Dream in Blue Ink

I gave the journal to my son to fill with long-legged stick-figures in blue crayon (his favorite).  We had carried around the empty book for years, and as we were packing during our recent move to Thailand, somehow the blank journal got moved from the dusty box in the storage room to the crammed-to-the-max suitcases that were destined to cross oceans.  And though Matt had seen them before, it wasn’t until just today that I read the first two pages.

I saw my husband’s small slanted print in blue pen (his favorite).  It was written years ago–maybe at a coffee shop in North Carolina or on the island of Saipan, maybe in a youth pastor’s office with posters on the wall or in a living room where a newborn slept upstairs.  This forgotten journal, now residing in a basket of homeschooling supplies in Thailand, contained two pages of notes from years back outlining a dream, a vision, an idea.

The vision was for our family to mentor college students within the classroom of an overseas experience. Ten years ago, young newlyweds teaching in the South Pacific, we talked in vague-idealism about living in a foreign country, about radically serving, and about pouring life and challenge into 20-somethings from our own culture.  And, at times over the years, the vision was fuzzy, or even forgotten.  At other times, it was reached for, and then snatched away. And, then, there were entire seasons where three babies and church ministry and life just consumed most everything else.  But, it was always re-visited. Always sighed-over. Always asked-in-the-quiet-for.

Maybe someday, he, especially, would say.

And the forgotten journal is evidence. With lists in blue ink, made by a much-younger man, I was reminded afresh of the history of the dream birthed a literal decade ago.

And tonight, as I type, Matt is going to pick up two college students. These girls are the first of seven who will be living and serving with us over the next three months here in Chiang Mai. And we will bring white hands to smaller brown ones, and we will share the realities of a life poured out.   And the dream will finally be tasted.

And I am excited and hopeful tonight.  But mostly, I’m grateful.

Grateful for living a Story that has a history.

And grateful for finding the proof of it.

Today, of all days.

This post is dedicated to our friends R. and J., who are stepping out in faith, to pursue a God-breathed dream of their own.

Have a dream that you need to remember?

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Tagged as: destined traveler, dreams, faith, inspirational, mentoring college students, mentorship, short term missions, story