What I Almost Didn’t Tell You!

Last week our family did something that I really wasn’t planning to tell you about. The truth is I almost felt a little ashamed to tell you.

You may have noticed that recently I’ve been quieter than normal online. I haven’t posted to my blog or sent out a newsletter in 2 weeks and that’s unusual for me!

I had a good reason for my silence and now I’m ready to share it with you.

We took a vacation!

That’s right, we stopped doing ministry for a while and rested from our work!

As a missionary there’s a silent pressure, a quiet expectation that makes it difficult to take a break and even more difficult to tell others about it.

And then there are other reasons why we so rarely take the rest we need like:

• The desire to look busy and make a good impression on supporters.
• The fact that ministry is a never-ending task.
• The inability to say “no” to ministry partners when they ask for help.
• The false believe that if I don’t do it, it won’t get done.
• The misconception that everything depends upon me.
• The feeling that I am being lazy unless I’m fully engaged in the work.

It’s dangerous to let the things mentioned above keep you from resting. Our bodies, and spirits need rest and if we don’t give them rest they will take it from us in ways that can be harmful to our health, our spirit, our mind and even our families!

So let me tell you about what we did while we were on vacation.

We Worshiped Together

Part of our rest was attending out mission’s biennial conference in Budapest, Hungary. We missed 2 days of the conference because of our breakdown in Romania but were able to get in on the latter part of the conference.

It’s hard to describe the joy that comes from worshiping together with a hundred other missionaries from all over Eastern and Central Europe! It’s that kind of worship that revives the soul!

We are grateful for the team from Forest Hills Baptist Church who sacrificed their time to minister to us during the conference through some awesome Christ centered, theologically sound and acoustically beautiful music!

We Marveled at God’s Creation Together

After the conference we drove about 6 hours West to the Austrian Alps were we rented a little apartment for a few days. We spent our time there enjoying the majestic mountains and magnificent lakes.

We found time to go for a hike in the snow and to explore a few mountain villages.

We Read together

Since we were going to spend a fair amount of time in the car I purchased an audio book for the family to listen to. Unbroken follows the true story of a WWII Louis Zamperini pilot who survived 47 days at sea in a life raft and many months of torture in a Japanese prison camp.

It’s a book that intrigued the whole family and it’s certainly worth your time to read it!

We Explored Castles Together

It’s not hard to find castles in Europe, so we went on several tours through ancient castles and learned about their history. We even toured “Dracula’s” castle the day before Halloween and we found that it wasn’t scary at all!

What We Didn’t do!

Maybe even more important than what we did is what we didn’t do.

• I stayed off of e-mail, mostly.
• We didn’t check the Ukrainian war news.
• We didn’t work on any projects or write any reports.
• I didn’t prepare for any sermons or teaching
• The kids didn’t do any schoolwork.

And Now It’s Time to Get Back to Work

We just got back this past weekend and that means it’s time to get back to work. We feel refreshed and ready to go. We are excited about several ministry opportunities this month, but I’ll save the details for a later post.

Question: What barriers keep you from taking time off? What has helped you to overcome those barriers?