Furlough!

18 days until we leave for a four month furlough. I have been ready for this furlough for a few weeks now. I really didn’t like our last furlough too much, but I am looking forward to this one. I am ready to rest and refocus. My mind has been scattered lately. Things are going well here, the study groups are growing and our friendships expanding, but my long term goals have fogged up. I have gotten into a daily rhythm that does not address those goals and lives for the present ministry, which could be fine if it were not for these other goals. 

I am ready to go out with my wife by ourselves fairly often. I am ready to watch football all day on a Saturday with chips and cheese dip. I am ready to see my in-laws new farm/house that they bought and we are going to stay at. I am ready to eat out at good restaurants. I am ready to take my girls to Disney and spend, oh wait, no I’m not…(but we are going to go for a day after our conference).  

I have a problem, well, a blessing with having all these ideas that I want to do to change the world. Occasionally I realize that the possibility of accomplishing a great idea is not likely and start to give up on them. Then sometimes I am really motivated. Lately the motivation has been random. In the last couple of months I have pulled out two different book files and randomly worked on them, have worked on the Servant Leadership translations for a new website to launch to help Brazilian leadership with training materials, have started doing short podcasts in English for Brazilians, and have worked on a long term business idea to supplement support for missionaries. But these tasks are all just in the beginning of the long processes it will take to accomplish them. 

The word the Brazilians use for furlough is the same word for vacation. That always bothers me cause it usually isn’t. We will arrive in Chattanooga on a Monday and leave for a conference on Friday. So far we have a couple of meetings in November and then a couple in January as well as visiting our Chattanooga churches. If you want us to go to your church, let us know. Fortunately we are not needing to book new churches for support at this time, but we are available to speak if it works out for both of us. We look forward to meeting up with many of you! But I also look forward to focusing on the tasks we have in front of us.