The family that learned to laugh again
Bryan and Shara Moritz, whose ministry is supporting tribal missionaries, decided their own ministry would be greatly enhanced if they could experience for awhile the life of tribal missionaries.
Not only would an extended visit to a tribal village open their understanding on language and culture, it would also serve to, Shara explains, “remind us of why we are here.”
The Moritz family’s tribal experience has taught them volumes. There are new insights on traveling back roads paved with potholes. Enhanced understanding about the daily realities of water, battery and solar systems. New, meaningful perceptions about how truly essential support missionaries are to tribal ministry.
And most important, there were a host of new people to interact with and grow to love.
“Our time with the people was priceless,” Shara shares. “We could step right outside our door and meet people and talk to them. The people were so easy to talk to and so excited for us to be there.”
“The boys and I started our time out and about with all the mangi or tribal kids,” she continues. “The boys really worked hard at being willing to get out with us. This culture is hard for families to do things together as the adults and kids do not play together or really spend time together. We were so proud of our kids and their willingness to go on very long walks and to try to play with the tribal kids. … They did great!”
It didn’t take long for Bryan and Shara to begin to see that, even though He had used the trip to expand their ministry perspectives, God had even more for them to absorb from those weeks in the bush than just a taste of tribal language and culture.
They realized increasingly that their life in ministry had become a large task. “We had been trying,” explains Shara, “to make it through each day with all the tasks that were coming at us. Even our family had become a task. God gifted us with this time-out in the tribe.”
In their remote tribal location, they found more time to study God’s Word together. This resulted in many good conversations and discussions. “We had the time to work through arguments and struggles together,” Shara writes.
“God wanted to remove our family from all that distracted us. He wanted us to be put into a simpler life with less ‘stuff’ … He wanted us to have time to breathe and be a family.”
There was one night, Shara recalls fondly, when their family sat around the dinner table “and we laughed and laughed.”
She sat awhile just absorbing the beauty of the moment and then remarked joyfully to her family, “Wow—we are again enjoying the life that God has given us!”