For the past year and half I have been working to make sure that rest is part of my weekly rhythms. Some days this is as simple as taking a walk, and other times is spending a day at the beach. I am definitely still a work in progress, but I definitely have learned the value and importance of rest. If you’re someone who struggles with making time to rest, or even feel guilty resting, remember that God models the need for and importance of rest in the very first book of the Bible. “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” – Genesis 2:2-3.
So rest, my friends. And because it might help someone else, here are a few points from counseling I will share again:
- We are meant to work out of our rest, NOT rest from our work.
- Self-care is not selfish. Self-care is self-stewardship.
- Dead bodies can’t do anything.
In the first 10 week stretch of the year, we had 9 weeks of teams. Even with making an effort to rest during that busy season I was still left exhausted. I am thankful to have had the past 4 weeks off without teams to rest, recharge, and reset. I spent 2 of the weeks off visiting family and friends in Florida. I flew into Orlando and then drove north to spend a few days with my childhood best friend, Liz, and her family. It was so good for my heart to just be together, go for walks, and talk. Her constant and steady friendship is such a gift to me.
From there I drove east to meet up with my parents and then we traveled to a ranch on the Florida/Georgia border to spend a week with family to celebrate my cousin’s marriage. It’s always good to be able to spend time with my family, but it was very special to see my Florida family (all of whom I haven’t seen since before I moved to the DR). It was a fun week being together, laughing, eating lots of good food, fishing, riding 4-wheelers, and talking around the fire every night. When I was stateside this past fall for sabbatical, I felt like I had to ‘work’ all the time, whether that was on my own healing or having a lot of really hard conversations with people. I can’t tell you how nice it was to just be. To be able to just sit and be present with my family in whatever it was that we were doing. I loved that week on the ranch.
From there I traveled back south with my Florida family to spend Easter at my aunt’s house. The past 2 years I have celebrated Easter in the DR so it was special to spend it with family this year, especially since it was with family I don’t get to see very often. I loved getting to spend some extra time with my aunt and cousins before heading back home to San Juan.
I just want to give a little shoutout to Kelsi for watching my pups for me while I was gone…thanks for everything, Kels!
Last weekend Braegan and Blue stayed with me while Jeff competed in a pickleball tournament in the capital. Braegan and I had a lot of fun cooking some tasty meals and just having a couple days of ‘girl time.’ On Saturday we joined Katelyn, Monchy, Adia, and Nashley for a beach day at a beach I hadn’t been to before. I brought my dogs, and it was Rue’s first trip to the beach. We all had a fun day!
Since returning to San Juan there has been a lot of meetings and prep for our upcoming teams. As a staff we have also been focusing on the need for rest and taking care of ourselves. On Friday us ladies treated ourselves to manicures and then the full American staff had lunch together. It’s always nice to spend time like this together outside of ministry work, especially as we head into a couple weeks of teams.
Prayer Requests:
- Upcoming weeks of ministry (3 surgical teams)
- Health and safety
- Spanish (I am getting back into formal Spanish classes so I am hopeful that it will help connect things in my brain so I don’t sound like a 3 year old when I try to speak)