NEVER DOING IT AGAIN. it was actually very fun, exciting, rejeuvenating, and blessing to meet my old friends. they poured out their love on us. for our first visit back, we made it a goal to try to visit everybody. so, we stopped by korea for a week, los angeles, washington DC, princeton, new york, hartford, boston, chicago, san diego, san jose, houston, AND some of the surrounding cities. my family was with me for about two-thirds of the time. it was tiring, and if i have to do it again, i’ll have to be in better shape. now what to do about our agency’s policy about taking one-year sabbaticals at the end of every term…
BUT I’M GLAD WE DID IT, cuz it was our first visit back since we left for thailand over two years ago. we’d do it again, if we could go back in time. we had great opportunities to share what God has been doing in and through our lives for the past two years in thailand. but now that our “first” visit is accopmlished, we’ll go for more focused visits in the future, so that we can get some rest, and also spend more quality time with our friends in fewer regions of usa. most of the people were encouraging, but there were one or two idiots that made us feel like we were wasting our time, “oh, cool! you guys get two-month vacations?” [i was thinking, but calm enough not to blurt out, "what makes you think i'll be visiting you during my vacation?" or, "so why don't you quit your job, relocate your family, and request financial support in orer to serve people in a different country?"] besides, if i wanted a vacation, i’ll go to a beach in thailand.
DON’T QUOTE THIS, but here’s an interesting paragraph i found on someone’s blog: this was a true missions experience with people getting sick, riding in the back of a pick-up truck, going to a rural village that looked like circa 1900s, getting bitten by land leeches, working in the mountainous fields which [paul] and [peter] almost fell off!!! wowee, what a trip!!!
