Cycles

 There are all kinds of cycles and rhythms that mark out our life. There is the cycle of a single day— the sun rising with the accompanying morning sounds and routines of waking up, praying, getting dressed, and ending with the setting sun and bedtime routines. There is a our weekly cycle of school or work, followed by the weekend. Then there’s the seasonal cycle of weather changing and holidays coming and going. Finally there are the bigger changes of life cycles, babies growing into kids, growing into teenagers and so on. They all help us to mark the passage of time. 

Sunrise before morning flight

We were only gone from the islands for a few weeks really and in some ways it felt like no time had passed, but there were several markers when we got back to show us that time had continued. 

• We reach for a dish and find that there is some dust that has collected on it. 
• Our teammate commented that our son looked taller, requiring the mandatory check to see how he stands in comparison to the adults in his life. 
• At 7am every morning, the school behind our house is no longer humming with life, telling us that the main school year has ended. 
• We woke up in the morning and realized that we hadn’t turned on the fan in the night and had pulled the flat sheet up over us, letting us know that the weather has cooled and the season has changed. 
• An empty amorylis stalk let us know that a bloom had opened and gone in our absence. 
• As we passed through the big island, our old teammate’s young baby was holding her head high and giving us smiles in a way that she couldn’t when we left. 
• The hair had started to grow around Tom and our son’s ears, highlighting the need for new haircuts. 
• Some island friends and shopkeepers greeted us with the common phrase, “I haven’t seen you,” to let us know that our absence had been noted. 
• Suddenly idle talk is all about upcoming nuptials and we’ve been handed a few invitations, letting us know that the wedding season of July and August is fast approaching. 
• A new kitten is roaming in the back area behind our house that wasn’t there when we left. 

Back on the islands!

Without markers, it can be easy to lose track of time, but we have these humbling reminders that life and time keeps going forward. Our daughter is needing to think about college. Passports needed to be renewed. Our youngest is becoming a teenager in August. The grandmother downstairs is able to do less and less on her own. We are needing reading glasses more and more often. Students are learning and getting their certificates. Life keeps going with all its telltale cycles of change. 

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. Genesis 8:22

So here we are with our blog, one of those markers— reminding us (whether it feels too quick or too long to us) that another week has gone by!

PRAYERS ANSWERED


We are thankful that we see God’s hand sustaining us in all the short-term and long-term cycles of life.  When we wrote on Monday last week, the passports had not come through.  That was in the morning.  By the afternoon we got a message from the US Embassy saying the passport had been found—so thanks for praying!  We were able to get the passports, and though we had started the process of changing our flights, we were able to change them back without too much trouble or cost.  In the end we were able to travel under our original itinerary and are happily back in our island home.  Thank you for praying for island marriages (last week’s blog).  There has been some positive markers in that area, but do keep praying.  Our daughter got to get some good sleep over the weekend and seems to be doing okay with no arthritis flare-ups.  
One of our former teammates got married this weekend and we were able to watch the wedding ceremony livestream with colleagues and a few islanders. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We are looking forward to a few months without any planned travel.  Pray that we could get into some good routines—including finishing up home school for the year, starting some new English classes, and getting our English Club going again.  Kids around the islands (and our kids at their school) are entering the time of final papers and exams.  Pray that they could remember all that they’ve studied and do well without stress or anxiety.  Megan’s back has been a little out of sorts after all the travel and a strange bed, pray that it would settle down, be strong and pain-free.  Tom got to study with someone new this week.  They made a plan to study again on Wednesday.  Pray that this new man would remember, show up, and have a hunger for further study.