It's not a vacation

It’s that time of year when we do a lot of traveling. Every May I have leadership meetings for our teams and for IT. As well every two years we fly to the states as a family to visit churches, family and friends. The neighbors always say, “Oh have a nice vacation”. I just say “thanks,” and give a deep sigh. For most people, I suppose, flying somewhere means exotic places and lots of rest and relaxation. We know differently, so don’t believe the lie.

We’ll be visiting in the states this summer, and we always go with lots of mixed feelings.
...Glad to see loved ones again,
…really needing to give lots or reports about what we do in order to ensure intelligent funding and prayers,
…yet not having enough time to fit in all these meetings,
…wishing there were just a few more days to do something for the kids and ourselves –like on vacation,
…yet feeling like nearly 2 months away from home is already too long to be away from home, life and ministry.

It’s like things are on hold during this time. When I consider the $7000 price tag just to fly us over here, I remind myself “it’s not a vacation” because if it were, I would probably opt for two weeks in the Carribean somewhere!

So, here we are in the middle of “hurricaine season”. I am already on the road and in the air. My family will be joining me in a week. The kids have been emailing that they miss me “very, very much”, Reinhild too, and so this just makes the time even longer.

Below are some pictures from a year ago when I was traveling home from our leadership meetings. The window blew out at 30,000 feet, we took a quick dive, lost compression –and oxygen. The masks came down and we basically scrambled for our lives.

…Thought you’d be interested in that.