Because I am no longer able to insert pictures into my posts on this platform I have chosen a new blog platform:
https://theblessingofmultiplesclerosis.wordpress.com/
So, if you are following me here and want to continue with me on this journey, that will be where you can find me!😁
Blessings on you all through Jesus Christ who has poured His love so abundantly into my life that I can’t help but share it with you!❤️
There is a book my son loves called “The Book With No Pictures.” Well, this is the blog post with no pictures because the platform has decided I need to pay for a service that allows me to include pictures. I am searching for a different, more user-friendly and free blog platform and I will let you know when I make the switch. For now though, here’s my Micromanagement post with no pictures.😁
I don’t work as well when someone is looking over my shoulder. That is an understatement! I will avoid doing a task if I know someone is monitoring my every move and scrutinizing the way I perform it. It’s not that I can’t handle criticism. If I am doing something wrong, I definitely want someone to tell me so I can correct it.
But so many of our daily activities can be accomplished in a variety of ways. There are different methods that can be used to accomplish the same task and what makes sense to one person doesn’t necessarily make sense to someone else. And that’s okay because we are uniquely made by God and our differences are what make us interesting!🙂
For instance, when I clean the bathrooms, I always take everything off the counters in every bathroom first. Then I clean all the bathroom mirrors before moving on. Once all the mirrors are cleaned, I then do the rest of the cleaning one bathroom at a time (starting with the biggest one and ending with the smallest). Cleaning the bathrooms is one of the chores our kids do now (our son cleans toilets, shakes rugs and dusts baseboards and our daughter does the rest. The kids have different methods of cleaning that makes sense to them and, as long as it gets done and they do a good job, the method they use doesn’t matter to me.
The method DOES matter to my husband, however. He will follow me around the house pointing out “the right way” to do a task. I do the grocery shopping and I have my method that makes sense. I cannot do the shopping with my husband because my way doesn’t make sense to him and his way doesn’t make sense to me. These experiences bring out the worst in both of us so I try to avoid getting us into situations where we are trying to accomplish the same things using different methods. As much as possible I try to get all the shopping and chores done while my husband is out of town.
One of the most frustrating things for my husband is to watch me try to do something like cook a meal that used to be much easier for me but now takes me much longer. He often just jumps in and does it for me because he can’t stand the inefficiency of my methods.
But it is important for me to continue doing things - participating in life. He works too hard as it is and doesn’t need to take on tasks that I am capable of accomplishing. Things are harder and take me longer now but that doesn’t mean I should give up and stop trying. This is hard on both of us and requires much patience, understanding and big changes in our thinking.
I can relate to what my husband feels as he is watching me do things in ways that seem inefficient to him though. I was a secretary for almost 20 years. I learned a LOT of shortcuts on the computer to make things much more efficient while I was working. Sometimes it is painful for me to watch my husband, who is actually pretty good at the computer, do things that seem so inefficient to me because I know a faster way. But guess what? My husband doesn’t like people looking over HIS shoulder while he works either. He is not open to my suggestions because he has his own methods that make sense to him. And in the home environment where there are very few hard deadlines, it doesn’t matter if something takes a few minutes longer.
It is not worth the anxiety that being a micromanager causes all involved parties.
On the other side of this coin is parenthood.
Our son is not self- motivated. