Rebe Goes to Denver

Rebeca's Perspective
 
In my last two jobs I have been surrounded by great coworkers whom I got to see on a daily basis. In the first one, because of bad traffic and the fact that I lived out of town, I was most likely to be at the office every morning 45 minutes before my schedule started. There were a couple of us who found ourselves in the same situation, so I had this routine of hanging out and catching up with the rest of the staff before 8am hit. Every Thursday, we would get together and have breakfast - "paches", the traditional Thursday tamale that's cooked every week in Guatemala. We would share about our families and lives, read the newspaper, etc. During the four years I was there I developed deep friendships with these folks. Then, once I started working with Young Life, I worked from home but one of my roommates worked with Young Life too. Our boss lived two blocks down the street. So, I had a solid staff community who knew me well and whom I grew to love. Now I work for Young Life as an administrator for the Central American region, but we live in the Dominican Republic. I work from home, in a foreign country, and none of my coworkers lives in the same country as I do. It takes me about half a day and two planes to get to any of the people on my team. Needless to say, sometimes I feel isolated; sometimes I feel as if nobody I see on a regular basis knows or gets what I do, and sometimes I also feel a little bit out of the loop.

So, I was really excited when I got an invitation to be part of the Young Life International South (iSouth) meetings a couple months ago. iSouth is the division that includes Africa, Asia/Pacific, Central America, and Latin America. I work with a lot of these folks, but have probably seen them in person only a handful of times. All our interactions are via email or skype. It was the first time I was going to these meetings, and even though I had little knowledge of what to expect, I was just glad to meet with folks from all over the world who have the same heart and similar jobs. However, all my excitement got mixed in with anxiety. For this trip, I couldn't take David, our 13-month-old son. I am thankful that working from home has allowed me to be close to David, and Young Life has given me such freedom to take David on business trips with me during his first year, but he is now over a year, and not exclusively breastfeeding anymore, so it was time to take the plunge and leave him here. I was torn.

Now that I have lived through the experience, I think I was really wrapped up in the fantasy that I mean everything to this boy. But the reality is that all of us who live in this house love him and know him well. Roy is an excellent dad, and Sami is a sweet uncle, and David loves them both. And we've also been blessed with two friends who help us take care of him - Yudi and Rebeca. So, I packed up my suitcase, and we made a plan. Rebeca would come Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the mornings while Roy worked from home, and Yudi would come watch him in the afternoon while Roy went to camp. Saturday was a little easier, and I would come home that night. And after the plan was made, I was able to realize another part of this trip: I was going to be on my own, for four days! I was especially excited when I found out my roommate wouldn't be arriving until the second day. A room, A BED, just for me. I couldn't wait. I had so many plans for that first night. The reality was that I drove to the airport at 6am and didn't get checked into my room until midnight. I was so exhausted that I was only able to fall asleep watching VH1's 40 Most Shocking Hollywood Breakups.

But after a good night's sleep, and some yucky hotel coffee (what can I say, I'm spoiled... Roy makes great coffee), I was ready for the day. The meetings didn't start until noon, so I was able to meet with some family friends I hadn't seen in more than eight years who happen to live in Denver. We had a great time catching up. The YL team had a time of fellowship together, reports on how the Lord has been blessing the ministry in so many different countries, a time to celebrate what God has done, and also planning time for the year to come. It all felt like a whirlwind, but I was glad I was there. Baby Clifford #2 and I are already booked for a trip at the end of February 2014. Here's a picture of our group.