This year as we were meeting one last time in our sending country groups, I was again struck at this big old Body we get to be part of. Ty and I spoke on this at one of the sessions so I'd already been thinking about all the unique parts that make up the whole and how God has designed this all to work. As one other American girl was sharing her impressions of how big it all is in a setting like the conference, I agreed! Singing and praying with people from so many lands and languages, experiences, backgrounds...it's indescribable. It's got to be a taste of heaven! That we can get together around one purpose and have such a smooth 12 days all together is really like a giant family reunion. Year after year we reconnect with people we love. We meet new additions and we meet other sides of the family we haven't known but have heard about from mutual relatives. It's not perfect-there are certainly tensions when you get that much diversity going on! But it's such fun and such a picture.
I'm thankful that while we live overseas we are far from biological family, but within this family we are adopted into we are never alone! Our kids get the blessing of extended family all over in these times and that makes my mama heart happy too. It's different but I'm so glad for all kinds of crazy fun family reunions and I cannot wait until the ultimate one when Jesus comes back for his family!!!