In retrospect, we can pinpoint the spring of 2021 as the time our laughter disappeared — when our four-year ministry in Barcelona began to fall apart. As concerns regarding COVID-19 began to ease, expectations in the local church community changed. Gradually, things arrived at a point where our family needed to step away.

It's hard to laugh when it feels like the world is crumbling around you.

Mennonite Mission Network, our sending missions agency, recently offered me the opportunity to film a project in Benin. Of course, I accepted. It was a great reminder that joy and physical poverty are not directly connected.

It’s easy for wealthy folks like us to ask how we can help poor folks. It’s harder for us to embrace the reality that we can learn something from our brothers and sisters in Benin.