Leaving Home to Return Home

After spending nearly 6 months in the States visiting family, friends, and partner churches (not to mention having our 3rd child, Abriana, in October), we have finally made it back home to China.

 

We were made to feel very much at home in the States (Oklahoma, in particular), and we do in fact see Oklahoma as our 2nd home. However, China is our real home in the sense that this is where we will (as God provides) spend the vast majority of our time and energy over the next few decades.

 

We had originally planned to return to China in mid-January, however we were delayed nearly 2 months when my wife’s new Peruvian passport didn’t show up until the last week of February. We were finally able to fly out of Oklahoma on Tuesday, March 3rd.

 

The next 8 days took us through Los Angeles, Seoul (Korea), Hong Kong, Canton (a large city in southern China), and finally home to northwestern China. We took 4 different flights (2, 1, 13, and 3 hrs long) and then 4 different trains (1/2, 1, 35, and 3 hrs long), not to mention numerous taxis, to finally get home just before Noon on Wednesday, March 11th, in the middle of a snowstorm.

 

(This picture was taken on the 2nd of our 4 train journeys. It was already about 10 pm when we got on the train and well past the kids’ bedtime. They crashed. Also, don’t miss the fact that I am in this picture as well!)

 

We were blessed to have a couple days of rest in the middle of that journey at a very nice guesthouse (it was basically a real house), and we took advantage of one of those days to go and meet another missionary family that in many ways is very much like our own. Let me explain.

 

The wife is from Peru and the husband is caucasion (although from Scotland, not Oklahoma). Both of the wives are from Lima, the capitol of Peru, and both of the husbands have spent considerable time in Peru and speak fluent Spanish. Also, both families have three young children that are all within just a few month of each other in age. Our children are 3 years and 3 months, 2 years, and 5 months old. Their children are 3 years and 7 months, 15 months, and one on the way in just a few months. On top of all that, both families moved to China in 2004, and both left for China directly from Peru (instead of America or Scotland). The funny thing is that we didn’t know about each other at all until just recently, and even then only because a random mutual friend in China told us we should contact one another.

 

(The picture above is of the two wives and all the kids. I was taking the picture and the other husband was at work when the picture was taken.)

 

Well, I hope it doesn’t take me another month and a half to write another update. I hope (as I mentioned in the Fall) to blog something substantial at least once a week. But my priority as far as my time goes will be with my family and ministry.  

 

Thank you to all who pray for us! Please feel free to write anytime.