Day 11: Facing Challenges

If you've been following our blog through our transition, you will know that we've faced a few challenges along the way. Some more surprising than others.

• We knew we would need to find a midwife and would have labeled that quest as a potential challenge. We didn't rush this process, and found a midwife we had total confidence in.  

• We knew we would need to find housing, and would have labeled the hunt as a potential challenge to find the right house.  We didn't realize we wouldn't find one at all, (we are living in an ohana in the church parsonage). 

• We knew we would need employment, and probably would have ranked it as one of our bigger and more immediate challenges.  Eric's first day of work was one month after we arrived - not bad! 

With any move across the country, one will have challenges.  When you add in fundraising your family's income it might become a little more stressful.  And if you move to a new culture that is quite different than the one you came from, well... things can get interesting. We landed in Kona 20 weeks pregnant. While I thought this would add anxiety to an already uncertain move, it worked in the opposite way.  My pregnancy allowed us to focus on the health of our family first. We took a 12 week birth class, read books, and found childrearing the topic of many conversations. In hindsight, my pregnancy helped our family stay connected and strong.

Some of things we thought would be challenges ended up not being stressful at all. And some things we weren't even aware of became quite challenging indeed. And then there's isolation.

We were aware of isolation. We talk about isolation and loneliness in staff meetings. We know it leads to burnout and suffering.  We know people, pastors, who jump ship because they can't do it alone. Isolation sounds miserable. And so KCN has been intentional about the way we are building a team to be on this mission together.  We will have missionary pastors spread across a 100 mile coast, but have a plan and structure ready so that we, as pastors, are not isolated.  We have close friends who have experienced extreme isolation, mentors who have warned of isolation.  We know the danger of isolation.

Imagine our surprise when isolation showed up on our doorstep.