Nearly 4 years ago, Russ & I collected all our tax returns and flew to Switzerland to attend the ROC with Medair - their 8 day training/recruitment/see-what-working-with-Medair-is-like event. Anyone who is interested in Medair needs to attend this week before working with them. It's a week full of sessions and simulation. Sessions to learn about what Medair is all about and what they believe in; simulation to experience some of the things that Medair teams have/do experience on the field. It was quite an intense week - I remember feeling very stressed and tired. It was fun, but I was happy when the week was over.
Then, about half a year later, we flew to Indonesia for the adventure of a lifetime. If you are a regular follower of this blog, you may remember some of the variety of experiences that we went through. Tough to really sum it up in one statement, but words like difficult, rewarding, friendship, busy, always-changing, hot, hard, fun come to mind.
In the end, we left quite abruptly and before our 2-year contract ended, due to extreme stress and near burn-out. We got home to BC, went to a week-long debrief/counselling and took about 3 months off before going back to work. I think that we really started to experience healing after about a year.
It's hard to believe that we've now been back for more than 1.5 years.
When Haiti was hit by the earthquake and Medair responded by sending a team, and sending out emails for people to go and help, it was very tempting for us to go. This was revealing: we want to go overseas again. Praise God.
About 2 weeks ago, we got an email from Medair stating that they are looking for people to help out with the ROC. After a couple quick emails and talks with our employers, we agreed to fly out to Switzerland to help!
We are back where we started. And it feels good.
To be honest, I still struggle a bit with guilt for leaving Indonesia when we did, and feel like I abandoned the team and the projects. However, that being said, we did leave with Medair's blessing and approval.
Perhaps this new invitation and opportunity to help is what we need to really close this book and start a new one. It feels good coming full circle.
5 comments:
wow!
So good to hear about this next step in your journey! I hope you have a wonderful time in Switzerland.
One of the things you gained in Indonesia was wisdom and God saw you through everything. I am sure many good things will happen with your return to MedAire and you can bless others with what you have learned. love you both.
Julie
This experience will be an opportunity to share all that you have learned. May it be a blessing to you both. We are excited for you. Love Mum and Dad
Exciting adventure! God has good plans for us. May you return overseas with renewed & healed hearts. Love you!
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