Commissioned

& A Delightful Walk Down Memory Lane

Today was the finale of our CTEN orientation. Staying half an hour away means we’ve been up early every day this week in order to be in Kerrville by 7:30 in the morning.

We started off with breakfast and then it was our turn for the dreaded two-minute presentation. Each person or couple had to come up with a two-minute presentation that they could use when encountering someone who might be interested in their work. I worked hard on my half, and Walter kind of winged his, during which he took on a completely different persona that I didn’t recognize!

However, it didn’t go too badly. The one negative critique that we got was that I shouldn’t have said we “hope” to go to Zambia. No ambiguity!

After that we had worship and devotions and more classes until 11:00. Then we were let loose into the ground floor of the building where they had nine ministry booths set up. We had to go to each one and learn about what they do and get our card stamped. Once we had all 9 stamps, we could choose a piece of mission merch to take home.

At the same time, a food truck was supposed to be in the parking lot providing lunch. The truck arrived, but couldn’t get their generator going, so they had to go down the street where they could plug in. It became clear that lunch would be late. Very late. I was kind of glad I wasn’t hungry.

Once most people had been to all the booths, the leadership came up with a new plan, which was to have the commissioning service first and then eat lunch whenever it finally arrived. So we traipsed back upstairs and sat in our assigned seating for the final time.

All the staff were there too. It was a meaningful service and we were called up one by one to receive our certificates:

That’s us with our PC couple, Jake and Holly, the founder and his wife, and the mission director and his wife.

When everyone had received their certificates and had been prayed for with laying on of hands, the entire staff assembled and sang “You’ve Got a Friend.”

They did a great job. And then, as the founder was making some closing remarks, the staff shot off a bunch of confetti guns from behind us and we laughed once we got over the surprise. Paper and streamers rained down all over the room.

And then—the food arrived! By then I was hungry, but it wasn’t food I could eat so I let Walter eat his cheeseburger and fries and we visited a little more with Jake and Holly. Then we gathered up all our stuff and said our goodbyes and headed out to the car.

I had requested that we make two stops on our way back to the ranch. Every day as we’ve driven back and forth from Kerrville, we’ve driven past “Gibson’s.” I wanted to stop and see if it is the same Gibson’s that used to be across from the university when we were students. They used to have more than 700 stores, but the one in Longview went out of business in 1986. I know it was that year because I bought many of Lina’s baby clothes at their going-out-of business sale.

I thought all Gibson’s had disappeared by the 90s, and it make me sad. “Gibby’s” as we called it, was our go-to store for everything when we were college students, and it was so handy because it was across the street.

So anyway, I talked Walter into stopping. He warned me that it might be some completely different store that just had the same name, and of course I knew that might be true. But it wasn’t.

We walked in that store and it was like stepping into a time machine. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. They had everything from novelty snacks:

To lots of guns:

To a better selection of hardware than Walmart or Lowes:

To all kinds of kitchen stuff:

To souvenirs and doodads of every description. An employee asked if he could help us find something, and I said, “I had no idea there were any Gibson’s left!” And he told us that this particular store is one of the two remaining stores. Two out of 700. Wow.

We had a wonderful time roaming the aisles of good old Gibby’s. And if you think we left empty-handed, you don’t know me at all.

From there we went to Walmart, where we were rudely returned to the 21^st century. It honestly was a bit of a shock.

When we drove back onto the ranch, we roamed around a little to see if we could see any of the exotic animals, but all we saw was a regular white-tailed doe. We did get to see what the house that we’re staying in looks like from the outside, though:

This is such a beautiful place. It’s been so nice to come back to this peaceful place every night after a long day of cramming our heads full of information.

This was the first time we’d been at the ranch during daylight hours. I had my Bible reading to do and Walter had a book to read, but we both ended up dozing on the couch. It has been an exhausting few days, and we have two more busy days ahead of us before driving home on Saturday.

So what is my takeaway from orientation? Well, there are several, but tonight I will just focus on one. You know how sometimes you make a decision, and you make it based on the information you have, but you might not be really confident that it was the right decision? We looked at three possible mission organizations before following through with applying to CTEN. One we knew we didn’t qualify for, because we don’t go to the right kind of church. But there was a tiny part of me that wondered if we should have gone with the other option.

I no longer wonder. I am fully convinced now that God led us to the right place and the right people. They are really passionate about helping people who have a vision for ministry to get on the field with a minimum of interference. They don’t tell you what to do or where to go. They don’t insist on a certain level of education or physical health. They treat us like adults who can make their own choices. Some of our fellow orientees had health problems. Some were even older than us! Some were very young. Some had tattoos and piercings (which would have absolutely horrified our previous mission). What they all had in common was a deep desire to serve God despite any obstacles they might face. I wish I could have gotten to know them all better.

Tomorrow, once again we’ll be up early, so maybe I should get some sleep.

Joy Spark: Wandering through Gibby’s for the first time in 40 years! (The commissioning was bigger than a spark. I’m not ignoring it.)

Parting Shot:

The ranch has quite a few spectacular blooming vitex at the moment