mission

The gospel changes everything

I now know even more definitively that God’s ways are not our ways! Just when we think we can sort of figure out what He may be doing in our lives, something that just doesn’t make any sense happens. We are nudged once again into a place of complete trust, another stretching of our faith, a humbling place.

There have been many unknowns on our missionary journey thus far. It has been hard, but also good…exciting, and yet really scary. The unknowns right now mainly concern timing. We have been back from Kenya a year and a half now. We’ve gone through many trainings and conferences, which we’ve been so thankful for. We’ve been raising support and met so many amazing people who truly “hold the ropes” for missionaries on the field. We can now say we are almost fully funded, which is a work of the Lord!! A HUGE thank you to all who are faithfully supporting us!

So, we’re ready and we’re willing to go to Kenya. We fully believe that it is God’s will for the next phase of our lives for our family to serve Him in the hospital and community of Tenwek. But we haven’t been released yet.

As many of you know, we’ve been doubly blessed in our time on home assignment. We have been able to be part of the start of an incredible missions-focused pediatric practice here in our hometown. However, under circumstances we could not have foreseen, there has not been another doctor to join the vision there yet. Recently we had an amazing lead, and one who we thought was the perfect candidate for the job. We were so excited! But it turned out that the Lord had other plans for him and his family. We are now back to square one. Sort of.

That’s where we remember that this journey is not ours to begin with. It is God’s. He set it in our hearts to go to Kenya. He got us there in 2017. He continued to lead us in pursuing mission work long term. He got us to where we are today. And none of the details are surprising him now. So, though we are disappointed and a bit confused, we continue to worship the God who has never left His throne.

As missionaries, the gospel is what we’re all about. The good news that our King left heaven to be born of a woman, to relate completely to us. He was tempted in every way on this earth, yet completely without sin. Then he died a grueling death, to atone for our sins, and rose from the dead to conquer sin and death and our flesh forever.

In my flesh, I want to control things. I want to plan things, and every detail should work out exactly how I think it should. Right?! But He keeps teaching me that His grace really is enough. His Word is my daily guide that continually refreshes my perspective. And His life, and death, prove His amazing and steadfast love and care for me, in every detail. For God so loved the world…

Thank you for praying for us. Please keep praying! We would love to see another doctor join Triad Pediatrics very soon, a doctor who truly believes in the mission and vision of the practice. We would love to go back to Kenya very soon as well (in the right time) and continue to serve the Lord in our calling there.

For now, we wait. We rest (more metaphorically than physically—6 kids, remember). And we rejoice in faith, that we can believe even though we do not always see.

Praise JESUS that He is the King. The gospel truly changes everything.

Posted: December 4, 2018
Under: mission, refining, the gospel
By: Emily

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Sowing seeds

This is a time of waiting in more ways than one. I think if we counted, we are waiting on at least 10 practical things to happen before we can get to Kenya. And then there are the heart things. I’m learning that maybe our souls are always waiting. We long for certain things to be different. We long for things to be made right, be made whole. We long for our prayers to be answered. I think that longing and waiting are ok. It is not easy, but it gives us a glimpse of our true longing that God has placed in our hearts, for eternity.

Sowing seeds in the form of love and the gospel is a lifelong pursuit for a believer. It is a lifelong pursuit for a Christian parent. Sometimes there is no fruit to be seen. There is not much evidence of their belief. There is no effort on their part to pursue further truth. But we wait. We wait and we pray and we trust. I’m not very good at that. But God keeps teaching me.

He is reminding me that He created the farmer, the farm, the dirt, and the seeds. I get to play a role on His farm, but He is the One who has all the wisdom, and knows exactly how to bring the good harvest. The role I play in my kids’ lives is important, but the Lord writes their stories. I’m wrestling with that these days. I see small glimpses of hope, but that big picture still sometimes looks pretty bleak on any given day. So I give them over to Him again. I thank Him for each of their unique lives, and for their strong personalities, and for the role we get to play. And I pray and wait some more.

Lord, may you be the author and perfecter of our faith, of each one of our children’s faith. And may I be content and faithful to (imperfectly) sow the seeds, water them, and leave the growth to You alone.

Posted: November 19, 2018
Under: Family, hope, mission, refining
By: Emily

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Love and Understanding

I thought of titling this post, “desiring to love…struggling to understand.” That seemed a little long, and a bit wordy. But that about sums up parts of mission life, I think. Why do we do this? Why do we follow Christ to the ends of the earth to share the gospel? Because of love. We love God and we love people. How do we do this? How do we enter in to places we do not know and cultures that exist in such depth? We try (or struggle) to understand. We try to meet them at their place of true need.

We are currently at the half-point of our month long missions training. Wow. We have been on quite the roller coaster of an emotional and spiritual journey these past 2 weeks. It has almost been culture shock to be faced with all the things we have not thought deeply about regarding other cultures! We have been convicted of our own ethnocentrism, and reminded that even though we don’t mean to do it we often regard ourselves as ‘more than’ just because we are American, or even because we are Christians. We often don’t truly see the needs of others. We often assume they think just like we do, or if they don’t then they should. We often try to jump in and fix things that might not need to be fixed, or at least not in the way or timing that we think. This can apply to serving overseas, and even in other cultures here in the U.S.

I have to admit I like my comfort zone. I like being able to predict at least a few things. So, I’m being stretched out of my comfort (yet again) and realizing that I still have much to learn. God is the Creator of culture. He designed the different peoples, tribes and tongues of the world. All cultures are fallen, but they are also beautiful. I pray I can be the learner God wants me to be, and approach this whole world leading not with my great amount of knowledge & resources, but with an intent to love and a desire to understand.

Posted: October 21, 2018
Under: mission, refining
By: Emily

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