the ayars affairs

It has been crazy being gone and now being home again...I am so, so thankful for Sharon, who not only protected and drove and dressed and cooked and read and taught and folded and washed and all all the many things...but who listened and loved and shepherded and guided and was patient and positive and helpful and kind and honest and ALL the things that matter most.

I never knew to ask her, any of all these years, to please be my mentor and my family, but she just DID and has been and has and is for my whole family and any days and cups of coffee and doing life with her are just precious. I'm never going to be ready for her to head home, no matter where I live.

I shared this below on FB on my flight back home and wanted to share it here, too...

Matt and I joined the OMS (now One Mission Society) family in 2005 a few months before we married, went to Cross Training at HQ in 2006, went to language school in Quebec in January 2007, and moved to Haiti to serve with OMS’ Emmaus Biblical Seminary (now Emmaus University) in August of ‘07.

We served with Emmaus as OMS missionaries our whole 13 years in Haiti, and when we moved suddenly to Mississippi in 2020, we decided not to cut ties with OMS…the Lord’s never removed our missions hearts! If you ever hear us talk about Mississippi (or wherever we are), it’s as “the missionfield where the Lord has us”, a mentality working with OMS has fostered and embedded.

So, it was really meaningful for me to spend the last two days at OMS headquarters with the OMS USA board, first time since ‘06! I did NOT enjoy the weather, and I missed my sweet kiddos (another Aunt Sharon-for-the-win ).

But. In all the years and all the changes, all the ‘just right’ and all the ‘just broken’, I found the same thing to be true as always before.

OMS is made up of faithful men and women following in a long heritage-line of faithful men and women who love the Lord at all costs and in all places, in all situations, in very little glory and glamour, in great challenges and sacrifice, and with perseverant prayers (think decades).

Our churches, our families, our small groups and ministries and organizations are NOT perfect nor made up of perfect people. But we can still be faithful and steady people, for we serve THE faithful and steady God.

I’m encouraged—even in these hard days of hard missionfields—by having been with men and women who are genuinely seeking God’s heart, and taking on the beautiful and painful obsession they find within…those living far from Him.

Let’s BE those faithful people, even when we’re sure they aren’t out there (they are), even when we fail or are failed, even when our own ways get in the way.

If you’re one of them—and the Lord’s placed a burn in your heart for not only those around you, but also for those far from home—I’ve got a whole team of cold OMS people ready to help you be faithful to that calling. Message me…I will hook you up and hold your ropes!