We have the unique and amazing blessing as missionaries to be given to. Like, all the time!! Our monthly income is technically based on the generous financial support of our partners who have sent us off. With that benefit, comes the privilege of saying Thank you. Which sometimes happens in person while on home assignment, sitting in their home at their table. But more often, it happens with a little scripted post card.
Thanking our partners is on my yearly "to do list" but really it is a chance to sit down; slow down and remember that real people with real lives, give so we can be here. They are the unseen partners in our daily work that make it possible for us to be in this far off place; telling people that they will never get to meet, about our shared Savior.
So thank you mornings, like this morning, are a part of a cross cultural worker's life. In the yearly workshop I facilitate, I instruct others to regularly thank their partners...so I need to practice what I preach. Plus in Japan there is never a shortage of cute seasonal stationary, that lets me send pictures home of the picturesque home I have here. I admit that the task of handwriting so many letters can feel a bit daunting, and, as I've experienced many times before, my hand will cramp up and I will have to spread the project over several days to get it finished.
But I am blessed when I finally slip these stamped hellos into the post office box. And my heart is better for the process. The time to think about and pray for, and time to thank our Father God for, His dear children living far from me but connected closely by His work that we do together.
