Oceans of Change

Change has been a very routine part of our family’s life for a long time. For those of you who do not know, I graduated from university, married, welcomed my first child into the world, started my first full-time job, and moved into my first apartment all in the same year. In the years since Rett and I have lived in 6 different places, including a house and an RV, collectively worked at 10 different jobs, took turns staying at home with the kids, moved across the country, started seminary, and served in at least 10 different lay ministry roles. Change and for lack of a better word, stress, have been an integral part of our family from the beginning. To some extent, we swim in “life changes” like whales in the ocean. Yes, we have to come up to breathe sometimes, as our environment would kill us if we spent too much time in it, but at the end of the day, it still feels like our natural habitat. What comes less naturally is talking about change while we are in the midst of it.

That being said, it is hard to write about change in the midst of it without appearing either painfully indecisive or making the events read like a mass of churning, anxiety-inducing, chaos. I hope to be able to write about these topics better in the future, but for now, we will all have to settle for post-change reflections, and I very much appreciate your patience with us during protracted periods of silence.

Without further ado:

Change #1 – Finding an Internship

Part of our degree program includes completing an internship that connects with our future ministry plans. As our future ministry plans revolve around ministry in Japan, our hope was to gain this hands-on ministry experience in Japan, with the people and the organization we hope to work with in the future. At the end of 2019, we were already working with TEAM on a plan to make this into reality. At the beginning of 2020, shortly after getting the go-ahead on the first draft of our support raising letter, international travel came to a screeching halt due to COVID-19.

AZUMINO FAMILY CHURCH – SUNDAY MORNING WARMUPS

As the months of travel restrictions wore on, it started to become clear that we were not going anywhere outside of the U.S. anytime soon. As the year has progressed we continued to hold on to hope that we would be able to travel to Japan in 2021, but as we observed political discussions within the Japanese government regarding short-term visas, it became clear that there would likely not be options to travel to Japan short term until late 2021 or 2022. At this time, we have made the difficult decision to cancel our plans to work with TEAM for our internship and are instead beginning the search to fulfill our ministry requirements locally, though we still look forward to joining TEAM Japan missionaries on the field in the future.

VIEW FROM THE ROAD TO NORIKURA

For the moment, we could use prayers for getting connected with local ministries we can serve with that will help us grow towards intercultural ministry. In particular, we have been following two different multi-ethnic potential church plants in the Dallas area and we would be more than happy to participate in either one. Please pray that God would open doors for this church plant, that we would be able to serve the pastor in the process, and that we would be able to find mentors who would be willing and able to walk with us on this journey.

Change #2 – COVID-19

Yeah, nope. Not even going there.

Change #3 – School (Kids)

Ryan and Cecilia have been blessed with the opportunity to go to a local Christian school this year. It has been an adventure. The kids have made many friends, ripped many uniforms, and brought home LOTS OF HOMEWORK. Cecilia had a rough start to the year but has recently started to settle in. She is enjoying learning new things and spending time with friends. Ryan is reading! This now means that he can read the things I hang on our bulletin board, billboards, advertisements, menus, and some of the theology books I leave lying around. It is a new adventure in independence and hiding the list of Christmas gifts I still need to buy.

RYAN ON AN ADVENTURE

Change #4 – Job Changes

Rett started working at The UPS Store in May. He is enjoying getting out of the house, working with interesting customers and coworkers, and bringing home a paycheck.

Kim moved into the role of “Acting Supervisor” for Mail Services at the beginning of October. She has really been enjoying the challenge and the opportunity to help the seminary staff and students, but she realizes that she still has a lot of room to grow and needs lots of grace in the interim.

Change #5 – Church & Ministry

We have finally committed to a local church! Check out their weekly sermon’s here: https://www.pcbc.org/media/sermons/series/rediscover-park-cities/

Kim has been facilitating a women’s small group on Women of the Word by Jen Wilken and is looking forward to continuing with The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller next semester. This is the first time she has facilitated a women’s small group by herself and has been immensely blessed by the participation, input, and encouragement of the wonderful women in the group.

Rett is working through getting certified to be a Prepare/Enrich Facilitator. Part of this has been working through the curriculum ourselves and we have found it to be very helpful. Check out the Premarital/Marriage Assessment here: https://www.prepare-enrich.com/

That’s all for now! Thank you for your patience with us and your encouragement through this journey. What changes have you been weathering this season? Email us at rettandkimdvorak@gmail.com.