Goodies from Home

Sometimes it feels as though we're in a time warp here. It's easy to imagine things in the US are as they were when we left them in August and again in early January. We have some friends from Maine who arrived here last April, and they say the same thing. They feel everything in Maine should be the same as it was last April. Living in a different country, it's hard to believe our family and friends have been through seasons changing, children growing, parents aging, jobs working--in general, life lived without us. It's strange.

Yesterday, we got a slip in our post office box that said we had a package to pick up at the post office. Excitement was thick in the air as we waited in anticipation until today when Tully could go pick it up (you have to take your passport and walk to the post office to pick up a package). I was studying during a break when Tully got back to school with the package--we opened it together and oohed and aahed over everything--chocolate chips, Valentine's candy, stickers, and balloons for the kids, magic markers, notebooks (which are really expensive here), and in the bottom were two Greenville News newspapers and a Family Circle magazine--WOW! News from home--it was wonderful to read about all of the happenings in our city firsthand. It's also a good reminder for us that everything there is moving right along without us, as it should, just as things are moving right along here.

In our time here of learning Spanish, one of the biggest encouragements we have experienced is knowing that our journey in missions is shared among the body of Christ. Sometimes that encouragement fits into a box lovingly packed and neatly filled with goodies from home. . .