Why Skype is Better than Love Letters

I was talking to Matt today on Skype (it is a program that lets us hear each others’ voices over the internet – it’s fantastic, like a free phone!), and we were chatting about nothing much, both multitasking, when he mentioned that he had meant to email me. He wanted to write me a note just to encourage me because he knew I hadn’t been feeling well and was discouraged about being away from home (home in Victoria AND home in Toronto), and he wanted to remind me of a verse to encourage me: I heard him say Psalm 137:4. I was so pleased that he’d thought of me that I went right to biblegateway.com (a fantastic site for Christian University students as well as everyone else in the world!) to look it up:
“How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”

I was perplexed (of course – this is not very encouraging at all!) and clarified where Matt had said the verse was from. He said Psalm 37, not 137, verse 4, and when I realized what had happened I was laughing so hard that I was crying. The actual verse is:
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
And this is a verse that has meant a lot to Matt and I from the start of our relationship – I even wrote it in a Bible I gave him! (We are sounding like a very typical Christian couple, lol)

Anyways, I was definitely encouraged by Matt’s thoughtfulness, and I also thought it was hilarious that he was only one number away from directing me to a really depressing verse for someone who is “in a foreign land.”

I am deeply grateful to live in an age where a semester of mission does not involve a semester of total isolation from loved ones thanks to email and Skype as well as phone calls and letters. Not only did I not have to spend two weeks thinking Matt’s big spiritual encouragement was Psalm 137:4, we were able to laugh about it together :)

I am also so grateful that I am able to praise God to be here, in spite of the challenges, and that I am as much in God’s hands in Brazil as I am when I’m in Canada. We can sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land or in any circumstance at home when our faith is in Christ because we can be confident in his love and care and provision for our needs. So even though some of the songs I am singing here are in Portuguese, they are all to Lord (even the English songs on the radio that have nothing to do with worship, because they make my heart happy), and he is worthy of everything I have to give!