SICK or TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING

So the title of today's blog is in honor of the wonderfully talented musician, Sufjan Stevens, who often has several titles to one song. I am starting to understand how sometimes one simple title is too simple to summarize our feelings.
After I got back from church on Sunday (notice the use of the singular rather than the plural pronoun - more about that later) Amy's parents, me, and Amy, all piled into the car and drove to the town where Amy's parents grew up - Forest. Family of Amy's came in from as near as a mile away and as far as North Carolina and Florida for a short family reunion. It was a sort of going away party for us and we ate some good fried chicken and played a lot of bean-bags, a.k.a. corn-hole, a.k.a. corn-hole-bean-bag. In an 8 team, double elimination tournament, Joe & Amy Flammer won the Velda Huette Corn-hole Tourney. Amy played several amazing games and reminded me of The Great One, Michael Jordan, when he dropped 54 points on my beloved New York Knicks while running a fever in game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 1993. Amy was quite sick.
For much of last week I (Joe) had a cough and was more congested than the Long Island Expressway at rush hour. I am still feeling it, but most of my sickness has been passed on to Amy. As I write this, she is lying in bed with a stomach flu, running a fever, and within arms reach of "the bucket." She has been sick since Saturday morning and could hardly enjoy her own going away party yesterday (even though she still pulled out the "W" in bean-bags) or the Labor Day get together today (BTW, she didn't bring the A game today).
We are worn out. We have loved traveling around to see friends, family, and prepare for New Zealand, but we are worn out. I think in this case that too much of a good thing can be bad. While traveling, even vacationing, is awesome, we are worn out. Since May 25th, we have been nomads living out of suitcases. It takes its toll on you. Amy pointed out that this is the first week since May that we are not supposed to visit a church or give a presentation and her body is sub-consciously breaking down. My sister, who was a psychology major in college and is now a social worker, said that change brings on stress, and we have basically been living in constant change for over 3 months. We are ready to get to New Zealand and try to settle in.
At this time several things come to mind. I realize that this is just the life we live. As missionaries we ride on the wave of transition. I spent alot of time swimming in the Atlantic Ocean as a kid, and one thing I learned is that you can't fight the waves, you need to embrace them and ride them or they will tumble you and pull you out to sea. We are still learning to live on the wave of transition. We still have a long way to go before we can settle in. Please pray that as we go through these changes, that we will get wiser and grow, rather than be tumbled and pushed out to sea. Also, please pray for Amy's physical healing.
Also, I can't help but think about all of those missionaries that I read about at LCC in Biblical and Historical Foundations of Missions with Mike Nichols. These giants of faith set out on ships for lands that they had never visited and where they couldn't just call or email friends and family. If I remember correctly, at one point nearly 1 out of 3 missionaries to go to India died before they got off of the boat. I don't even understand the implications of why I am thinking about that fact, but I am amazed by their resolve.
So, right now, thanks. Thanks for being the kind of people who read the blog and keep us in your thoughts, and more importantly, prayers, in the good times and the not so good times. We appreciate you more than you know, for being here for good times and bad times, and always... flammertime.