The Delp Details

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Between Here and There...


For those of you who read our newsletter than we sent out, you probably recognize this photo.  It is our family standing more or less on the equator.  We actually standing on the Northern hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere at the same time.  In our newsletter we talked a little about the transition back to the States, but I wanted to expand a little bit more on this.  I'm sure people wonder a lot what goes through missionaries heads when they are packing up to leave for what most would consider their 'home' country...
This picture is a good representation of what goes through our heads.  Probably now, in the midst of packing, saying goodbyes etc is not the best time to write it, although maybe it is just to be able to process things a little in the midst of the craziness, because it certainly is craziness in our lives right now!
We obviously have ourselves in both worlds-our new home in Ecuador and our old home in the United states.  For Simeon, Ecuador is home, it is all he really knows.  Although probably for him, the adjustment will be easier.  We have gotten so used to life and culture in our new home in Ecuador and we really have worked hard to make Ecuador our home.  Leaving what you know is never easy, whether it is when we left the States or now when we are leaving here.
It is not an easy place to be.  As I'm writing, this makes me think of one of my favorite books on life...
Yes, I know it is Dr. Seuss, but this book has such great mental imagery on life, the realities of life...for instance...


Except when you don' t
Because, sometimes, you won't.



You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted.  But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both you elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out?  Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

OR...

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

Ahhhh, the waiting place...
Everyone knows and understands the waiting place.  A place where sometimes you feel like you will never get out of it.  A place where you wonder, "will life ever feel stable again?"  Waiting can be lonely, waiting can make you more impatient, more anxious, more stressed the longer you are there.  We are there.  We are waiting, but we are also moving...literally, moving.  We are moving back to the States in a little less than a week now.  Is it possible to be in 2 places at once?  The waiting place and the mountain place or winding place or the confusing place?  It must be possible because that is where we are.  

So, you ask where we are, what we're feeling, how we're feeling...
We're hopeful yet anxious and overwhelmed but taken care of by our Lord.  Honestly, this is a tough place to be, between 2 places, between our old home and new, between new friends and old.  

We are praying Romans 12:12 and we ask you to pray it on our behalf...

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I pray that prayer with you. How well I remember all the moves we made over the years! I remember one time stating,"I don't want to move again until the Lord comes back." :)

Unknown said...

Thank you for your prayers Aunt Harriet! We appreciate it! And I echo the comment you made even though I know that we will still probably have many of these over the years. Hopefully we'll eventually get it down to a science...but NOT YET!