Back into Rhythm

The other day we were explaining to our kids about inertia—things in motion want to stay in motion, things at rest want to stay at rest.

Saying bye for 2nd term of school in mainland Africa

Between Christmas and New Year, we took time off from our normal life. We relaxed more, we didn’t teach, we didn’t do homeschool, we didn’t have normal team meetings. Going into the break, I felt that inertia a little bit— there was part of me that kept thinking of work things that we could be doing, tasks undone, emails that needed responses. It took a conscious effort to mentally put those things aside. But then the thought of rest and relaxation was so welcome that it wasn’t too hard to let go of those work things.

On this side of break, the inertia feels stronger. Our daughter talked about struggling to adjust back to the sleep schedule of school after being able to sleep as much as she wanted on vacation. I feel my muscles and energy levels protest against my return to my normal exercise patterns. And I feel my brain quickly tiring from all the emails, paperwork and meetings that now need doing. It’s not that the sleep schedule, exercise routine or amount of work has increased from before, it is just that we got out of rhythm. We adopted a vacation rhythm and need to return to the normal life rhythm.

Lined up to sway dance at wedding

On the islands there is a simple dance that women do standing in line together. They sway back and forth in time with the music and each other. Now, every once and awhile there is an island woman who just can’t stay in step with everyone else. They bounce awkwardly between people and often throw people off their own rhythm. When I have been next to such a woman and get thrown off, I find it difficult or even impossible to fall back into the right rhythm again without stopping a second, fixing my eyes carefully on the women swaying correctly, then syncing myself to them. Suddenly what felt hard is so easy and natural.

This morning I was feeling a little overwhelmed with our return to our normal workload. Mondays are always a lot and it was starting to feel cumbersome and overwhelming. Before we knew it, the morning was gone and much work left undone. But at midday as is our normal Monday rhythm, we stopped to pray.  

Not to mix and confuse you all with too many science and dance metaphors, but taking that time to pray helped me to get back into a good rhythm for the afternoon. Just a few moments to center ourselves. We can rejoice that prayer helps us find our rhythm, whether for times of work or rest— we won’t bounce around awkwardly when our eyes are fixed and our minds are synced to Him.

Hello to boys, in taxi on way home

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Some of our colleagues on Clove Island have been praying for a specific man for many years. He had surgery this week and afterwards had a miraculous healing unexplainable by the doctors, along with a vision. He was greatly impacted by these events but worried about his family’s reaction to any decisions he might make in response, only to learn that among his family members is the new sister we mentioned last week! He had no idea, but now that they know about each other, they can hopefully study and grow together! Pray for them— that a new group might form around them. Our daughter had a good first week back at school, but still finding her new rhythm. Megan successfully had her MRI and made it home— still waiting to understand the MRI results. Tom and boys were able to both feed themselves and get work done while Megan was away.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Continue to pray for all our colleague families in transition. One family arrived on the islands yesterday but none of their bags made it. The new family coming to our island are adjusting to mainland Africa where they will do an orientation course for a few weeks. Others are preparing to travel back to the islands. We find that there are often mishaps and difficulties in times of transition, let’s pray against them! Continue to pray for the refugees that have been stuck on Clove Island for many months— they are pursuing their options and need wisdom and favor about what to do.