Sometimes when our long-term mission doctors are preparing to return home, I have to ask myself, “Is that really three years?”
I
know for them, the three years of sacrifice, hard work and greater than
these, missing family and friends has at times seemed to last forever.
Yet as they prepare to return home too, they are often struck with how
quickly the time seems to have gone.
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| My husband and I in Thailand |
I remember getting off the
plane in Los Angeles in 1981 after our three years with Tom and our
three children and looking around to see the faces of my sister and her
family, I was so excited! I would meet my niece Shannon for the first
time, and my sister would get to meet a nephew and niece born in
Thailand, and see just how much our oldest had grown in three years.
She met me with a box of Cheerios in hand - I told her it was the food I
had missed the most! For my husband, there couldn’t be enough
chocolate to compensate for three years without it - I think he is still
making up for it today!
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| Hakes on their first day in Cameroon in 2010 |
This summer we see one couple, the
Hakes, return home from Cameroon and a family, the Burket-Thoene
complete three years in Guatemala and take their place in
Cameroon. Tim Cavanagh is ‘spanning the gap’ having served there twice
before.
Someone once said the days can be long but the years go
quickly - this seems very true about mission work, perhaps about
everything. There can be days that the amount of work that needs to be
accomplished can seem like an insurmountable hill - yet, as we look back
- “has it really been a year, two years, ten….” Let us strive to use
what little time we have in service to others, always grateful for the
gifts we have ever mindful that our lives are a gift and we can share
this gift with others!
