How do I even begin to catch you up on the last six months of my life. I can hardly believe that once again, here I am in El Salvador! So much has changed in the six months that I have been back in Canada, within MTES and with me personally, so I will take this time to fill you in on all the things that I have been up to while I was home.
I returned to Canada at the beginning of October, just in time for Thanksgiving. It was so wonderful to be home and to see all of the beautifully bright colored leaves change and the cold winds blow in, driving through the open country side, seeing the farms and fields pass me by, that is where home truly is to me. Seeing customers come into the shop and saying hello to neighbors around town, something that I think is so special to living in a small town. I enjoyed the freedom to come and go as I please and have most, if not all of my plans go exactly as I wanted them too. It was wonderful to drop in and see friends, visit with family and spend precious moments snuggling my ever growing nephews. Shortly after my arrival back home, my sister Monica got married, and it was a time of grand celebrations and visits with family I don't always get to see. I returned to Bremfield's to work full time while I began fundraising, and before we knew it, the snow was beginning to sparkle in the sky as the air grew crisp, and so we began to prepare for Christmas. This season of preparing to celebrate Christ's birth, is one I will always cherish, as the weeks prior are filled with joy, anticipation and of course, traditions! Spending time cozied up with friends and family is one of Gods biggest blessing, and it was during this season that I truly began to notice how much these little moments were beginning to have a big impact on me. I have begun to have an astonishing and overwhelming gratitude for this life the Lord has blessed me with. Simple little moments, such as, seeing the beauty in the little lives that bring me so much joy with their giggles and squeals, building memories with my grandparents over Sunday's meals, or simply driving my mother crazy, making us both smile. Simply having my daily needs so easily met, and being sure to take time to realize what God has so freely and graciously given me and my family. Spending quality time just being present was huge for me during these six months, I also needed to begin preparing to return to the field.
Preparing to return for two more years has been an interesting new challenge for me, as I have to do visa paperwork, partner with a sending organization, securing monthly donors to partner with both prayerfully and financially and finally, attend formal missionary pre field training. I chose to attend training in Colorado at Mission Training International (MTI) for four week at the beginning of the year. I had never been to Colorado, nor were my expectations overly high, as this to me was simply something I needed to accomplish before returning. I was blown away by my entire experience with MTI, and how God perfectly ordained my time there. Whether it be the wonderful facility in the mountains, to the incredible friends I will now have for life, with missionaries going to all corners of the Earth. Friends that are in the very same situation as me, trying to fund raise, learn new languages, adapt to a different culture, trying our best to be missionaries all while not having a full grasp of what we are doing. This training gave us the tools we needed to learn new languages, manage our stress, work well in our organizations and the go through the process of transitions well. It is so nice to finally have friends with the same understanding as me, facing the same challenges, having felt the same call on their lives, journeying with God. I have such wonderful and supportive friends and family, but it is hard to be understood sometimes, even though they do their best. It's different if you haven't experienced the same things. In this training, we went to deep levels together in a short period of time, being strangers at first, turning into our own sort of missionary family. Journeying through stress, our spiritual walks, the devastation that is all over our world, a devastation that we have seen results of first hand. All of these, incredibly tough to work through, and yet all vital to serving on the mission field. God had us be open, honest and very real, and I am so glad He did, because it gave us the opportunity to grow together in the most meaningful way. Our month together flew by and I enjoyed my experience immensely.
Once I returned back home, it was time to get down to business fundraising and preparing, and let me tell you, it's a full time job in itself. God has once again shown his faithfulness and provided the funding for my two year commitment. I love seeing Him at work in the lives of those partnering with me, both prayerfully and financially,some I have known for years, others are new friends, both crucial. I met with some different church's and really got to share about the work that is going on at MTES. I managed to sneak away to Ottawa to finalize papers needed for my visa application and visit very good friends of mine, who I served with at MTES, it was a great little getaway. I celebrated Easter with my family and even had a few surprise early birthday parties, for 6 slightly confused but very excited nephews, theses little celebrations mean the world to me when I am away.
I did my best to pack up my life in Canada and get ready to say so long for now, surrendering my relationships to God, knowing that He will keep them precious in His will for my life. He will ensure I am taken care of, and knowing the blessing of technology these days, I am able to still be a huge part of their lives, even if this part of my life is being spent in El Salvador. I still get to see their beautiful faces, hear their funny little giggles and watch them grow!
So I said farewell and boarded the plane, in completed surreal denial, that's usually the way it goes. As I sat ready for take off my mind began its also usual panic of "uh, what's happening, what's going on, why are we doing this". I should mention, I often have a conversation in my head of dramatic over reacting Erica, that can be a little ridiculous, and sensible Erica who reassures we are fine and no we are not going to sit and do this on an airplane for crying out loud we're fine! Haha, needless to say I stayed on the plane and I was in fact, just fine, I actually felt pretty good. I landed in El Salvador, easily made it through immigration and customs and met my director outside for a ride to the house. It's so strange to be back to the same place, as if nothing has changed, which in reality, most things have not so much changed as they have grown. I have settled in and unpacked, making this place my home again, filling my walls with beautiful photos and collections from back home. I had a few days of rest and then returned to the office, welcomed by sweet faces of old friends and excitement from new colleagues. Coming back to a place that I love, and that makes me feel loved, makes all the difference in this time of transition back to the mission field.
As I worked on this post by hand yesterday, I wrote about how usually the first days back are always the hardest, filled with so many emotions and changes, I get so overwhelmed that I found myself bursting into tears, however that hasn't been the case this week, I felt very comfortable here and at peace, which was beginning to freak me out a little bit, but not too worry! I am sitting here, in my cubicle, typing this, as tears trickle from my eyes... Yes today I am having a tough time missing my other home, my family and my other normal, but mostly I am sitting here, snacking on cantaloupe, laughing at myself because I feel like a fool, thinking about how reidiculous I look blubbering in a cubicle over my fruit. Don't worry about me, this is all to be expected and hey at least this time around I can fully laugh at myself, and hopefully you got chuckle out of it too!
Thank you for taking the time to sit and catch up on all that God is doing in my life, in both of my homes. I am so blessed by your continued prayers and words of encouragement, they really do make this life I have chosen so much easier. I look forward to this journey we are embarking in these coming months. Please feel free to email me at erica.byleveld@gmail.com if you would like to be part of my weekly prayer requests email, or would like to donate!
Love and prayers
