Where does the time go?

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.

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!

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!

Reason for the Season

Tom and I served in Thailand with our children for three years and had the opportunity to go to the beautiful midnight mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Udon Thani  for Christmas during our time there.

The joy of being in the missions for Christmas for us was  that the emphasis is on the celebration within the Church and little else – and the luxury of time.  With few distractions it was easier to just spend time together.  Of course being in the missions at the holidays,  it is also a time when everyone more acutely misses family and friends being so far from home.

Trying to bring the mission joy forward to me means working to keep the emphasis on ‘the reason for the season’ and letting go of the pressure that exists for so many of us in our culture regarding spending, gifts, rushing around and the lack of time for what really matters.

Today our Mission Doctors who are serving in Africa and Latin America will celebrate a Christmas where the emphasis will be on the birth of Jesus.  They will however, also be missing family and friends during the special time of year.   Please keep them and all missionaries in your prayers this Christmas and always.

Christmas Gift

A newlywed couple, Dr. Mark and Mrs. Sheila Bisanzo from Massachusetts recently shared how they are experiencing Advent and preparing for Christmas in Uganda. Sheila commented “...we're grateful for the opportunity to enjoy the essence of Christmas and the renewal it brings without the overwhelming American distractions of buying and spending”.

I remember Christmas during our time in Thailand, now almost 30 years ago, with the same joy that Sheila recalls. There is something liberating about being removed from what we take for granted and have come to believe must be part and parcel of the 'traditional' holiday. Shopping, wrapping, planning, mailing, often accompanied by stress that can overtake the meaning of the Holy day. Removing all these made it easier to stay focused on what we are really celebrating - 'that God so loved the world that he sent his only Son...'

In the years since returning to Southern California, I can’t say I’ve always kept this perspective during Advent and Christmas, especially as my kids were growing up, wanting to create perfect memories for them. As I take a step back and look at all of the holiday that have come and gone, I know that Christ has been at the center, even if we were momentarily distracted. Taking the time to slow down and be grateful (even after staying up until 3 a.m. wrapping gifts and making cinnamon rolls...), we have been given the opportunity to express to each other the love that God has for each of us.

There is a special gift that those serving at Christmas receive, even if like Mark and Sheila it means working at the emergency room - a gift that will last a lifetime. Sheila shared 'When we think about the Holy Family and the image of the Nativity, a peaceful time of a family gathering is the gift they shared and which we still embrace today. ‘Where two or three are gathered together,’ that's the Christmas gift.”

May we all experience the presence of Christ, though all of the errands, shopping and wrapping, and may we always recognize the real Christmas gift!