Dear friends and family,
Living in community has been a new and unique challenge for us. It brings us both joy and at times sorrow. But it’s such a wonderful way to learn God’s mercy and grace. It’s similar, I think to family. Whereas we can choose our friends, community is like family in that God places those people in our lives. They might be the last person we would have chosen, but God may have purposes in mind for that person in our life. They might be able to teach us something that a friend we chose might not. In a recent reading of ours on community, the author wisely observed that those who leave a community to get away from a certain person, enter a new community only to find that same person there. In other words, you can’t expect to get along perfectly with every person God has placed in your life, whether family or community.
Henri Nouwen points out that we shouldn’t view community as loneliness grasping onto loneliness (I’m lonely and you’re lonely, so let’s get together), but rather, beloved to beloved. If we can enter God’s presence each day and allow him to remind us that we are His beloved, we enter community from a place of wholeness rather than emptiness and loneliness. If we come from a place of loneliness, we will put unrealistic expectations on members of our family or community. I might expect Adam, for example, to fulfill needs of mine that he simply cannot fulfill. And this is also where forgiveness is needed. I have to acknowledge that I am not capable of loving perfectly, nor are those in my community capable. I need their forgiveness for my imperfect love, as well as they need mine.
So as we continue to navigate community life, I think we are learning what it means to confront in love, to communicate needs, to forgive and be forgiven, and to listen to one another. It’s a long journey, it seems, of disappointments and victories, but thankfully we have God’s grace, which makes room for our mistakes.
We had quite an eventful Christmas this year. It was our first Christmas overseas, so we certainly missed our usual traditions and being with family. But we also experienced a few adventures. We had our first experience caroling in the brothels. Both Adam and I felt a new compassion for the men we saw as we caroled. We normally fight anger towards them, but somehow in this experience, God managed to soften our hearts (we both wrote blog posts on it). We participated in a Bolivian Christmas Eve tradition with a friend’s family by eating a turkey at midnight. Then Christmas Day, Adam slaughtered our rooster (we thought we bought a laying hen) for lunch. We also took a vacation to the eastern part of Bolivia where we escaped the altitude and cold for several days. And then our biggest Christmas news involved a sonogram! We’re excited to say, we’re expecting an addition to the Thada family the end of August. Your prayers for healthy growth and development are certainly appreciated! And you can also pray for me as I’m feeling pretty awful!
With much love and gratitude,
Becky (& Adam)