Being

What is ministry anyways? What is being a missionary? Some view it as going door to door evangelizing, or planting a church, holding Sunday school classes for children. For as long as I can remember (besides my nasty teenage years) I have felt my purpose was to love and be loved, following the greatest commandment to love the Lord deeply, and to love others. Everywhere I have lived, I have sought to love others.

In college, that looked like diving in dumpsters for flowers and old beer bottles which I then turned into small vases of flowers that I put at the door of all my neighbors in my apartment complex. It was notes in people’s university mailboxes and words of encouragement. Post university, it was befriending the homeless and prostitutes in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Oahu. In my late 20’s, it was assisting women during childbirth in a little clinic in Togo. I struggled when I became a mom, how do I love these screaming, tiny humans? I was home-bound for several long years in the trenches of changing diapers, nursing children and cooking 3 meals a day. I didn’t know it at the time, but those were my notes of encouragement and boquets of flowers for my family.

Once I didn’t have a child attached to my hip anymore we turned our house in to a place of ministry; hospitality, events and worship nights. I wanted to share the love of beauty, God’s creation and his love for the details. God calls us to celebrate, so we feasted and celebrated. It was what we had in that season to offer our community, and I loved it deeply.

The late nights, set up and clean up began to wear on me, and as we entered 2025, I knew I needed to slow down; that we as a family needed a shift. With our house being finished in the village, we thought we would have a regular schedule of times in the village, but that plan got hijacked when our car broke down in February.

Now that we are mobile again, and the temperatures are cooling down, our home in the village has been a refuge for our family. It’s time away from barking dogs, house alarms, fuel queues, the mechanics constantly at our house, either empty grocery stores, or what groceries are available are 3 times the price it was in January. We go to bed at 7, and wake up before the sun, getting a chance to watch our creator paint the sky each morning.

Our children are making friends. Kekeli has one solid friend named Hezwell. He is the grandson of the chief, and hangs out with our friends Yohane and Aliza’s son Micah and the daughter of the clinic doctor. All the other boys in the village try to hang out with Kekeli, but he’s a one friend kind of guy. Kharis is figuring out who her friends are. There are a few girls that like to hang around her, but I think they are a little too high energy for Kharis’ liking. She tends to follow Martine and her friends and play jumprope or ride bikes.

As we transition to focusing more on the village, we aren’t busying ourselves creating projects or ministries. There has been so much to make our house sustainable. We’ve struggled with water, but thankfully it seems like the water issue has been resolved. We’ve also had our time full with zoom calls, emails and communication.

In-between all the zoom calls and emails, we pause, pray, sit and look out over the village in anticipation for what the Lord will do. The process to installing the irrigation system has been slower than we anticipated, but we are trusting that God’s timing is the best.

We are thankful for our oasis in the village, for the slower pace, the longer walks and brighter sunrises and sunsets. It is in this place of rest and slowness that God is doing something new, and it is beautiful to watch it unfold.