Packing

Megan and the boys leave for Africa this evening.  Their plane departs in just a few hours.  My daughter and I (Tom) will hang around the Boston area for another week before getting her settled in at college in Minnesota.  So today we spent most of the day packing.

Megan and boys at the airport

We are packing for 5 people going to 3 final destinations.  My own travels will take me from Boston to Minnesota to Africa to the islands.  Not an easy thing to pack for.  Between us we have 8 bags not including carry ons.  The process took most of the day.

At one point when we were taking a break for lunch my sister (we’re staying at her house) looked over at me and said, “You guys don’t seem too stressed.  I guess that comes from doing it a lot.”  As I thought about it, I think she is right.

Most people seem to find packing very stressful.  I can remember a time when I would have said, “I hate packing.”  But after so many years of learning to pack our things and unpack our things, it has become easier.   Not that I love it—it’s simply a part of life—like doing the dishes or driving a car.  You come to accept it, you learn how to do it and you might even learn how to do it well.  I don’t know if we “pack well” these days.  But I think practice and experience means we do okay.

I has become less stressful.   Why?  Is it because we worry less about our stuff? Is it because we don’t need to take as much stuff as before?  Are we better at not forgetting things?  Maybe.  Or maybe we’ve just learned that bags get packed, things sometimes get forgotten, most things are replaceable, and wherever we put whatever it was we were looking for, it’s somewhere.

Tom and our daughter

But there’s the other side to packing—the acknowledgement that our time in this place is coming to an end.  It means it is time to say goodbye again.  It means separation and pain.  Packing my bags means “I’m leaving.”  And inevitably that means leaving loved ones behind.  I don’t know if that has gotten any easier.  Sometimes the packing itself is a distraction.  I’m so busy packing, I don’t have time to be sad.  But it doesn’t really work.  Behind all the shuffling and weighing and reorganizing things—the ache of the coming goodbye is still there. But even that has gotten a little easier.  When you say goodbye a lot, for better or worse, it generally does get a little easier.  

Because of the strange configuration of our travels, I packed my bag today only to unpack it this evening (we needed to know how much Megan and the boys needed to take in their bags versus what I’d be able to bring). I’m not actually going anywhere yet.  And yet, part of me is off with Megan and the boys, even as I stay here—a strange feeling.

The pastor this past Sunday looked at the passage when Paul says, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” He spoke to the fact that we can find contentment despite our circumstances.  That in want, in plenty, in good times and bad—it is possible to learn to be content.  But it has to be learned through experience. Perhaps that’s part of it too.  We’ve had many opportunities to learn.  Perhaps we’ve learned a thing or two.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We have had another full but nice week connecting with family, groups, and old friends. The time in the US has been full but we are so thankful for all the people we’ve been able to see. Both our older kids have had chances to practice driving and our daughter is growing in confidence (she’ll attempt the road test on Friday!). We are thankful for groups in mainland Africa showing growing interest in reaching out to the islands and sending people there. Our youngest son finished his rite of passage challenges-- we are proud of all he's learned. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
After some delayed flights and figuring out logistics at the location, all the participants for the translation meetings have made it to the big island location— everyone agrees that the training will be very helpful— pray for good health, focus and communication and that they would have a wonderful and fruitful time together. Megan and the boys are beginning their travels back to mainland Africa. Pray for safe travels and easy transition to the time zone and for any pre-school errands that need to happen before boarding school orientation on Friday. Tom and our daughter have another week with family in the Boston area. Pray that we can get our daughter’s medications—there has been very little progress this past week despite repeated messages and phone calls. Pray for quick responses and for the medication to be in-hand soon. Pray that our daughter would not have any flare-ups of symptoms in spite of this interruption in her treatment.