Rest is a weapon given to us by God. -Elizabeth Elliott

Costa Rica…It’s been four long years since we’ve sat face to face with its beauty. And oh what a welcome back this country is!

It’s hard to believe that it’s been four years since we’ve travelled out of leisure and not work, missions, or obligation. Once pegged with intense wanderlust spirits, over the past four years we’ve spent pouring into our lives making this place a home and pouring into other lives here in Tennessee. That’s our hearts cry.

Building, healing, and cultivating our world and others. We find it hard to leave what we’ve built. We love our life here, but sometimes you need new eyes and No cell phone service to truly get away from it all.

See, it’s taken me being here to be able to even slow down long enough to do something that I’m so passionate about- writing. It takes a slow creativity and space for vision. This place and these slow downs give me that.

We love our sweet life in Tennessee, but if we are being honest, we run fast and rarely stop, always pulled in 100 sweet directions in a beautiful chaos. That’s our own doing and we wouldn’t change it. I say that to say- we don’t travel to run from our lives back home, we travel to pour into the very places that need a polishing and a filling up before we feel the need to run!

With both of us being in ministry, our hearts experienced what a sabbatical felt like to the soul this week. A slowing down and a pouring into. I don’t think either one of us realized how much we needed it, until we did. To polish a little here, and pour into a little there. My Papa always urged us to take these times and these opportunities. It’s definitely an area that Papa left wisdom in and we need to heed to it. Sometimes it takes moments like these to realize realities like that.

It’s one thing we love about jumping countries. The vibe is slow. The wifi is spotty and the beauty is endless. The people are kind. The responsibilities are minimal and the feeling you get from it all is priceless and long yearned for.

As I sit here writing this, the breezes are blowing through our house in the rainforest on the mountain. The rain pitter patters on our tin roof. The orange tint over the ocean is a view that will make your heart grow ten sizes in an instant. Our son is fast asleep on my chest and I smell dinner lingering it’s way back to me as my husband is in the kitchen cooking. I find it important to find these opportunities that allow for the space to sit and be in the very moment. Something else we often fail to encounter.

There are no interruptions here – Just quality time. Just emotional availability and belly laughs because we are so relaxed and can’t contain them. Just baby sun tans and laughter through the waves. Just palm trees swaying and a sunshine that brings warmth to the soul. Just sunsets that will make you go weak at the knees and waterfalls that are all ours to play in without a soul in sight. Just jungle sounds that sound like another genre of music and adventure that expands the mindset. But most importantly, it’s just the three of us, pouring into each other, the way family is meant to be.

This morning I teared up a bit thinking about four years ago compared to now. As I stare at our son in the back seat being introduced to something that his father and I are so passionate about. A life position I would have never dreamed we would be- emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. But here we are, soaking this life we live in, every single little bit of it.

It’s pretty incredible to watch this all through Jasper’s eyes. At 21 months old, we cannot even begin to fathom what his little brain must be thinking as he sees the sights, smells the air, feels the ocean, and tastes the goodness. It’s all priceless to us.

I remember John and I were hiking the Rockies one day years ago and passed a couple with babies in hiking back packs and we both said, that will be us one day. Living on a hope and a dream. Here we are.

I think it’s important to step out of your bubble once in a while. To go to a place where your cell phones stay off and there aren’t responsibilities tirelessly running through your mind. To pour into your cup that you pour out of so often. It’s imperative. Somewhere you can fall asleep as early as you want and wake up without a rush in the world. A time where you can choose how filled up or slowed down your days are.

We thank God every day for the gift of being in ministry and the call to do kingdom work. And this sabbatical, this is another gift that we will be forever grateful for.

This week has been nothing short of perfection for me and for us. A week id live a thousand times over and never get tired of it.

Pura Vida,

From our refreshed hearts to yours!