One thing I have learned since coming to the mission field, and am still learning how to deal with, is the constant fluctuating state of the team and ministry around us. What I mean is, people are constantly coming in as interns for a few months, or weeks, or a year, people are constantly leaving and coming from furlough (MTW calls it HMA – Home Mission Assignment), and the ministry needs constantly are shifting as the Lord moves in our church and changes the needs and demands of our start-up church plant. So the only constant is that nothing stays the same!
One example of this is our recent teary goodbye we had with Fred and Jean Depp, an older couple that came here to work for 5 months – and did they ever! They taught English classes many nights a week, taught computer classes through a translator at the Mahathai community, wrote a curriculum for the computer training, and helped by babysitting numerous times at team members houses, in addition to encouraging us all through their godly example of prayer and life experiences! (They have 10 children, by the way, all grown).
Yet another example is our recent welcoming of 6-week intern couple Logan & Melissa Keck, who are in seminary and have been married a few months. We got to host them for their first week here – so it has been fun as we get to know another young couple without children.
Here are some pictures from our goodbye party for the Depps and the computer training thank-you ceremony for the Mahathai teens. We miss them so much already – they were a wonderful example to many that you can never be too old, or past retirement, or whatever reason – to serve on the mission field. They did it faithfully and were amazing in what they reaped in the short 5 months they were here – a group of us serenaded an Ode to Fred & Jean to the tune of Gilligan’s Island. We also got sticky rice and mango for dessert…!
