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Most of you may already know the changes in our upcoming plans, because you are on our email list for our newsletters.  If you did not receive our newsletter and would like to, then please let us know and we’ll add you to the list.

The short version of the story is that in three days we will be leaving Costa Rica and flying back to Texas for at least six months before we head to Lima, Peru.  Our team psychologist recommended that I take this time to receive both the individual and extended family counseling that is needed in order to better prepare us for the mission field.  The other reason for this detour is that I have been diagnosed as having clinical depression and postpartum depression.

Though these changes in our plans were unexpected and came as a surprise to us, we have spent a lot of time struggling in prayer over it and are certain that the Lord’s hand is guiding us in this new direction.  And we are hopeful of what is in store.  It brings us great joy knowing that God is taking care of us and knows what is best for us, for our families, and for our team.  If you would like to read the rest of the story, here is the letter I wrote for our November newsletter…

Dear Friends and Faithful Supporters,

The last weekend in October our team was visited here in Costa Rica by our team psychologist and counselor, Dr. Steve Allison. Steve is a professor at ACU and has worked with foreign and domestic mission teams for years equipping them for the field by analyzing personality traits as well as instructing them on team dynamics. He has partnered with our training institute, the Halbert Institute for Missions, to help train and equip our team for the mission field. He has already been a blessing to our team, so we were thankful for his scheduled visit. While he was here he spent a lot of time with each of our family units individually, and he also spent time with our team as a whole. His visit was much needed and timed perfectly, because we have been growing together as a team through conflicts, tragedies, cultural stresses, and personal struggles. It has been a difficult, but also very rewarding time for our team here in Costa Rica. Our original plan for this year was to stay here in language school until mid-April of 2009, go back to Texas for a few weeks, and then fly to Lima, Perú in May to begin our work in that city.

Well, at the end of his visit, Steve met with Wes and I for a couple of additional hours. He had some surprising news for us and gave us a lot of things to think about and pray about. First, he said that he highly recommended that Wes and I stay in Texas for longer than we originally planned, before heading to Peru. The purpose for that being that he felt like we needed a chance to go through some extended family counseling, because I came here with too many things left unsettled within some of my family relationships. The second thing he told us is that he is fully convinced that I have clinical depression. And he said he wanted me to start medication right away. It is his professional opinion that I have probably had clinical depression for quite some time, possibly even for several years. And so since arriving here in Costa Rica he believes that I have been dealing with clinical depression, postpartum depression, and culture shock all at the same time.

The analogy Steve gave us is this: Normally, people run on eight cylinders. He said, most likely I have been running on 5 or 6 cylinders for such a long time now, that it has come to seem completely normal to us. Lately though, some major events and changes have happened in my life and they are knocking out more cylinders out from under me. He feels like if things were to continue on as they have been, then it could be just a matter of time before I crash and burn because more stress and conflict and change is inevitably going to come. And because of that he said he wants to be sure that we do everything we need to do in order to better prepare us to be emotionally and physically ready before we move to Lima.

Wes and I really struggled with Steve’s assessment, but after much prayer and thought, we believe his assessment of me to be true. So, following his advice, we will be leaving Costa Rica on December 19 after the end of this semester of classes and living in New Braunfels, TX, where my Dad recently started a new job. In New Braunfels we’ll be able to get the family and individual counseling that Dr. Allison recommends. Our hope and our goal is that we will be ready to go to Lima by the beginning of the summer. While in Texas, we will continue our language training as much as we possibly can.

Of all the mixed emotions that I have, relief is the biggest one. There are still many questions to be answered and details to work out, but we are at peace with this decision and know that God is in control. We have been incredibly blessed by the encouragement and support of both our team and our supporting church.

Though our plans for the next several months have changed, our vision and our call to Lima is the same. If you haven’t seen it yet, then please check out the new video on our team website. Click here. We find a lot of hope and inspiration through the message of this song and video, and we’d love for you to share that same hope with us.

Thanks for being with us through this journey,

Stacy