- Amanda McKinney
Furlough Reflections
On February 20th, I returned to Lima, Peru and on February 25th I returned to Pucallpa. How quickly my 2 months in the U.S. for furlough went by!
Within those 2 quick months, soo much happened! I am very grateful that I was able to spend a lovely Christmas with my entire family! It was awesome being able to meet my 4 new nieces and nephews that were born over my 2 years here. And being able to chat with my mom more freely and daily was a great blessing as well!
I was also blessed to have the Lord direct me to some wonderful resources and organizations that were able to help me process through the last 2 years – the good, the bad, and the unexpected. They helped me greatly in processing through the stress that had built up over the past 2 years, recognizing where I need to set better rhythms for my time management and “refilling” time with God, and starting the process to intentionally set some better boundaries in regards to the many requests made of me.
One of the clear realizations that came from reflecting on the past 2 years is that working without other foreign team-members here at Refugio has hindered my ability to process through a lot of the daily new things, struggles, language difficulties, stressors, differences, joys, praises, etc. I am the only foreigner living and serving long-term with Refugio and I do daily life and work with Peruvians. They are super awesome and loving, but they do not understand my struggles and learning process for all the differences between their culture and American culture. They sometimes consider me equally as strange as I consider some of their customs. Which provides fun conversations, but little understanding.
As I look forward to this next year serving here at Refugio, I am excited to see what the Lord is going to do, but I’m also apprehensive as I anticipate the upward struggle of continuing to learn to give up my self-imposed idols and rights and trust the Lord to get me through each day and its individual difficulties and joys.
I would truly appreciate your prayers as I continue to learn to trust the Lord to guide my every decision as He also reveals my selfishness and idolatry. It is a hard path, but a wonderful one as I learn to rely on the Lord more in the midst of my deficiencies. May His name be praised and may He be glorified!