The Boring Email that Rocks our Inbox

Yesterday we got an email from my brother-in-law. It wasn't a huge thing, just an email written exactly as he would speak to us if he were sitting at the table with us catching up on life. It had wit, humor, depth, honesty, and was simply a refreshing glimpse into he and my sister's everyday life right now.

I'll tell you why these kind of emails are crucial for the encouragement of missionaries. They may seem like nothing, but they are really something. A big something. When in our passport country, we have this type of interaction with people all the time. We bump into someone in the store and we share a snippet of our day. We go out to coffee with a friend and we catch up on the big and small things of life. We meet up for playgroup and we commiserate over our ill-behaved children and how we have no clue how to parent through the tantrums and blowout diapers. These background interactions, even if just brief reprieves from the humdrum of our day, create a culture that makes us feel like we are a part of something. I am a part of someone's day, and they are sharing a part of theirs with me. After we get on that airplane, however, there is a quietness that replaces the familiar interactions.

 

When we step off the first airplane (usually in some country where no one speaks your language), we are alone in the public toddler meltdowns (usually also welcomed by public staring, which I would be doing too if I saw my family coming off the plane!) There isn't anyone to call and say, "Can I just tell you what my child said..." and "You won't believe this..." We are usually welcomed on the other side of the world by a new set of familiar faces that share in the periphery of our day, and become the new culture in which we live. But as long as we are there, there will be an ache for the old...for the people that we have history with and who already know our idiosyncrasies and nuances. And the paradoxical thing is that when we return to our passport country, we feel the same ache but for the place we just left...for the people that we had been making history with in the past season that changed and shaped so much of us.

People we miss when we are in Africa...

People we miss when we are in America...

So, when we receive one of the humdrum emails from someone back home (one of the ones where the sender probably thinks, "this is so boring... why would they want to here about the mundane..."), it is a delight to the soul. It is a reminder that we are still a part of their life, even if in the periphery. Because we do want to to hear about what you've been doing in your desk job or what transition your 18 month old is presently going through or what issues you are having in our marriage right now. We do want to share in the mundane things because it is a reminder that even though we are across the world, we are still a part of your life. So, send us your "nothing new" updates- we love them! And if we don't immediately reply...rest assured that it is probably due to a developing-world technology and not because we found your email to be boring.

Thanks, Parker, for your intentionality in pursuing us while we are away. 

Love ya, bro.