I'm most struck by what the Bible says about family and how I've been experiencing family this summer as I am raising support to go to Venezuela.
Let me give you a little background on my family. My parents moved our family (I have two sisters) from Kenya to America in 1992. This meant leaving behind my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents..all of our family. I grew up in a small nuclear family and knew of my extended family only through stories and pictures. In 2007 I returned to Kenya for the first time. It was a challenging, humbling, exciting and wonderful time. One of the strangest experiences was being reunited with my extended family. It was surreal. For most people, seeing the whole family is something you do at least once a year..but for me it seemed once in a lifetime. Because I have little to no memory of life before coming to America, (I was four years old when we moved here) it was like meeting them for the first time. Imagine, if you can, meeting your grandmother at age 19! What do you say? Where do you begin to catch up? I didn't know what to say and I never quite figured out where to begin but that time was so special to me because even though we couldn't tell each other (the language barrier) I knew that I loved her and that she loved me. We are family.
This summer as I've been preparing to leave home for Venezuela I've thought about how I'm going to miss my family. I've thought about what it will be like spending the holidays and birthdays apart from them. I think because of my background and wanting things to be different for my children I have this image of living close to home and my sisters and I raising our children together (when we have them, that is) ..dropping the kids off at Grandma's for the afternoon while we go shopping. Maybe I watch too many movies but I guess that's just to say that it looks different from what I imagined. My older sister recently moved to Australia and my parents are talking about moving back to Kenya someday. And I'm going to Venezuela..away from home and away from my family. All of this gives me pause as I struggle to fit my plans for my family into this reality. Then I'm reminded of Jesus's words in the Gospel of Mark: 'I tell you the truth,' Jesus replied. 'no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.' What an incredible promise!! I've seen this even before leaving home. I have been blessed with an amazing team; they will be my coworkers, roommates and friends. We'll celebrate holidays and birthdays together; share the highs and lows of life and ministry in a new culture. They are God's provision for family in this next year. And God hasn't stopped there! He has also blessed me with family through my ministry team. I've received so much encouragement and support through this process. You all have opened your homes and your lives to me and allowed me to share mine with you. You are also God's provision for family and I am so thankful. In Christ, we are family.
"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. " -Philippians 1:3-6
