It’s back-to-school time in our world. Today, most kids walk to school, take a bus, or get driven by their parents to a school located in the town where they live. My wife, Jan, took a bush plane to school. She was flown from El Salvador to Honduras in Central America. In those days there were no homeschooling programs for missionary kids or a school conveniently located in the nation of El Salvador where her parents were missionaries. The only school was in Honduras. It was a boarding school where kids lived on campus for 7 months of the year away from their parents. Jan told me there was no landing strip at the school in Honduras. That meant the pilot had to buzz a pasture to clear away the cows to prepare for landing.

In the photo (circa 1960), Jan is the little cutie in the middle wearing the red sweater and plaid dress. Standing alongside her are her brother and sister. The missionary pilot is the man on the left wearing a baseball hat. Jan’s dad is the tall man in the center. He began his missionary work in the 1950s riding horses through the jungle to preach in remote villages and then years later was able to use a Jeep when rudimentary roads were finally cut through the jungle. 

Those were very different days not understood by those of us who grew up surrounded by so many options and conveniences. Convenience can be a blessing or a hindrance. It can be enjoyed if interpreted properly or it can be what holds us back from our calling. The Parry family accepted the call of God on their lives and it changed the history of a nation.

There were no stores where someone could buy school clothes. Jan sewed all her school clothes. That skill prepared her to make her wedding dress that stunned all who watched her walk down the aisle to a goo-goo and ga-ga-eyed groom. At her school, she got to swim in a river on campus, eat mangos while dangling from a tree branch, and dine in the school cafeteria surrounded by friends. She lived a simple, yet fulfilling life.  

The first time Jan ever watched TV took place when her parents came home on furlough when she was in the 1st grade. She got to watch Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger. She did not return to the States until 8th grade when she saw reruns of Superman. To this day, I still need to clarify some bits of social history that most of us who grew up in typical Americana take for granted. Jan did not grow up with that kind of familiarity. Perhaps that is what caught my heart about her. God knew I needed a special girl who could weather the storms of life and ministry without getting thrown off course. Many of those challenges were more of a struggle for me than for her. 

If you think Jan and her siblings were wounded by the inconvenience and separation of their childhood experience, they weren’t. Each sibling shares fond memories of those years because that was the only reality they knew. Today, each one of the Parry kids is happily married and emotionally and spiritually alive. They are some of the kindest people you will ever have the joy of meeting.If we are willing to follow the calling of God on our lives, no matter how different or challenging that calling might appear, He will be faithful to fill our lives with a sense of deep fulfillment and joyful recollection. Those are promises and treasures He offers to those who are willing to follow His calling whether they live in a familiar place or in a distant land.