Week Six

Some of you already know, but this was Week 6.  It is an important week in language learning and cultural adaptation.  It is about this time that things get difficult, learning slows, and the mind begins to reject your new surroundings.  It is also known as “hell week” if you are going through Navy SEALs training.

The week started off at a crawl.  Missy finally recovered from her cold and restarted Insanity.  I restarted the program with her and our friend/roommate started with us.  In short, we’ve been sore and hungry this week.  Of course, my ego played into this because I started the week with the thought, “I’ve been doing this continually, so I have to be better than them.”  Sure, it helped me push harder the first two days but as the week went on I, like an eager boy promising to sprint an entire mile, have slowed down a bit…or they caught up to me (which is probably the case since my wife is a superstar workout partner).

Our Spanish learning became more difficult this week as we have delved headfirst into past tense speaking, which we are told is the most difficult of the lessons we will have to learn.  It certainly felt like we had a running start to the hill and our momentum carried us about halfway up until it ran out and this week we were solely under our own power.  The pace slowed and by the end of Tuesday seemed as though we were about to come to a stop.  Then Wednesday showed up.

Missy was having trouble sleeping Tuesday night and we both “woke up” at about 5am, about an hour and a half earlier than we normally get up.  It was decided that morning that we need to try to find a little more of a comfortable sleeping surface for her since the mattresses are a little used and her hips and back have been hurting her.  Just as we were ready to leave for school, she realized she could not find her wedding band.  After spending time tossing our room, we decided we had to leave for school, but not before taking time to pray about our situation.

That day was pretty rough in school.  Both of us were exhausted and worried.  I was trying to figure out how to get Missy a more comfortable bed and the muchacha at our home was going to search for her ring while she cleaned.  We slowly strolled home that day drained, not understanding a lick of Spanish, and without any idea how to solve our current problems.

Just before we left school I had finally given up and prayed for God’s help.  It’s amazing how stubborn us men can be about taking control of things instead of surrendering them to Jesus as He calls us to…things are so much easier that

Dylan gives Missy’s ring back after finding it in the cobblestone streets of Antigua.

way!  I prayed, “Ok Lord, you know where the ring is and I give up.  Either you have to show us where it is or change our hearts about the importance we put in it.”  I figured I’d leave the bed problem for after lunch.  About two blocks from our house Missy took off her hat because it was quite a warm day and as I was walking behind her, it seemed as though a shiny metal object literally fell from the sky, bounced off the house next to us, and rolled into the street.  I glanced down for a moment and though, “that looks kinda like Missy’s ring.”  I stopped and stepped back to find out that yes indeed, it was!  Turns out it had been tucked inside her hat all day since she accidentally put it in there in the morning while prepping her hair.  She was so exhausted that morning she didn’t remember where she put it or even taking it off!

As soon as we got home Missy beckoned me to pray with her in thankfulness to God for revealing it to us.  Immediately after lunch, we also discovered there was an unused bed in our house that is comfortable enough for her to sleep on!  It was in the process of us talking about the events of the day that the thought came to me, “it is only by experiencing the darkness that we can appreciate the Light for what it really is.”

Needless to say the rest of our week has gone pretty smoothly:

We are finally getting a grasp of past tense Spanish.

Missy can sleep again.

We are looking forward to working on some things for the Serving at-risk Families ministry this weekend.

And Missy can once again let the world know she is still married to this lucky guy!