Relationships

from Laura
I've said several times recently that my favorite part about the work of raising a support team is that it's my JOB to call all my friends and family, and talk to them, about anything! This is both true and misleading. It is really nice that my To-Do list includes "Call everyone you know." It is also difficult for me, because it is so different from my comfortable norm.

Relationships are the crux of missions work-- both on the field, and between the missionary and his/her supporters. As a highly independent person and a natural introvert, I am used to taking my relationships somewhat for granted, to seeing them as important but not urgent. And I am prone to that universal American temptation of putting the urgent ahead of the important in my life. Friends and family tend to fall by the wayside during the school year, to be picked back up on important occasions, holidays, and vacations. I can't do that anymore.

As I get closer to leaving, I am realizing more fully what people mean to me, and how much I care about knowing how they are and what's going on with them. I am finding out that my relationships are perhaps more 'urgent' than I thought. Not only that, but these same family and friends will soon have an even larger role in my life than they have in the past. Seth and I are headed for front-lines territory in the spiritual battles of the world, or at least closer to front-lines than we generally have been here. (That's a topic for another post, really.) And our family and friends are going to be the pray-ers, the encouragers, the kick-in-the-pants-ers that keep us faithful and pick us back up when we're knocked down. They're going to be financing us too, giving from their salaries to keep us living and working in Manila. The ministry God is giving Seth and me is not just ours, it belongs to every person who prays or gives or writes a note. Each time I hear from somebody "I'll be praying" or "We're going to give...", this reality hits home again. And that kind of shared ministry only works when there is real, current relationship-- give-and-take knowing of one another. Relationships aren't just important, they're IMPORTANT, central, life-giving.

I am also becoming convinced that this priority on relationships is how life should be for Christians anyway. For me, it took becoming a missionary and getting ready to move halfway around the world to figure this out. I think, though, that it's not only true for Seth and me now. It should be just true of God's people, that relationships are what is urgent, because people are the most important part of God's creation, according to God. And I could have TOLD you this 6 years ago, but learning to LIVE like it, in the midst of the other responsibilities that we have and that we choose. . . that's what's tricky for me.

It's good that I'm getting some time to practice this new priority while we're still in the same country as most of my friends-and-relations. I'm not very good at it yet. I want to become good at it, though, and I hope I can learn some of the skills quickly. Because in just a few months, I will be able to see almost everyone I know only by webcam. Going out for coffee won't be an option. Calling someone on the phone will take mathematical calculations and serious scheduling (unless, of course, they LIKE talking in the middle of the night). Knowing and being known will take more work from there, but what I am learning is that the work will be worth every minute.

What I wonder

from Laura
When I look around my school, I see...
...many ethnicities represented, but mostly Hispanic students.
...students in their groups- usually visibly 'together' because they are dressed alike, not necessarily because they look alike.
...some students with a big stack of books, pencils, and calculator. Others with nothing, who will say again today "I forgot, Teacher."
...clothes either hugely baggy or almost skin-tight.
...a color choice here, a knotted cross necklace there, a hand sign flashed- subtle reminders of the gangs that lure many of these students in.
...the hand waves, hugs, smiles of students who care deeply for their friends and love to get to know their teachers.
...the half-joking punches and hard faces of students who have seen too many people walk away and are slow to treat anyone well.
...students whose best meals all week are the school cafeteria lunches, and others who go on world-hopping vacations.

Some of what I see breaks my heart, some of it makes me jump for joy, some of it is why I love 'my' kids and my job. Some of this will stay the same next year, half a world away, and some of it won't at all. I wonder... which will be what? Which things at Faith Academy will break my heart? Which will make my day? What will be the things that draw me into 'my' new kids' lives and them into my heart?

I know a few things, changes and constants. There will be uniforms. There will be many nations represented- over 20 according to the Faith Academy brochure. There will be students who are open to others, and some who are closed and hardened. But mostly for now, I'm really just, well, wondering!