The obsession started well over a year ago. Not princesses, not unicorns. Not horses or puppies or kittens.

Whale sharks. Those behemoths of the ocean had the hearts of two little girls in Papua New Guinea as soon as they learned of their existence.

I’m fairly certain the fascination started with an episode of Octonauts that centered around a puffer fish accidentally being swallowed by a whale shark. Despite the entire show being a journey through his innards, the girls fell in love with the giant beast right away. He had sad eyes and a sad voice. His belly hurt because the puffer fish was pokey. Oh, sweet whale shark, we love you. Of course by the end of the episode all was well with both the whale shark and the puffer fish, but more importantly the seed of love had been planted.

With home assignment square in our sights, and a desire to show the girls as much of the world as we could, we were determined to visit the Georgia Aquarium’s whale sharks on our road trip through the south. We saved for the hotel and we saved for the entrance fee. Even though we were well prepared for the cost ahead of time, there was still that familiar element of stress prone to follow us whenever we’re choosing to spend money on “entertainment.” Our salary comes from people giving, most of them giving sacrificially. We don’t take that lightly, but we also know it’s not healthy to perpetually refuse to spend money on things that would restore ourselves and our children out of misplaced fear. It’s a delicate balance.

When we arrived in Dallas and began settling into life in the States we learned that someone had donated to Pioneer Bible with a heart to help missionaries rest and recover. We were given some of that money and told to use it to have fun as a family. We didn’t imagine anything like that coming to us, and were overwhelmed that someone gave so particularly for that purpose. Instead of continuing to stress about how we were spending our money on the aquarium, we used that money knowing its intended purpose was being fulfilled.

The morning of we were finally able to say to Ray and Willa that the Day of the Whale Shark had arrived. There were bad attitudes to work through at breakfast as the overall trip wore heavily into both of their wicks, but bad attitudes in check we stuffed two very excited girls into the car and made our way to the whale sharks’ home. The hotel was a bit of a haul from the aquarium, but we were ready to go with our tickets as soon as the doors opened.

In the end the whale sharks were… boring. They swam. Around and around, endlessly. When we first turned the corner and found ourselves in the room with the giant glass wall to watch the beautiful creatures up close we realized we hit it at feeding time. Perfect!! But the girls lost interest after about five minutes and were ready to go. These whale sharks didn’t have sad eyes or voices. There weren’t any puffer fish in the tank. They just swam in circles, over and over.

After forcing them to sit and watch the whale sharks and manta rays for longer than they wanted to, we moved on. We found spider crabs and beluga whales and otters and a dolphin show. We were nervous about how the girls would handle a dolphin show, never having experienced anything like that. Once we decided to give it a go, we went in whole hog by choosing splash zone seats. Ray laughed and clapped through the entire thing while Willa tried desperately to see everything. Their eyes were simply unable to soak it all in, though their dresses and hair managed to soak in water easily enough!

I knew sharing these sorts of experiences with them would refresh my soul, I just didn’t know how much. Their unadulterated joy was contagious. Their predictable boredom at something they had looked forward to for so long was such a cliché that the boredom in and of itself was laughable.

Before hitting the obligatory gift shop barring the way between patron and exit we decided to let each girl choose a plush friend using the unexpected money. We told them the rules of engagement before entering the shop and guided them to more “practical” items. After thoughtful consideration Ray chose a beluga whale she immediately named Luna while Willa held on to the original obsession and chose a whale shark she promptly named Whale Shark.

Encourage the missionaries you support through prayer or finances to holiday and rest. This gift through Pioneer Bible was unexpected, but it wasn’t the first time we’ve had someone come to us with money demanding we use it to rest. When you do that for missionaries, it’s priceless. To know that we are cared for and loved beyond the ministry, to know that our well-being and the well-being of our children is a priority to supporters is uplifting both during a home assignment and on the field. Thank you to our supporters who do love us in that way, and thank you to the random person who gave to Pioneer Bible enabling us to restore our family in the best way possible. Through our Day of the Whale Shark.

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