Hello again from my friend, Morgan’s coffee shop called Living Beans in Hildebran, NC! I say “again” because this has now become my designated blog writing spot when I’m home! I wrote my June 2024 blog from right here on this very couch. Today, the coffee shop is bustling and I’m so glad to see how much it has grown and that she’s really making an impact on the community through her deep faith and delicious coffee!
Here in the coffee shop, there are bibles, devotional books, and prayer journals. This is actually where I stole the idea of a guest house prayer journal from and I am SO GLAD we started that prayer journal and are able to continually pray for those who come in and out of the guest house in more specific ways. It’s been almost a year since we started that prayer journal and I’m excited to see how the Lord has worked in the lives of those who have poured out their hearts in it when they return.
As I’m sitting here, reading the blog I wrote the last time I was here in this coffee shop, I can’t believe how much time flies and things change, but at the same time so much seems to stay the same. I was really worried about how much different I expected things to be here. There definitely were a lot of changes in a lot of ways, but surprisingly, things have also stayed the same in other unexpected ways. Sometimes, I feel like it’s hard to talk to friends and family back home about the struggles I face living and serving abroad because I feel like there’s no way they could ever possibly understand. But the more I have just sat and talked with friends and family, I have realized that the roots of all of our struggles are extremely similar no matter where in the world we are. It has been soul food to sit with friends and share in our burdens and our blessings!
It makes me really grateful for the unchanging, gracious God we serve who loves us and sees us and cares deeply for us. He was there at the foundation of the world and He is there in each circumstance of life we face in every detail small or big, regardless of the culture or place we find ourselves in.
August highlights:
2 days after arriving to the States, I went to Camp Linn Haven for Teen Servant Week for my 16th consecutive summer. I spent a week with high schoolers and youth leaders from different States who worked on various service projects in the surrounding communities. This was an area greatly affected by hurricane Helene. Some of the projects from that week included cleaning, painting, and other needed projects at various local schools that can’t afford janitorial staff over the summer, cleaning and yard work for patients who are on at home Hospice care, and packing bookbags for Avery County students. I have led the backpack project since we first started it 7 or 8 years ago. The first year we packed about 25 or 30 bookbags and this year we packed 1,220. This project has grown each year and is a testament to the Lord’s sovereignty and faithfulness. We were able to partner with several other local organizations to put on a back to school bash for students and families which included inflatables, food trucks, booths of all kinds of resources available, bookbags, clothing, hygiene products, and snack bags. It was incredible to witness and to be a part of! Other than that, I had an amazing time getting to know the girls in my cabin! I already knew most of them, but relationships really flourish in experiences like those and it is always a blessing to get to worship alongside the next generation! I got to spend lots of time with Lizzie and her sisters which was fun! Lizzie even made me some “fluffy” brownies from the recipe Brayden used over the summer!
I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with family since I’ve been back! I brought back matching t-shirts for my more immediate family from the colonial zone. We have gotten together to grill pizzas and had a barbecue. My sister, her fiance, my mom, and I spent a day at the Biltmore. I went wedding dress shopping with my sister and she found her dress! I’ve gotten to visit my grandma Carolyn who is in a memory care facility for Alzheimers. I’ve played some pickleball with my dad! I’ve been able to spend the night with my grandma Betty and we made homemade ice cream! I’m very thankful for all the moments I’ve had with family since I’ve been home!
I have also been catching up with friends. Every time I’m home, Kim Beecham from the Concord team hosts a dinner for me with members of her team and it’s one of my favorite things I look forward to coming home! They have become family to me and it is always so good to see them and spend time with them stateside. I’ve also been to quite a few coffee shops, breakfast joints, and dinner spots catching up with friends I haven’t seen in a while. Lizzie and my friend Heather came to visit me on my birthday. Kelsi and Bianca somehow secretly organized a collection of birthday cards from all my friends in San Juan and sent it back with Lizzie! It was such a sweet surprised! I felt so loved reading those on my birthday! I really don’t have many pictures, but I’ve soaked up time with friends and snuggling lots of babies that were just born or have grown a lot since the last time I was home! I was also able to see my church family a few times and a women’s group from another local church that supports me and share some life and ministry updates with them.
Shortly after Kelsi and Brayden left, the woman keeping Dolly noticed her stool was unusually dark and she didn’t want to eat. Angel was so kind as to take her to the vet in San Juan, but she still continued to have diarrhea and stopped eating. I thought maybe she had a parasite or she just was anxious, but the symptoms persisted. So I reached out to the vet in the capital and Angel was able to get her there on Tuesday morning (the 19th). That afternoon, the vet called and said she needed surgery right away. The ultrasound showed that she had either swallowed something or that her intestines had wrapped around themselves, but they couldn’t tell which one in the ultrasound. When they opened her up, they realized her intestines were in a lot worse shape than they were expecting. They had been damaged and there were adherences (which I think is referring to scar tissue) in the surgery when she got fixed almost a year ago by a different animal surgeon, but we didn’t know until it got to this point. They asked me if I wanted to move forward with the surgery or if I wanted to go ahead and put her down because even if she made it through the surgery, there was a strong chance she wouldn’t make it through recovery. I cried, said a quick prayer, talked to my mom, and then told them to do everything that they possibly could, and if she didn’t make it, we did everything we could and didn’t give up on her. She made it through the surgery and the next day, there was free liquid collecting in her belly. So Wednesday (the 20th) they opened her back up, washed out the abdomen, and put a drain in. She had been doing as good as she could be given the circumstances, but today (the 24th, as I’m finishing writing my blog) she had to be opened back up because more free liquid came out of her drain than expected. So as I’m typing this, she is currently in surgery for the third time this week. I am hopeful and extremely thankful for the care team that she has. They are loving on her so well and keeping me up to date on everything that is happening. I hope and pray that I have good news to report to you all on this next month. Please keep Dolly, her care team, and me in your prayers as all of this plays out.
Prayer requests:
- For sweet Dolly’s little body to heal, wisdom for her care team, and for me as I navigate this situation
- Health and safety for my family
- A sweet last week in the States
- Safe travels back to San Juan
- Our SRI team on the ground – strength, unity, Christ-centeredness, and seamless transitions into being more fully staffed