Mini-break

We took a little impromptu rest break this week - just getting away overnight to a relative's quiet place, where the children caught fish out of the pond and helped pick the last of the beans from the garden and ran around without shoes on and slept in bunk beds.  When we got into ministry I thought that we'd probably need frequent breaks but in the back of my head I was more likely humming and thinking 'yeah yeah, we likely will not because we are fantastic'.  Except we did, and it came as a huge shock to me that every few  months David was overwhelmed with exhaustion and we had to go away somewhere and rest.  And then it came as an equally big shock to me that I also got exhausted and needed to get away.  And finally the lead up to this trip has shown me that the time lapsing between breaks has gone on too long, in fact a friend in ministry told me she and her husband go away every month, and perhaps we need to start looking at more frequent breaks as well.

Of course, these are our people, and it is surprisingly hard to leave them.  When God gives you a congregational family he really...well, he puts them on your heart.  Your mind is filled with 'how is so and so's dog doing I wonder, did she get him to that vet appointment?  Did that guy ever fix his truck?  Is she okay?'

Our last 'vacation' consisted of driving for a whole day, attending denominational meetings, driving a lot more, doing course work, driving, driving, and then running around after the children at camp and coming home.  That was almost three months ago.  So, obviously, not enough for us at this point.  Anyway, the overnight break was a pick me up, and hopefully it will last us a little bit until we can do it again.  We live so far away from everything really that the only way to truly 'get away' is to drive for hours and hours and hours with three little kids in the car.  Not really a possibility on a frequent basis.  We're going to have to look at renting a cabin or something.