Heading North to Work

…like many other Mexicans.  haha

Seriously, we’re heading toward the border starting tomorrow.  We’ll be driving about 4.5 hours tomorrow afternoon, and then on Saturday, we should be driving to Laredo (another 5 hours).  We’ll be driving along with our co-workers who are moving back to the USA.

On Saturday afternoon, we’ll help them move their belongs brought up in May to a storage facility in Laredo into a 14′ rental truck.  On Sunday, we’ll drive about 6 hours and then unload that truck into another storage facility.  After that is finished, we’ll head to the Camino Global Headquarters in Dallas.

Monday I’ll get the car registration renewed and we’ll do some shopping for clothes for the boys who have sprouted out of most of their clothes.

Wednesday will be the beginning of MK Connections.  Thanks to a generous $250 gift from a relative, Cameron will be attending this special event for older MKs with our mission to experience several days of workshops and counseling designed to help them understand the challenges and opportunities facing them as 3rd Culture Kids/MKs and how to approach their career choices.  Beth is also going and will be a girls’ counselor and will be presenting an important workshop on career planning.

Last fall, when this event was being planned by co-workers in the Dallas area, several of our co-workers and their older MK children were brainstorming this event and discussing what should be included and who should be included.  The older MKs thought it would be important that adult MKs be an important part of this event since they would best understand their life situation.  One of the young adult MKs to whom we once ministered to here told her mother (who was involved in the planning): “If Beth McManus were there, I’d feel comfortable opening up to her.”  How sweet and encouraging was that?!

We’re glad that it worked out for Cameron and Beth to be there.  She’s very excited about being there and sharing with these teen and young adult MKs.

During those days, Dayton and I (and a 9 year old MK whose siblings and mother will be at the MK Connections) will be hanging out in the heat near Canton, TX in the home of co-workers (who will mostly be at this same event too).  On Thursday, we’ll drive the 2 hours over to the MK Connection event as special guests for the day and enjoy the swimming pool of the retreat center and some 4th of July fireworks.

On the way over there, I’m hoping to get the chance to briefly visit the grave site of Keith Green outside of Lindale, TX.  He was a Christian musician killed in a plane crash in that area back in 1982.  His music had a profound impact on my walk with Christ when I was a young teen.

The father of one of my 6th grade students of the Christian school I taught at in Tegucigalpa, Honduras about 15 years ago, witnessed the plane crash.  He had just arrived at the small runway on another small aircraft.  He had been hired as the editor of a small Christian magazine that was located there.  Keith Green met him there on the tarmac and even invited him to join him and the kids and their guests to take a quick joy ride in the jet they had leased.  He was tired from a long day of travel, and it was just his first few minutes to ever be there so he declined.  He stood there and watched the plane take off a couple minutes later.  He watched it stall, go down behind the line of sight in the rolling hills, and saw the plume of the explosion of the fully fueled jet.  What a surreal experience and memory to meet such a person as Keith Green for the first time and then witness his death moments later.  I can’t imagine.

Sunday, July 7th I’ll be heading back into Dallas to drop off two missionaries at the Camino Center and also drop off another Camino missionary at DFW.  Then, over the next couple hours, I’ll be picking up 4 more Camino missionaries and then heading back to the Camino Center for the start of our week of Team Leader Meetings.  We’ll be looking at about 12-14 hours of meetings and breakout groups for 5 days, although the first day will be devoted to prayer and fasting.  Now THAT’S the way to approach Christian leadership.  I’m very pleased with the decision to begin our meetings with more than a cursory prayer…a full day devoted to calling out to our God!  Awesome.

After the week of meetings, we’ll hit the road for another 1,100 miles to central FL to visit my aging parents.  I might regret putting a long drive right next to such an intense week without a chance to process and to rest.  Hope we make it!  We’ve got reservations for a couple nights on the beach, a night at a state park (with a spring…my first ever summer job was at this park when I was 17), and three nights close to my parents at a bed and breakfast that we used the last time we visited in 2011.  My mother’s church has invited me to share in their missions’ moment on the 21st which I will happily do.

Then we’ll pack up and drive back to Dallas in two days and have a few more days in Dallas to shop and pick up supplies.

We’ll head to Laredo on July 29 and cross the border on July 30 and arrive home that night or the next day.

Whew!

Over 4,500 miles…starting tomorrow.

We’d appreciate your prayers for safety, for energy and clear minds and pure hearts for ministering to others, for processing a lot of information, and that we’ll enjoy a few days of family time somewhere in there.

Pray for God’s provision too.  A trip like this…after all the travel and some hotels, and eating out on the road, and shopping for clothes and supplies for the coming year…well…you can imagine the costs.  But when we know we’re doing what God wants us to do, we know He provides.  He will.  He always does.

It will be a challenging month, but one that we hope will also be filled with rewarding experiences and opportunities.

Thanks for praying!

 

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