Family

The waiting…and HMA

Patience has been a word I’ve wrestled with over the years. Some well-meaning friends have even told me outright that I should not pray for patience…because then I might have a situation happen where I’ll need a lot of it! Well I don’t know if that’s really true, but I do know there are many lessons to be learned involving times of waiting, and that I can always use a good dose of extra patience.

Many of you know that we homeschool. God led us to homeschooling similarly to how he led us to foreign missions. Despite us! We never set out to homeschool, neither of us were taught that way, nor are we teachers by trade. But God. He called us to it about 7 years ago, and he has amazingly seen us through it ever since. If I am honest, I would say that homeschooling is one of the primary ways God uses to refine me and humble me. Every day. Enough said.

Seriously, schooling our kids is hard. Really hard. And not primarily because of academics. I truly believe that God equips us for everything he calls us to. I am praying for that equipping every single day, because I cannot do it on my own. And I can get seriously discouraged when I go through day 457 of seeing my boys veer off the path they know is right and instead throw things, wrestle, play and make a serious mess in the 10 minutes that I might be downstairs changing a diaper or taking care of some other quick necessity. I get discouraged. I feel like they’re never going to get into college, never going to have the character we hope for, never going to take responsibility and live for the Lord. It can get really serious really fast (in that 10 minutes)! But there is hope.

This is when I have to take a step back and realize that God is still on his throne. HE is bigger than all of this. He is bigger than my daily circumstances or challenges with my kids. He knows them better than I do. And He who began a good work in them will carry it on to completion (Philippians 1:6).

So this all relates to our mission work too. There are many details that need to be taken care of for us to get back to Kenya. We know God is faithful, and we trust He is good. How He is going to work out all those details still remains to be seen in a lot of ways. It can get stressful and we don’t always have answers to the questions people may ask, but we know God is leading the way and He will provide for all our needs.

One question we get often is what exactly is HMA or furlough, and is that what we’re doing right now? The answer is HMA literally means Homeland Ministry Assignment, and yes! We according to our mission agency, we are considered to be on furlough, or HMA, right now. That just means we are in a time of ministry here in the States, and we are in sort of a holding place for our mission abroad (in Kenya), waiting to go back when God’s perfect timing comes to fruition. The more practical details are that we hope to go back to Tenwek at the end of the summer, if we are fully funded and things here are in order for us to go.

So our overall goals on this HMA are pretty simple: be faithful to the Lord’s calling in our family and in this community where we live, and raise support to be able to go back to Kenya. We are constantly seeking God’s will and hand of guidance, and we pray that we would not be swayed or deterred by anything not of Him. We would appreciate your prayers too, and we thank you so much for your care and support of our family. We are open to speaking to more churches or small groups who are interested in our ministry, so please contact us if that is something you can help us with!

I close with some words of hope. Hope is a beautiful word that I am trying to set my heart and mind on this year. The great reminder that it is nothing of our own doing that is of any real worth or significance.

In this world that seems to be teetering on the brink of disaster any given day (in the broad sense and in our own hearts and homes), Scripture tells us we have a strong and unshakeable Kingdom.“We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” (Hebrews 6:18-19)

Christ is our hope. Praise the Lord!

Posted: January 24, 2018
Under: Family, mission, refining
By: Emily

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See?

I love soaking in the beauty of our toddler. While she can certainly destroy a room in mere seconds if left to herself, she is also just the cutest thing in how she is discovering the world. One of her favorite words these days is “See?” She’ll point to a tree out the window, say something about how it has leaves, and then say, “See?” Or she’ll get out a handful of band-aids, unwrapping each and putting them carefully somewhere on her body. “Boo-boo, Mommy, see?”

Sometimes I hear her say these things outright, and I say, “Yes, baby, I see.” Sometimes, though, she has to literally take my face in her hands as I’m distracted with something else and pull it towards her own to ask if I really do “see.”

True to His faithfulness, God has been showing me something deeper with that word “see” lately, and it’s really been more of a question: “Do you see the bigger picture?” Or maybe it is actually, “Do you see that you don’t see the bigger picture?”

There are so many moments in life where I want to get results right here right now. I want to see that thing happen. I want to see God provide. I want my kids to love each other. I want that person or relationship to be healed. I want this loved one to walk with the Lord…. I could go on and on and on. But the point is, I can get downright discouraged if I don’t see things I pray for come to fruition in a timely way (on my own timeline of course).

And then He reminds me, there is a bigger picture. There is so much that I do not see. I think I am learning that many times over right now. God is prompting me in those frantic moments when I want to see results. He is urging me to step back, to remember that there is such a bigger picture that only He can see. Even the super hard things that I hate watching others go through, or the ones I don’t want to go through myself, are part of this grand design. Part of His love for us. Part of His plan to draw us stubborn souls to himself. Even though I don’t physically see it, I sense him reminding me to lay down my burdens and questions, frustrations and doubts, and remember that the bigger picture is there. He holds the future in His hands. See?

Posted: November 28, 2017
Under: Adventure God has us on, Family, refining
By: Emily

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Home

Well, we landed on US soil about 1 month ago. Thank you to all who prayed! We literally were held up & protected by the Lord through those prayers. No one else in our family got sick (including me, which was a miracle!), Tom recovered and was able to say proper farewells to those he had worked with at the hospital, and we survived a rather uneventful 26ish hours of travel back to America with our family of 8. It’s been wonderful to reunite with family and friends and our church. It’s also been quite an adjustment, with some very real culture shock and many emotional ups & downs. This has brought me to doing a lot of thinking about home. What is home? Where is home? Why do I often long for home?

For some of you more practical people who are asking…yes, we are pursuing and following God’s leading to go back to Kenya. We think that the work He has for us there is not yet done. We are in the process of applying with World Gospel Mission, which would be our long-term sending organization. If the Lord allows, we hope to sign on with WGM and go back to serve a 2 year term at Tenwek sometime next year.

It very much felt like returning home when we pulled into our driveway 4 weeks ago. We were so thankful to be able to walk into our own house and sleep in our familiar and comfortable beds…and to take a shower with some real water pressure again!! But we also now feel a void being away from Kenya. Life there became familiar in so many ways. As the faces of many run through my mind on any given day, I sometimes feel an ache for the loss of connection there. I still often look at the clock and think, what time is it in Kenya? There are also some very real unknowns in our future. Where will our home be a year from now? Or a few years? Truly, only God knows. Most people go looking for a house, finding the perfect things that will fit their family, and their own preferences. For us, though, this journey has become one of just trusting that God has a physical home for us wherever He wants us to be on this earth. I know the reality is that it might not end up always being exactly what I hope, or even the most comfortable place in the world. I am being stretched more and more in this and many other things every day.

I’m realizing that this burden of having 2 homes, or not really knowing where our earthly home is, can actually be a blessing. It makes me long for my true home, our eternal home, where I won’t worry about a comfortable pillow or good water pressure or decorations that make it feel “homey.” Christ is really the one who makes our home. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians. While he was talking about being at home in our physical bodies, I think it applies to that sense of home we all can have when we are in a place where we feel we belong. “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens…while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:1,6)

Maybe it comes down to making the best of whatever “home” God has placed us in on this earth. Serving Him, loving the people around us, sharing the Hope that we have. In my somewhat high-strung human nature, I am learning a lot about being content and at peace wherever I am. One thing that is beautiful about the Christian Kenyans we served with is that they always seem to be at peace. They are rarely in a hurry. They place relationship & fellowship above time. They approach God with a true sense of humility and worship, bathing everything in prayer and trust. And they almost never seem to worry. I am learning a lot from that. Maybe we all can.