我們決定了你是家人

我想先說我自己。Let me start with myself.

我曾經要把兩條我深愛的狗，交到一對素未謀面的人手裡，好讓我能去到海的另一邊。I once had to place two dogs I loved into the hands of people I had never met, so that I could go to the other side of the ocean.

這支影片，是那位收我作女兒的長者——Beth Jones——講我們是怎麼開始的。This video is the elder who took me in as a daughter—Beth Jones—telling how we began.

她講得很老實，也很好笑。She tells it honestly, and it's funny.

她說 Bruce 整整六個月，每個月都問她：「你想不想再養一條狗？」She says Bruce asked her every month for six months: "Wouldn't you like another dog?"

她每次都說：「不要。我不想遛狗，不想清大便，不想再養一條狗。」Every time she said, "No. I don't want to walk a dog, I don't want to clean poops, I don't want another dog."

直到他說：「下個月是你生日，生日想不想要一條狗？」她心想：「他一定很想養。」就說了「好」——其實她並不想。Until he said, "It's your birthday next month—would you like a dog for your birthday?" She thought, "He must really want one," and said yes—though she didn't.

她上網去找。週日下午四點，跳出兩條狗的照片：一隻白的、一隻黑的。She went looking online. At four o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, up came a picture of two dogs—one white, one black.

說明寫著：一位要回到工場的宣教士，正在為她的兩條狗找一個家。The note said: a missionary returning to the field is looking for a home for her two dogs.

她走進 Bruce 的辦公室問他怎麼想。他說：「我們就接了吧。」She walked into Bruce's office and asked what he thought. He said, "Let's go for it."

她說：「我們甚至沒有討論、沒有禱告，就這樣決定了。而且是兩條狗，不是一條。」She says: "We didn't even talk it through or pray about it. And this is two dogs, not one."

我那時候很怕他們反悔——因為其中一隻（Precious）有膀胱結石，需要動手術。I was afraid back then that they would change their minds—because one of them, Precious, had bladder stones and needed surgery.

她立刻對我說：「別擔心，我們會接這條狗，我們的狗動過一樣的手術。」She said to me right away, "Oh no, we'll take the dog—our dogs already had that surgery."

我讀到這裡，才更明白那一句「好」有多重。Reading this, I understand more how much that one "yes" carried.

Bruce 那六個月的追問，她那句並不情願的「好」，後來成了我能走出去的那道門。Bruce's six months of asking, and her reluctant "yes," became the doorway I walked out through.

她說得很清楚：他們接走我的狗，是讓我能去工場；這對我是有代價的，因為我很愛牠們，牠們是我生命裡很重要的一部分。She put it plainly: taking my dogs freed me to go to the field; and it was costly for me, because I loved them—they were very important to my life.

有人接下你放不下的，你才走得出去。Someone takes up what you cannot put down, and then you can go.

她和 Bruce 不只把我當女兒；Bruce 也用一位牧者和宣教士的眼睛，深深地關心我在做什麼、走得怎麼樣。She and Bruce didn't only see me as a daughter; Bruce also watched, with a pastor's and a missionary's eyes, caring deeply about what I was doing and how it was going.

他們隔著大半個地球為我禱告；後來透過視訊，見到了一些和我一起的人。Half a world away, they prayed for me; later, over video, they met some of the people walking with me.

那邊有過很難的日子——第一個住處發霉，糟透了。她說：「謝謝主保守你，沒有在那裡病倒。」There were hard seasons—the first place was full of mold, awful. She said, "So glad the Lord spared you from getting sick there."

慢慢地，人群裡開始長出能承接的人，我就把手上的材料、把這份心交給他們，再讓他們去培育別人。Slowly, people began to rise up among the group, and I handed them the material and the heart, so they could raise others in turn.

然後她說了我最想留住的一段：Then she said the part I most want to keep:

「我不知道，也許因為我們領養過孩子、領養過狗——難處來的時候，我們並不覺得困擾。因為我們一旦認定你是家人，就沒有任何事情能把這個分開。後來也真的沒有。所以那份委身非常重要。」"I don't know, maybe because we had adopted children, adopted dogs—it didn't seem to bother us when the challenges came. Because once we decided you were part of our family, there wasn't anything that was going to divide that. And it didn't. So the commitment was very important."

我把這段讀了又讀。I read that again and again.

他們認定我是家人的時候，我還沒變得夠好、夠穩；他們先認定了我，後來的難處反而把我們綁得更緊。When they decided I was family, I had not yet become good enough or settled enough; they decided on me first, and the hard things that came only bound us tighter.

這就是 me 到 us 到 WE：神把落單的我放進一個家，這個家又托著我，去陪更多人成為家。This is me to us to WE: God set me—alone—into a family, and that family held me up to go and help more people become family.

兩條狗、一句並不情願的「好」、一份不肯散場的委身——神就是用這些，開了一條路。Two dogs, one reluctant "yes," a commitment that would not break apart—God used these to open a road.