community living

If you don't know the Aubry's, they are our good friends and neighbors this past year in Haiti.  

They weren't with OMS, weren't with Emmaus Biblical Seminary, and didn't start out in Haiti as our neighbors.  But through a whole series of events I believe to have been in God's care and guidance, this family of five from Normal, Illinois somehow ended up 25 feet from our house for 6 months, entering intimately in on the tears, joys, girl-raising, trials, victories, marital struggles and sweetness, blessings and burdens that IS this adventure called LIFE with the additional adventures afforded by Life in Haiti!

After playing, sharing, working, praying, and living about every moment together for six months, not seeing an ounce of them for the last 2 months has been hard on all of us!  So, yesterday we all drove 3.5 hours each way to meet in the middle and spend a whole sweet day together...and it was!

There are a lot of downsides to community living.  We never really knew what community living WAS until we moved to Haiti, and suddenly found ourselves sitting around the dinner table and hearing every word the family next door was saying around THEIR dinner table.   

You hear every fight.  Every movie.  Every toddler tantrum.  You see them at their best, and at their worst.  You see them in their pajamas, in their church clothes.  With the flu, with no sleep.  I've seen every missionary in OMS Haiti's underwear, waving in the breeze :)  Heard everyone when they are patient and gracious, and when their short-tempered and frustrated.  Been woken up by their noise, woken them up with ours.  Community living.

It can drive you absolutely insane.  

On top of all the daily hardships and difficulties of Life in Haiti, you also have 24/7, inescapable, Life with Others.  No "personal space."  No privacy.  No "none of your business" or "this only affects ME."

But the longer we've done it, the more I wonder if much of community living is exactly the kind of living God intended us to do. 

There is a friend to listen for your kids when you have an emergency during nap time.  There are friends to take the kids when you NEED a date night.  There is that cup of sugar, that needed egg, right next door.  There is a sympathetic understanding, when they know you've been fighting and need some grace or when they know the kids are sick and you could use some help.  The help when you need help, the prayer when you need prayer, the $20 dollars when you need $20 dollars, a car when you've got to get Lily from school and the truck is gone, friends to go to the beach, friends for your children.  

 Iron to sharpen the iron.

Even when you didn't want sharpened.

Praise the Lord.

I know that Matt and I have those living too closely around us these past 6 years to credit for so much of our growth in Him.  

We've been particularly blessed this past year to live with two families, the Aubry's and the Aberle's (yeah, we only let "A" families live at Emmaus :)

The downside of community living is that community, especially in Haiti, is always changing.  It's not easy to share yourself and your family so completely and welcome people in so deeply and then have them move on and out!  

Thankful that it truly is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all...and that these friendships, though at a distance, aren't lost after all!

 All that to say we love this dear little family.  

Mark (the dead one :) is incredibly dedicated to his wife, a great dad, a hard worker and super-passionate about being the change we need to see in this world.  He can take it, and he can dish it out, too.

Nay (top of the pile) is as spunky as they come, sweet, determined, fun-loving and passionate.  So-So loves Nay-Nay, and Nay-Nay loves her So-so.  Their toddler love is so-so cute :)

Sarah is so refreshing, finding her worth and identity in Him and encouraging me to do the same, super-funny, unconcerned with others judgements and yet incredibly compassionate towards the feelings of others. Sigh, what a dear friend.  Life without daily Sarah makes me sad.

Elli, the cutie-patootie toothless one, is quick, soft-hearted and hilarious.  She's either going to be an engineer or animal rescuer :)  I realized yesterday just how much I've missed her.

Dani, the leader of the pack, is sweet as they come.  Thoughtful, observant, motherly and braver than she thinks.  She's often mistaken as Lily's big sis, and Lily wishes very much so that it was true!

All that to say: no matter where you are, make sure you've got some never-lets-up uncomfortable, crazy community in your life.

 If you don't, go find some.

 God works through His children, and if we never really let others in, and never work intimately in the lives of others, we're limiting His active presence in our lives.  

It's not always easy.  It's not always as fun as yesterday was.  

But man, is it worth it.