Sabbatical

Dear Friends,

THANK YOU for your prayers! Many of you have been praying for Christian's visa and I am so happy to share with you that he was granted a visa to the USA and arrives here in California next Tuesday, we made the classic Lima mistake... His flight was at 12am Nov 2. That was Monday night, not Tuesday not. SO, he missed his flight. Kicking myself in the pants, 1 week later and $300 in penalties I will see him, Lord willing!!  We are so looking forward to just being together... and I can hardly wait to show him my life and world and community and family in this country.  I want him to see everything from where I grew up and went to school to my favorite solitude spots and Young Life kids and mentors, pastors.... There is so much to see.  We are looking forward to making this time focused though on some key relationships with family, and pastors as well as some chances for him to see Young Life here in the USA and learn!  We will get to be together for his birthday, our 2 year anniversary, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! We will both return to Peru for the new year.

Sabbatical... you may be wondering as many are...

Q- Is something wrong, why did you take a sabbatical?

A- No! Young Life gives a gift to their staff of a 3 month sabbatical after 7 years of full time service, domestically or internationally. Its been almost 8 years since I came on staff in Fresno, and the timing was right!

Q- So is it just a long vacation?

A- No! Young Life requires you to have a plan that must be approved by a supervisor. This is a time to reflect, rest, retreat, invest in persona relationships and recharge for another 5 years or longer. 

Q- So what are you doing, Christen?

A- I am resting. I am enjoying not needing to be chained to a computer so many hours/day and not having to lead everywhere I go. I am delighting in my nieces and nephew whose lives I have missed the most. Spending time with family and close friends, catching up and looking to serve them here and there. Its amazing how much you miss when you live overseas, so a sabbatical for international staff is vital! I am also working on another class toward my master's degree through Fuller and spend a lot of time reading, listening to lectures, studying and writing.  I am going to the gym (American gyms are soooo fun!).  I am going to counseling at a center that specializes in helping missionaries decompress and sort through what they have experienced. I am slipping into church quietly and just receiving and feeling the Lord revive my soul.

Q- How has life in Peru been?

A- HARD. I am finally beginning to be able to really process and feel the last 2 and a half years, something I must do to go on. I have come here at a  good time, after an incredibly heavy season of minsitry, seeing a lot of pain and suffering, death, and hardship in people's lives.  

Q- Where in the world are you?

A-  Good question. It changes moment by moment and I never know where I'll be, seriously! I think I have stayed in 14 beds and usually not the same one for more than 3 nights in a row.  I come and go to different places and am bouncing between Fresno, Oakhurst/Mountain area and Lodi, though I will soon be heading to new adventures as well. Fresno really has become my home base!

Q- Are there rules?

A- My supervisor is a Godly man and he told me to simply "be as kind to Christen as Jesus is."  That means lots of grace.  I also have made a commitment not to speak, fundraise, or visit donors and churches during this time. I hope to be able to do that when I am back briefly in February for a class, but now the purpose is pretty defined. 

So that is me.... and soon will be us when Christian is with me crashing at people's houses at taking the guest bed at my brother's house so I get to have sleepovers with my nieces.

  

I hope to be introducing many of you to Christian soon as some people will host open houses and gatherings over the next 2 months!

THANK YOU for your prayers, love, and support!

Christen