mission

“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness…”

-2 Corinthians 11:30

Transition is a very stretching time. Change is not comfortable. I like comfortable. I like routine. I like predictable. A friend I was recently talking with at church equated my description of mission life and transition as an orange being squeezed in a juicer…

Yes! We are in the juicer! The Lord knows the stress, the discomfort, the many questions in our minds and hearts right now. We are fully in a time of transition. We’re preparing to leave the US in two weeks, saying many hard good byes, and Lord willing, picking up life again in our community in Kenya, for His purposes and His glory.

It feels like a time of weakness. I need God desperately all the time, but I really feel it heavily in this. I need him to navigate these waters, to meet each one of us in our crazy roller coaster of emotions on a day to day basis, to guide us in packing, to provide the time we need for good good byes, to give us health and strength. I need Him to show us His power made perfect in our weakness!

Praise the Lord, He is faithful. I have seen that He can be trusted. Church is typically started off in Kenya with these words, “God is good…all the time. All the time…God is good.”

We’d appreciate your prayers as our family departs on this journey for our next term in Kenya. And may the Lord show himself perfect in your weakness today too.

“If you splash me before I’m wet, I won’t get in!” These are familiar words that come from my mouth when enjoying a day at the pool with my kids. They love when I get in and swim with them, and I do too…but they know I take my sweet time to do that. I’m a wimp and I’m ok with it! I may have delivered 6 babies naturally, by God’s grace, but I do not like cold water, and I have never been one to just jump in.

The Webster’s dictionary defines courage as “the quality of mind that enables one to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, or without fear or depression of spirit.” I don’t think of myself as one who exemplifies this definition. I don’t think of myself as especially brave. But I guess there is a way that courage does become vital to what we’re about to embark on again in moving our family of eight back across the ocean to Kenya at the end of the summer.

I’m a person who likes routine and comfort. Two things that are not very plentiful in this life of missions, I’ve discovered. As many people plan for the start of next school year, I just hope we’re there in time and have enough go-power to get started before they want a fall break. Somehow, He will work it out. As many people settle into a house that they can decorate and truly live in, we have had a pile of framed pictures leaned on the wall of a bedroom in our house for almost a year. We were never sure what we should put up, only to turn around and take down. This life of uncertainty and much moving can be wearisome, though it does help me lean into my Provider, and remember my one true Home. 

And then there’s sickness. Why does it just feel easier to be sick here? Am I more certain that everything I need would be at my disposal in mere seconds should things turn bad for me or a family member? Do I have that much trust in the “system?” Am I sure there wouldn’t be a shortage of a necessary medicine, or that the time it takes an ambulance to reach us would always beat the time it would take to run or drive up that hill at Tenwek carrying one who needs help? Don’t I trust that God is my true source of Help? Not a first-world medical system?

When I feel like I’m heading toward a wilderness, toward some things I have very real fears about, I’m learning to thank Jesus even for that. I’m learning to be still before Him and remember that He is still God. 

“Every wilderness holds God’s tenderness, and the driest of deserts can be the holy of holies. Deserts aren’t places to fear: Deserts are trust greenhouses. Rest in today’s pasture, and fret not about tomorrow’s provision.”

Ann Voskamp, waymaker

Maybe that’s what true courage looks like. Even though I sometimes feel overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness, Christ is my anchor, and I can keep moving forward, clinging to Him. He knows. He sees. He cares. He provides. The only true courage I find is found in Him.

“What if?”

There are many times this question comes up in life. How can we possibly be prepared for it all? Maybe we can’t! I’m relearning this over and over as we navigate this home assignment.

It’s been a while since I’ve written here. Our family is now in the middle of our year back in the US before returning to Kenya later this summer, Lord-willing. We’ve been so thankful and blessed by God’s provision for us this year so far. We arrived home and had many doctor’s appointments that all turned out well. We had our house here to settle into right away. We have had sweet times with family and friends. Tom has been blessed to continue work at Triad Pediatrics. We have been able to be part of a wonderful homeschool community very close to our home. We received valuable counseling in December. We had Covid and recovered. The list goes on…

Among all these evidences of God’s provision, I still can tend to question if He will continue to provide. Will every need really be met? Are you sure, Lord? Isn’t there something more I should be doing to take care of all the possible ‘what if’s?’

I think God is reminding me again that I can lay all my anxiety at His feet. He is the one who says he provides more abundantly than I could even ask or think (Eph. 4:20-21). As we rest in him and his sufficiency, we can trust Jesus to guide us and give us wisdom. We can expect his provision. We will even at times be surprised by his provision.

Just a real quick practical of this from Scripture that jumped out at me recently. Many of us have heard the story of Elijah being told by God to go away from King Ahab and hide by the brook at Cherith for a time. In Sunday school or a children’s Bible, we usually see a man lounging by a lush stream. Well, that’s probably not quite how it was. God provided for him there. It was dry and rocky. He could never have grown or caught his own food in that place. So God had ravens bring him bread and meat. Ravens?! Yes, ravens. What scavenger bird do you know of would bring food in its mouth to a human being and drop it off? No way!! And ravens were even thought of as unclean and disgusting birds to steer clear of in Bible times. Wow. More than Elijah could have asked or imagined. A miracle.

So as I continue to think about the coming months and years, I can trust God to provide financially, physically, spiritually, and emotionally for our family to be where He wants us to be, trust that He will provide for our kids in every way, trust that He will lead the way. May we walk in obedience to Him and expect Him to provide, because He says He will!

“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

-2 Corinthians 9:8