's team has been doing a men's conference in Higuey, where we live, so I've finally been able to get ahead on work projects, including updating the blog and sending out a newsletter :D
We, miraculously, were able schedule a necessary trip Stateside toward the end of June, and looking back, I still marvel that we were able to do so. It was God's hand holding those dates for us, because we surprisingly didn't even have a team wanting to book a trip over those ten days. Right before we left for ND, our wonderful friends, the Heberts, came and spent a week with us (our first personal visitors from the States!).
Our ND trip was a time of great encouragement, as always. For the past 3 years, my sending church has held and continues to hold us faithfully up in prayer; and every time I schedule the yearly trip to ND, my heart is always full of excitement in being able to personally share what God continues to do with and for us here, as well as witness how He continues to work there. The picture below demonstrates with so much truth what we continue to learn, both within our local church here and other parts of the Body back in the States. Its message has resounded in our hearts so many times this summer and I am continually overwhelmed with gratitude for how God has provided for us through the Church on so many levels.
The same day we returned from ND, our intern arrived. Hannah is with us for the month of July helping us out with the mission teams, doing some English tutoring with our staff, and pitching in with daily life. It's been a true joy having her here! Apart from having another pair of hands on deck, her joyful, serving attitude has been a big contributing factor in making all the crazy summer.time.ness go smoothly.
She'll be abandoning us (I mean, returning to her other responsibilities) the same day our last team of the summer comes in.
In this season of crazy summer.time.ness God's whispering reminder to us has been "rejoice in the details." Just this week, we had another conversation of the slow transitions beginning at the close of this summer and moving into next year. It seems like so much when taking in all the factors - we came up with no less than 10 contributing factors that will determine how these transitions will work out. But as we live and move in this current season, we see how God works out all the details. He goes ahead of us before each team comes down and the details we think will be complicated all get ironed out with seemingly little effort. It's like He's taking this crazy summer.time.ness as a small scale demonstration of how He is more than able to handle the crazy life.ness coming up.
I, as a human, have the habit of projecting things too far ahead of time and getting caught up in everything that could go wrong. Our Father, in His sovereignty, keeps whispering, "rejoice in the details."
Rejoice in the complicated made simple.
The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
Deuteronomy 31:8
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| Photo cred to the greatly talented Levi Hebert |
Part of this strategy has meant creating the ability to host teams in three locations now, instead of just one, so that our staff members, spread out in these areas, each work with only several teams a year. This allows them the ability to continue with their normal ministry and discipleship work without too many distractions while still receiving the blessing of having teams add additional support and contribution to work projects for several of their coaches each year. This does, however, mean for Miguel and myself the responsibility of traveling to where each team is located. Since most teams coming down are connected to sports and schools, the vast majority come during the months of summer-break (June-August); this happens to the point of having multiple back-to-back teams where we would be telling one good-bye and welcoming another one sometimes within less than 24 hours. July finds us right smack in the middle of all this flurry of mission trip activities! This week's team has been doing a men's conference in Higuey, where we live, so I've finally been able to get ahead on work projects, including updating the blog and sending out a newsletter :D
We, miraculously, were able schedule a necessary trip Stateside toward the end of June, and looking back, I still marvel that we were able to do so. It was God's hand holding those dates for us, because we surprisingly didn't even have a team wanting to book a trip over those ten days. Right before we left for ND, our wonderful friends, the Heberts, came and spent a week with us (our first personal visitors from the States!).
Our ND trip was a time of great encouragement, as always. For the past 3 years, my sending church has held and continues to hold us faithfully up in prayer; and every time I schedule the yearly trip to ND, my heart is always full of excitement in being able to personally share what God continues to do with and for us here, as well as witness how He continues to work there. The picture below demonstrates with so much truth what we continue to learn, both within our local church here and other parts of the Body back in the States. Its message has resounded in our hearts so many times this summer and I am continually overwhelmed with gratitude for how God has provided for us through the Church on so many levels.
The same day we returned from ND, our intern arrived. Hannah is with us for the month of July helping us out with the mission teams, doing some English tutoring with our staff, and pitching in with daily life. It's been a true joy having her here! Apart from having another pair of hands on deck, her joyful, serving attitude has been a big contributing factor in making all the crazy summer.time.ness go smoothly.
She'll be abandoning us (I mean, returning to her other responsibilities) the same day our last team of the summer comes in.
In this season of crazy summer.time.ness God's whispering reminder to us has been "rejoice in the details." Just this week, we had another conversation of the slow transitions beginning at the close of this summer and moving into next year. It seems like so much when taking in all the factors - we came up with no less than 10 contributing factors that will determine how these transitions will work out. But as we live and move in this current season, we see how God works out all the details. He goes ahead of us before each team comes down and the details we think will be complicated all get ironed out with seemingly little effort. It's like He's taking this crazy summer.time.ness as a small scale demonstration of how He is more than able to handle the crazy life.ness coming up.
I, as a human, have the habit of projecting things too far ahead of time and getting caught up in everything that could go wrong. Our Father, in His sovereignty, keeps whispering, "rejoice in the details."
Rejoice in the complicated made simple.
The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
Deuteronomy 31:8
