Learning Togetherness

First, let me apologize for the delay in this blog post. It's been almost a week and we are sorry to have not kept all of you that are involved in what's happening here in the loop of things lately. We appreciate your support, prayers and general interest in our lives and will try and be better about keeping you informed. In saying all that, I tell you that the past week or so has been a crazy one, but full of graciousness and God's presence as well. So while this post might not give the best insight into all the tasks or events we have had, it's our explanation of our hearts and minds right now after coming through what could be considered the hardest but best week here.

When we came here we knew we were in for a lot of new. New culture, new language, new friends, new just about everything. So in knowing that, we braced ourselves for some serious learning, and learning is what we've done. We've learned so much in the past 2 months, from books to conversations to simple observation. Things like: tram systems, shopping or ordering food, kunas and lipas (currency), how to conjugate two of the sixteen verb types, Croatian hospitality, a little Croatian grammar, plenty of Croatian words, cultural norms and customs, a city with streets and squares and everything in between, (overwhelmed?) and we know we have a great amount left to learn. We're excited about it, despite being a lot, it really is fascinating and we love the learning.

In the midst of all these lessons, some of which just started this past week, we also learned one of the most invaluable things to all of us: the gift of each other. Throughout all this learning we've obviously had success, failed miserably, laughed and even cried. And all of that would be really overwhelming if it wasn't for the reality of togetherness. In the midst of knowing our need for God, we didn't fully recognize our need for each other, our community. Sometimes it takes tough decisions, hard choices and a sense of loss or brokenness to learn the incredible value of your community. No matter how messy or how great things get, we see God teaching us what it really means to do this together, with the support and love that comes from being apart of the people of God. Real community or togetherness is complex and hard to really get, it's honestly just uncomfortable. But in being able to face some real challenges this week we redefined for ourselves what it means to really love one another as members of God's people in the day to day. And as we learn that we are so excited to see how that helps us be better bearers of that love to the people of Croatia.

We are encouraged by statements such as this one:

'In community we are no longer a mass of helpless individuals, but are transformed into one people of God. In community, our fears and anger are transformed by God's unconditional love, and we become gentle manifestation of God's boundless compassion. In community, our lives become compassionate lives because in the way we live and work together. God's compassion becomes present in the midst of a broken world.'  -(from Nouwen, McNeill and Morrison's book Compassion) 

We hope this is true of us as we continue to seek to really be a community of faith here. So we ask that you pray for us as we let God teach us in the midst of all our other learning. And we pray that wherever you are and whatever community you find yourself in this week, you seek the joy and peace that comes from doing life together and allow that to be the manifestation of God's love and work where you are as well.

Thanks for keeping up with us.

Emily