When we were preparing for missionary service, we attended a training seminar about going through times of transition. They set up a “transition bridge” around the room, then told volunteers to try to walk across it.

Our fellow missionaries knew it was an impossible task!

The “bridge” consisted of several chairs, exercise balls and other obstacles. It was impossible to walk across! Then they asked families to try to go across, all tied together with various cords and belts–symbolizing our different relationships to each other!

Blessed be the ties that bind!

But then they asked the rest of us to stand on both sides of the bridge. The only way these families would successfully cross the transition bridge was with lots of help from their supporters. You won’t be surprised that Larry was quick to grab hands and help those struggling.

This lesson came to Larry’s mind today. Once again, we are in a time of transition. Just a little over a week ago, we were settled in to a time of self-containment in Téglás. The children and I had begun. our online lessons. Hungary had closed its borders with Serbia, so Larry wasn’t be able to travel for his ministry. We committed to pray and listen to the Lord’s leading.

As the news kept coming and changing, we felt the Lord nudging us. First, a memo from the State Department recommended that Americans living abroad consider returning. That same morning a message from International Ministries asked us to assess our situation: what was our access to health care, who would care for our children if we became ill? After much prayer and discussion, and contacting our Hungarian partners and International Ministries, we decided to return to the States until August.

Our feet left the seemingly solid ground of the old normal, and we began our walk, tethered together, across the transition bridge.

I will continue posting lessons online for our school. When our 14-day post-travel isolation days are up, Larry will begin volunteering in our community. As travel bans lift and churches reopen, we will visit churches. In the mean time, we will wait, with the world, to see the good God is doing through this difficult time.

Please pray for our school as my colleagues and I learn new techniques for teaching. Pray for my students and those who don’t yet have the hope of Christ’s love and promise that He is working all things together for their good. Please pray that they listen to his call. Please pray for the churches Larry ministers to in Serbia and the refugees impossibly stuck and forgotten by the world in this COVID crisis.

We ask you to continue to be the Larrys standing on the sides helping us across. Thank you so much for your prayers and messages of encouragement.