The ‘Messy Middle’
Arriving in Costa Rica!
Back in May we shared an update on ‘The Long Goodbye’. It’s the season we began since we first sensed this calling for ’Fagerland’s to Panama’.
At the Development Conference with Word of Life for new missionaries, we were taught on ‘Resilience in Transition.’ We all experience transitions. And it was helpful to not only talk about the different aspects of transitions, but to have the clarity of what we are experiencing and when.
After the ‘long goodbye’, and before there can be a ‘new beginning’ (which will be our lives in Panama one day!), there is a phase called the ‘messy middle.’
This is the season we entered when we arrived in Costa Rica on August 13.
They said the ‘messy middle’ is marked by uncertainty, doubt, and the need for deep introspection and adjustment, because it is the turning point to something new.
Of course none of this is easy, or comfortable. We will shed old habits and create new ones. Our human instinct resists this part of transition and desires to run back to the stability of what was ‘known’ and ‘comfortable’.
I came across this quote…
“It is okay to be in this space.
The transition,
the messy middle,
the space in between.
You've moved on but you haven't yet arrived. You've left behind what you needed to, but the puzzle pieces haven't all yet come together.
There is messiness.
There is waiting.
There is uncertainty.
You are wanting to rush but everything is moving slow.
You are wondering if you will get to where you want to go.
But where you are is perfect.
The messy middle is for doors to close and new doors to open.
This transition period is where things come undone so that they can be put back together.
This is a season of just being, of trusting. This is a season to pause and take a breath.
Have love for yourself, you are exactly where you need to be.”
- Lisa Buscomb
Let the Spanish classes begin!
September 1, marked the beginning of our one year program at the Spanish Language Institute in Costa Rica. We are grateful for the many wonderful teachers and other students we have already met, who are on the same journey as us.
There will be new opportunities, experiences, and personal development, but all the more we want these connected to a deeper dependency and communion with Jesus. This is the middle of our story, and we are doing this WITH Him! That even in the ‘messy middle’, God intends us to thrive in transitions.
“LORD… will you increase our faith?!”
Pray with us that we embrace the change, and accept all the emotions we will experience along the way. No matter what each day brings through the ‘messy middle,’ we recognize it isn’t a sign of failure, but part of the transition process.
And there also continues to be a deep anticipation and hope during this time as well. We are sensing the ‘new beginning’ is coming, but we also know it is not yet. We are excited about this next chapter of life and ministry that Jesus is calling our family to! But we are taking it one day at a time.
Jesus is the One telling the bigger story of our lives! Regardless of whatever phase of transition we are in, we are GOOD, because of Who He is, and who we are, in Him.
Benaiah and Maja on their first day at Sojourn Christian School.
Seth and Marcela on their first day at the Spanish Language Institute.
