Month: February 2011

This morning we celebrated Neomi and Natali’s re-adoption!  This will make it much easier on us and them, because they will have Ohio birth certificates, also they are officially “Natali” and “Neomi” instead of “Melisa” and “Melisa”.  It was great to be able to have our family with us for this big day since they have never been able to be a part of the adoption process in person.  God has truly blessed us!

They didn’t want it to be too loud so they just kind of tapped it.

I borrowed this from another missionary’s blog.  He posted this and I thought it was very good. Furlough is so many things and this explains just a little bit of it.

What is furlough?

Family & Travel:

* Furlough is being away from your wife and children on weekends and Wednesdays.
* Furlough is being with your wife and four children in a cramped, borrowed car.
* Furlough is realizing how awesome your wife is, accepting such discombobulation for the sake of God’s name even though her most basic instincts are nesting and stability.
* Furlough is having to spend thirty minutes every night catching insects to feed the land turtle your 6-year-old caught on some church lawn.
* Furlough is a speeding ticket for being careless in the 18th hour of a 26-hour non-stop trip from the California coast to keep a commitment in Colorado. Note: this is Culbertson’s point (the police haven’t caught me being careless yet).
* Furlough is 250 beds in one year.
* Furlough is having people take you out to some nice restaurants.
* Furlough is getting a delicious home-cooked meal after a couple of days of nothing but Subway sandwiches and other attempts at healthy fast food.
* Furlough is proof that GPS systems are neither omniscient nor all-wise.
* Furlough is learning that traveling coach on an Amtrak can be a missions opportunity.

Planning:

* Furlough is having seven requests for services on the same date and wondering how to keep all your friends happy.
* Furlough is having a service or two canceled and foolishly beginning to think nobody wants you.
* Furlough is becoming an actuary, calculating whether it is most time and cost efficient to drive or fly.
* Furlough is trying to see every supporter but knowing that it is impossible, praying that those we can’t see understand.

Meetings:

* Furlough is the chance to preach the Word of God and to share a passion for missions in many awesome churches that we have grown to love.
* Furlough is watching your video 100 times and getting choked up every time.
* Furlough is seeing something new on your video the 87th time.
* Furlough is learning how to work around a myriad audio-visual equipment quirks.
* Furlough is telling the same story on 40 consecutive Sunday mornings and being blessed every time.
* Furlough is answering the same questions night after night, but getting excited because people are really interested in missions and your work.
* Furlough is teaching missions classes to university students and wondering how those young whipper-snappers know so much.
* Furlough is hoping that the young whipper-snappers learn by doing with as much passion as they learn by listening.
* Furlough is meeting people who say they’ve been praying for you by name every day for years, and getting a lump in your throat.

Relationships

* Furlough is learning how large and how big-hearted your spiritual family really is.
* Furlough is being with old friends, sharing your prayer burdens, even unloading some frustration, hurts, and disappointments.
* Furlough is finding out where your friends are on their spiritual pilgrimage, sharing their prayer burdens, letting them unload some of their frustrations, hurts and disappointments.
* Furlough is an opportunity for your wife and children to get involved in a strong local church in your native country for several months.
* Furlough is making over 1,000 “Facebook” friends.
* Furlough is spending a few minutes with someone and thinking you could become terrific “real” friends, but knowing it will never happen.
* Furlough is the above happening hundreds of times over.
* Furlough is seeing your kids learning how to develop inch-deep, mile-wide relationships, and praying that their marriages will be deep someday.