Troughs and Crests

Flying in... 

  I recently celebrated my seven month "Guate-versary" and I started to reflect on the past seven months in this country. The best way I could think to describe it would be like the troughs and crests of waves as they come rolling into shore. As you prepare to come your emotions grow more and more excited... you can't sleep with expectation of your arrival.. and you can't wait to finally be on
foreign soil... and then the day FINALLY comes to board the plane and come to your "land of dreams". When you arrive on the mission field, you are filled with hope... excited about everything... your dream has come true... you love the food... you love the people.. you love the culture... you love everything... IT'S PERFECT!! At this point you're at the very top of the wave.. at the crest... you're riding on top of the world... and nothing could seem more perfect...


  Then... reality starts to set in... you have to learn a language that is not your heart language... the feelings of inadequacy creep in... you feel like a three year old trying to ask for a beverage at a restaurant.. you want to tell people "I'm not stupid... I have a Master's degree... it's just that I don't know this language well enough"... the cultural norms are confusing.. you don't know what you are supposed to do at a funeral... how do you greet the deceased's family...do you push into line in the market and demand attention when the lady selling strawberries is ignoring you and serving everyone around you... how do you give directions to the tuk tuk driver to get to your house... do you try the food that the local family made for you and risk major gastrointestinal assault....

Navigating Traffic in Guatemala

you learn how to "fake" eating and drinking things that may not be "safe" to eat.... and still not understanding why you can't flush toilet paper like a "normal person". At this point you start the nose-dive down the back of the wave and into the trough. The culture stress builds until one day you find yourself crying over cookies... or in my case crying over a student who repeatedly intentionally made jokes that I didn't understand.

  When you're in the trough.. it's hard. You don't doubt that God has brought you to your new
country.... but you're not so sure you really want to be here anymore... You long for the "Honeymoon Phase" to return when everything was perfect. Even doing normal things like asking a question or voicing your opinion can be a struggle. You yearn for someone who speaks your language and understands your home culture. You yearn for your friends... your family.. and people who "get you". You get tired of always being stared at for being different.. for people assuming you don't understand because "you're not from here"... and being mentally and physically exhausted at trying to figure it all out.


  Then one day... you start the climb up the wave again... little by little you start to understand the culture and the language... operating in a foreign culture becomes almost normal... and you start to get stared at because you CAN ACTUALLY COMMUNICATE LIKE A NORMAL PERSON... you're finding your stride... You're starting to make friends... things are looking up... You're climbing to the crest again...

  And the scale tips yet again and you find yourself slipping down the backside of a wave... your favorite students have to flee the village because of extortionists... a baby conceived in sexual assault dies only a few months into her short life sending her mother and friends into yet more emotional
hardship and difficulty... you listen as a fourteen year old boy explains the rejection he regularly receives at home from his mother, step-father, and step-siblings and how he must work two jobs while attending the fifth grade.... a promising young woman who graduated from the ministry program is struck by a vehicle while crossing the road and later dies from a head injury sustained from the accident... and you're back in the trough again... asking why... why are these things happening... why is it so difficult sometimes...


  Little by little the climb starts again... The student you're doing physical therapy with who has been wheel-chair bound is able to balance himself without support on crutches... You watch as the student's faces start to light up during the devotional times and you realize "they are starting to get it"... Your

ministry partner tells you that one of the students who had been struggling with identity and sexual sin prayed to receive Jesus Christ as her personal savior... You are literally tackled by the Kindergarten class anytime you walk into their classroom... and just like that.. you're back at the crest again...


  Due to recent difficulties I have spent quite a bit of time in prayer and asking God why we have to go through the troughs in our lives. Why do we need to walk through the hard parts. He answered me... and said... that's how you gain strength to make it to the crests. See... as we're diving into the troughs of the waves... we're gaining momentum... we're gaining speed... we're gaining strength... and when we hit the trough and start the upward climb.. it's only because of that speed and that strength that we are able to make it to the crest of the next wave. The troughs are necessary to propel us to the coming crests. Wow...


  So... I want to encourage you today... wherever you are in the ebb and flow of life... maybe you're on the crest.. maybe you're in the bottom pit of the trough... remember... we must go through the troughs to make it to the next crest. It's a process... and there is a purpose. At times it's hard... at times it's rough... but keep pressing forward. Keep pressing through... because the crest is coming... and it's with the power and momentum we receive from going through the trough that we will reach the crest.


  Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. 

Blessings,
Meaghen