Not Good-bye, But....

Change.  Why do I always resist change, even when I know something good is up ahead?  I think my dh is right when he accuses me of thinking too much.

2012 was a year of changes.  Most recently we changed mission organizations.  After twenty years with the same group, we have joined another one that more closely fits who we are and what we do.  It is a good change, and God has confirmed that we have made the right decision.  Now we ask ourselves why we resisted this change for so long.

Our recording studio is now in the process of getting a face-lift after almost nineteen years of neglect.  This is not a change I resisted, but one I have delayed due to lack of time, energy, finances, and vision.  Now the time has come, and it’s been a welcome change for all who work there.

Another change is in our Christmas traditions.  With only two of the seven children home with us for the holidays, we are free to think outside the box and do things differently.  In some ways we might look back on this as one of our best Christmases ever.  I hope so. 

After way too many years of hosting a caroling party that had gotten way too big for comfort or even fun for me, I have given it up, at least for now.  Someone else is hosting the big event, and I plan to go as a guest.  Tradition is broken, and truthfully it hurts a little if I start thinking too much again, but overall, it’s a relief. 

Instead of feeding a huge family this season, I can extend hospitality and invite friends over for meals.  The holidays are the perfect time for this.  I’m not exhausted from throwing a massive party, and I’m not battling with selfishness in trying to get enough time with each of my adult children like I usually do.

I could go on and on about the areas of my life undergoing changes.  It’s a whole season, really, not just a year.  I’m letting go of things I was always afraid to release, and finding richer, more rewarding things that take their places.

On a related note, maybe some of you have struggled with the changes that Women of the Harvest is undergoing.  I know I was saddened by the loss of Cindy as our editor, and I really miss the WOTH Writer’s blog and the old online magazine as it was.  However, there are exciting changes in the works that we should all enjoy. 

Before long, WOTH will cease to be Women of the Harvest as we’ve known it, and they will be disclosing their new name and new branding.  With it will come a new interactive web site and all sorts of goodies that will make us forget anything we might have lost in the process.  I can’t wait to see what all they are developing for our benefit!

Sadly, now I must confess one more change.  At least for now, I am going to cut way back on my blogging here.  I need to spend more time focusing on my REAL LIFE and some other writing that has been pushed too low on my priority list these past three years.

This is not good-bye.  Lord willing, I'll still pop in every month or so.  Maybe you will see me as an occasional guest writer for the new Women of the Harvest with its new name.  I will be looking to stay connected one way or another.  You've become a vital part of my life, and I don't want to lose you!

IRL* This is not a good-bye, but it is a change, and I would by lying if I didn't admit that it hurts a bit to not keep my weekly habit of meeting you here.

The best way to keep in touch with me for now is through my personal blog, Memories and Musings from Mexico.  You can always write to me at IRL@lokerfam.com, and I will try to reply and also read your blogs when I can, too.

The Year of the Dragon... & teeth & passports

In honor of our friends in the Far East, let me wish you all a very lovely Year of the Dragon, which apparently started on January 23. (How do you keep track of New Year’s when it always falls on a different day? Chinese New Year is not always even in January. Usually it’s February, right? Just wondering….)

So far 2012 is looking more like the Year of the Teeth. This year my dc need a total of ten teeth surgically extracted. How can that be? I have no idea. Sometimes things all happen at once like that. Last week was a bugger of a week for my poor dd who had to have oral surgery just before returning to college.

2012 is also the year of passport renewals for the dc. Both American and Mexican passports are expiring this year for our three youngest dc. Between that and orthodontist and oral surgeon visits, it looks like I may spend a crazy amount of time running back and forth to the city, waiting in lines, and filling out paperwork. I’m not going to even think about the finances for all these extras.

Who knows what else this year might represent. Both our vehicles are getting up there on mileage, so 2012 might end up being the Year of the Car for all I know. 2011 was the Year of the Plumbing, among other more fun memories.

How about you? Any glimpses of what the New Year is looking like?

One annual task I failed to do in January is to type up a list of the year’s highlights. Usually I don’t know what to call a year until after it is past. Recent years are easy to recall because of weddings, and of course 2011 will be the year I became GJ. As I get older, though, I am thankful to have my handy file of yearly bullet points to help jog my memory. I can’t recommend this enough to you younger women with your minds still intact.

If I ever get around to writing my memoirs, it would be a nightmare to find stories in all my journals. Now when was that…? You think you will never forget, but trust me; it all gets jumbled together after a while. My “cheat sheet” is a folder of yearly highlights. I can flip through that pretty quickly and then find what I seek in my stack of journals. When random photos show up in a drawer or a packing box, my little file folder helps me pinpoint dates. (Why, or why did I not put dates on photos in the first place is another issue.)

