Getting Lost and Found in a Coffee Plantation

Fruit from which coffee "beans" come.

This past week took ourselves a little retreat. We had our two week long break from language school, and we knew we needed to  

1. Get out of town for a change of scenery and

2.  prioritize a deep reconnection with God in the midst of all the stuff that adjusting to this new place brings.

So for the first week we spent several days in a bigger city 2 hrs away where my parents live. We spent the days relaxing, eating at good restaurants, and shopping for things that are harder to get in the town we live in. It is so nice to have my parents close. It was especially helpful when we escorted one of our teammates to the hospital for an MRI- and what we thought would be no more than a 4 hour experience turned into a 24 hour journey. So it was nice to be able to spend some time at my parents, instead of in the ER, waiting for the appointment time. The little things count for sure…

The 2^nd week we planned a retreat getaway. We realized that it was one thing to take a vacation and get away from our normal setting and schedule- but that does not guarantee refreshing of your spirit and reconnecting with your source of life.  In a book I am reading about burn-out the author emphasizes the difference between a vacation and taking a retreat. One is about “getting away” and the other is “getting away to God.” Once I read this- I knew we needed both.

"Kopi Tubruk" - Coffee made from unfiltered powdered coffee

So that is how we ended up at a coffee plantation, that has some nice little cottages- and we nestled our tired, little selves there for rest in His presence. You can definitely do this at home- but there is something about getting away, just like in marriage, that emphasizes intimacy and priority.

There we rested in many ways and places- in the sun, in the shade, in the Word (specifically Romans 8), in His presence. He reminded us of who we really are. Not dumb language students, not failures, not chronically sick. It is crazy how often what you are experiencing, especially when it happens over and over, it becomes your identity in many ways, and you can easily lose touch with who you really are- a Child, a Bride, a Warrior, a part of a Body-things that are unshakable. It happens to me a lot. And too live in this shaky time of culture stress and adjustment- man, it is really important to connect and reconnect with things unshakable.

Now I head back to formal language school (Unit 5 of 9) and Greg takes a “step out” to  focus on his online masters class (5am Friday mornings here with the time difference-ouch!) and preparing for the 4 classes he will be teaching come August. So the key is to keep returning to God still in the midst of the everyday, to still retreat, to still hold onto the unshakable.