The New Beginning
Most recent Word of Life Panama team photo. And this still isn’t everybody!
We are finally in Panama!!! The New Beginning…
Over this past year we’ve framed our journey through the major life transitions of ‘the long goodbye’, ‘the messy middle’, and ‘the new beginning’. You can read about our ‘long goodbye’ and the 'messy middle’ in our previous updates.
We have grieved well what God was asking us to let go of what had been familiar: relationships, routines, roles, places, and identities.
We have trusted God in the in-between season. The old is gone, but the new isn't fully established yet. It was disorienting, slow, and uncomfortable—and at the same time exciting and anticipating what God was reshaping us for.
And now the time has finally come for The New Beginning! It has been a two and a half year journey from when we first sensed the Lord’s invitation into this missionary adventure as a family. We are now beginning the journey into the new work God is doing and stepping forward with renewed purpose.
We know it will take time to gradually form a new identity and rhythm. Old relationships will deepen and new relationships will begin. And what has been a place we would visit and then leave, will begin to feel like home.
Ultimately in all of this, it turns the attention of our hearts to Jesus, Who 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.
As someone said it well… the transition itself ends up being as transformative as the destination. Because it is all about life with God!
We will share more in next month’s newsletter about all the new work we will be jumping into and what our lives are looking like in Panama, but for now we celebrate this moment. And we want to thank YOU all for being a part of it with us!!!
From the bottom of our hearts, ‘Thank you!’… for following Jesus together with us!
And in this moment, we want you to remember that we are ALL ‘missionaries’… sent ones… by Jesus into this world!
At one of our closing chapels at language school they would regularly share wisdom from previous missionaries. We were encouraged by this one specifically to remember we are all missionaries for Jesus where we live, work, and play, in all of our different relational spheres of influence.
From the perspective of a local and someone whose life has been impacted by many missionaries I can say that sometimes the “small” actions are the greatest ones.
What I have treasured the most and made me see the love of Jesus through missionaries have been:
- A hug
- A smile
- Quality time
- Hospitality
- Prayer
Big projects are good, but we live out the Gospel a lot better when we are able to genuinely care about people … and when we remember that people are not projects.
—Missionary wisdom from Silvia Apuy
With that in mind… may we all continue to live on mission for Jesus every day! It’s not about doing big things for God… but about doing ‘all things’ for a BIG God!
