When God Moves People

Monday, Samir flew to Oklahoma.

This has been a difficult year for us here in Guzmán relationaly. This is always true in missions, especially in the first few years. You leave behind family, friends, jobs, churches, and connections, to go around the world. You immerse yourself in a new culture, a new language, with new people. It takes a while to build up friendships, and sometimes even longer because you're always the outsider. You're always the one who can't communicate as well, who can't understand the things that they take for granted, the one who doesn't understand why that play on words was funny, or who doesn't understand the importance of what was just shared with you. So there's always walls that you struggle to get around and over in order to build real, deep, important relationships and friendships.

This was compounded for us because, unlike most missionaries that attended language school with us, we weren't heading to Mexico to work with anyone who was already there. We didn't have a team; we didn't have Americans there waiting for us who would be able to show us around, introduce us to people, be our friends, and bear our burdens. We didn't really know anyone here in Guzmán when we came here. We simply tried to trust God, and stepped out into the unknown.

Over time, we started making friendships. We began to meet people, grew in our confidence of the language, and share more of ourselves with others. We invited people into our homes. Sometimes they invited us into theirs. We became part of a church, and spent a lot of time with them. Things were still lonely, but it got easier.

Then, earlier this year, we had to make the decision to leave that church, which cost us many of our friendships (If you don't know that story, you can ask us about it another time, this isn't the place to retell it). So, for the past few months, we've been without a lot of the connections and friendships that we've come to rely upon. It's been a challenging few months.

Us with Marlene and Samir at his going away party during our home Bible study.

But, in the midst of this all, God has given us some good, Godly encouragement, friends who lift us up and who we're blessed to spend time with. Among these are two couples, Marlene and Samir, and Laura and Gonzalo. We spend every Thursday night (usually along with a few other times per week) with Marlene and Samir and Marlene's sister Sara, making dinner, and usually playing games and talking until midnight. We see Laura and her kids (who are our kids' best friends here) several times a week as well, and Sara and Laura are very close. Even as things have been challenging since leaving the church, we've had some people our age to spend time with and be encouraged by. Marlene and Samir and Laura and Gonzalo have also been very instrumental in helping us start our new house church here, serving along side of us and encouraging us in the work.

But, Monday, Samir flew to Oklahoma. He's been blessed with an opportunity to work there as a veterinarian for a few years, and after spending the past few months getting his visa approved, a few days ago he was finally able to travel there to begin working. Marlene will be leaving to join him shortly once her visa is ready and Samir has prepared things there for her. We're excited for them, and excited to see how God uses them there in western Oklahoma. But it's hard to see them leave.

Sara with Laura, Samir, Laura's mother, and Marlene

At the same time, Gonzalo has been transferred to work in Manzanillo, about 2 hours south of us, and Laura and the kids will be moving there in the next few weeks to join him. This will be especially hard for our family because the kids all spend so much time together. Zoe, Caitlynn and Gabe are already having a hard time with the idea that their friends won't be living here anymore.  It's also challenging for us to see Marlene, Samir,Gonzalo and Laura all leaving Ciudad Guzmán at about the same time.

Most of all though, it will leave a big hole in us. In some ways, after what's happened over the past few months here, we almost feel like we're starting all over again with our friendships in Guzmán. Sometimes, we don't always share our prayer requests because we don't want to sound like we're whining, or like we're not happy to be here. We're incredibly blessed to be serving here, and we do love it here. But we also want to be faithful to pray for one another, and we can't do that if we don't tell you how to pray for us. So, would you pray for us in our loneliness? These next few weeks will especially be difficult for us. Pray that God will give us new connections and friendships, and that we'll be able to form deep relationships with more people. Pray that God will sustain us and be with us as we struggle with missing people. Pray that He will be our comfort and our strength in the middle of this.

Pray for Samir and Marlene as they begin a new life in Oklahoma, going through much of what we're going through here. Pray that God will use them there and encourage them. Pray for Laura and Gonzalo in Manzanillo. Pray that they will find a church to be a part of and serve in. Pray for both of these couples, that God will keep their marriages strong as they go through the stressful changes that come with moving to new places with new jobs. Pray that they will grow during these times, and that God will use them wherever they are.

Thank you for your prayers for us. And thank you for your continued support for this ministry here in Mexico. God bless!