Each year I make a list not only of what I did, where I went, and significant news items, but I also list new friends who have come into my life. Sometimes friends come and go so quickly, I only vaguely remember them when I look back on a particular year, but other times it is fun to look back and mentally celebrate how many years I have known a particular person.

2009 was the year I “met” WOTH. 2010 was the year I “met” many of you! Now I am enjoying my third year of blogging with WOTH.

IRL* I’m vowing to carve out more Real Life time for the people God puts before me this year (besides the orthodontist, oral surgeon and immigration agents).

Jamie Hush

During my week in Colorado, I had the privilege of representing you, the readers of WOTH online publications, by saying a few words at the Women of the Harvest Celebration Brunch. It was great to meet with donors who help fund these publications and the Retreats. I trust I expressed appreciation on behalf of all who enjoy the WOTH onlineMagazine, the WOTH Writer’s blog, Coffeegirl, the Weekly Word, and even this IRL blog.

The theme of the celebration was “Value Her Voice.” Check out the video in the side bar with a gripping story that was shared at the brunch. (Feel free to share it with friends who might be interested in sponsoring someone to attend the Retreat in India next month.)

It was a bit daunting to have to stand up and speak after this heart-felt testimony from our sister in India. Secretly, though, as I was watching her interview and listening to another woman who was speaking via Skype, I was thankful to be there in person so my face wouldn't be plastered across a BIG ol’ projection screen. Then as I was introduced, my new friend and visionary for this blog, our dear editor, Cindy, began a series of Photoshopped images of me that she created to liven up my sometimes otherwise “blah” posts. So much for not having my big face up on the screen my face on the big screen!

Well, I recovered my questionable poise and started my talk with a story of my own journey to having my voice valued. The audience laughed when I shared the family joke that until the age of six I honestly believed my name was “Jamie Hush!”

Later on I admitted to Cindy the less funny reality behind that joke, how we have a true enemy who wants nothing more than to shut us up. He knows that he is defeated by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. Somewhere along the way, we all get discouraged trying to share a story that no one seems to want to hear.

Granted, when I was younger I gabbed non-discriminately, and I needed to learn to listen. But then somehow I took people’s admonishment to be quiet as a personal wound to my heart. John Eldredge and other authors have noted that Satan can do nothing to stamp out the glory of God, so instead he attacks us in the unique ways that we reflect God’s glory.

For me it is the gift of story telling and communication, which even as I admit this, triggers an irrational dose of shame. That’s my lifelong battle.

Can you think of areas like that in your own life, where you especially shine with God’s glory, only to have it squelched? I’d love to hear your stories about that.
IRL* Thankful for my new friends at WOTH who really do value my voice (our collective voice!) and help me (us) to shine shamelessly.

Missionaryesque

“They laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike.

You can lose your mind!”

This silly song has been running through my head for days. If you were born before 1970, you might recognize it from watching reruns of the black and white TV series called “The Patty Duke Show” about two identical cousins. Yeah, like that is even possible, right?

What triggered this endless tune was a comment I saw on the WOTH Writer’s Blog where one of the readers coined the term “Missionaryesque” in her comment. She inspired a topic that could be a future book title: Missionary Stereotypes and the Women Who Defy Them.

When I first landed in Guatemala in August 1986, my mental image of a true missionary was pretty much everything I wasn’t. She was quiet, even bordering on mousey, very subservient and a bit plain, with no trace of make-up or styled hair. I also had vivid impressions of the taboos—things she would never think, say, or do. Where exactly these ideas came from, I have no idea, but it didn’t take me 24 years to figure out that a “typical” missionary is as fictional as identical cousins.

One of the greatest blessings of attending the WOTH Furlough Retreat last summer was getting to meet 99 unique women with diverse talents and personalities. If you look at the photo from my very first IRL blog, you can see that each one was a true beauty from the inside out. Some were enduring epic battles, and still managed to glow as we worshiped God together. I noticed that same quality at the infamous women’s retreat I helped organized this past spring. A group the world might not glance twice at, but who possess a deep inexplicable beauty and charm.

What I propose this week is a “Women Who Defy” Hall of Fame.

I want you to nominate a woman missionary and tell us how she has touched your life, how she is different from any other “woman of the harvest,” and how she does and says things that defy your earlier impressions of how a missionary should act. (For security reasons you might not want to include their full name or country of service.)

As I’m cleaning house, packing bags, saying goodbye to my two college kids again, and then returning to Mexico on the 16th, I look forward to taking a break from the blog and reading your nominations. Please submit them to editor@womenoftheharvest.com and we’ll start posting them next week. I’m counting on you to provide the content for next week…so please defy the stereotype and contribute!

IRL* Debunking Missionaryesqueness