Who Said "Furlough" is a Vacation???

Not a missionary, I'm sure! HCJB actually had a different name for it: Home Ministry Assignment.  Yes, you basically go back to your country of origin (and maybe to others where you have people on your support team) to visit your friends and family, and renew ties...AND to  contact those of your prayer and financial supporters that you can, to report to them and update them on your ministries.  You go back in order to work! Obviously, there's time to relax and enjoy some recreational activities, but it's NOT one big vacation!

I always thought that "Home Ministry Assignment" didn't quite fit us.  I mean, in going to the States, we weren't going home!  Home is Ecuador.  We had to go overseas!  So I still think of it as "furlough".  We took our first one after we'd been back in Quito for four years (1996-1997).  We settled into a small house in a Dallas suburb, close to where we had lived for those three years when we were trying to build up our support team.  Debbie was going into 10th grade, and we enrolled her in the small Christian school where she and Dan had studied before. My parents, and my sister and her boys lived not too far away.

With Debbie in school, we couldn't just take off and travel whenever we felt like it.  I think we only made one longer deputation trip during that school year, and Debbie stayed with my folks while we were gone.  Otherwise trips were limited.  Germán got a part-time job at an MK's mechanic shop, which helped with our finances. Our support has never been very high, and it costs a lot more to live in the States than in Ecuador!  We also took care of my two nephews (remember Tito and Agie?), picking them up from school and having them at home until my sister got off work.

One advantage to being in the States was that Dan could come see us more easily!  If I remember correctly, he came two or three times - better than once a year!  It was his last full year in the Marines, and the following summer (1998) he was released from the Marines early so that he could start the school year at Azusa Pacific University.
                                                                                                                                                     
We had always thought it would be great to go to one of the Mayo Clinics, renowned for their diagnostic services, and have me thoroughly

tested for just about everything!  My health was not good, but it wasn't easy to pinpoint exactly what all was wrong. We wanted to know if earlier medical opinions had been right. The trouble was, it's really hard to get an appointment "right away", and that's when we needed it, if we got it at all.  We were returning to Ecuador, and couldn't wait too long.  My father went to work on the phone, and managed to get me the appointment! (I'm sure my Father had something to do with it, too!)

We were blessed to stay at an elderly woman's house (no charge) fairly close to the Clinic (in Scottsdale, AZ).  And our health insurance covered absolutely everything!  Amazing!  We didn't even have to handle the paperwork.  They told us to have the Clinic send all the bills straight to them.  In the final evaluation, I learned several things, among them:  I had broken a rib at some time - no idea when; I had osteoarthritis and a dis-functional sacroiliac; and the doctor who put me on prednisone had "messed up" quite a few years of my life!  (Those are the approximate words the Mayo doctor himself used.)  I had been told I'd need to be on prednisone for the rest of my life, so the idea of weaning myself off of it was liberating!  No more puffy, red, ugly face!


After that, we drove over to California to see Dan once again, before heading back. We returned to Ecuador in the summer of 1997.  Debbie prepared to start 11th grade, and we settled back into our routines of life and ministry.  Although it was good to see people, be with family, and be able to go to the Mayo Clinic, we were SO glad to be HOME!
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But someday, we'll be going to our REAL Home!!  The one down here on earth won't last forever.  Paul said that we have "an eternal house in heaven". (II Cor. 5:1)
                             

                                                                               
And Jesus said, " In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going."
(John 14:2-4)

I hope with all my heart that YOU will be going there, too!
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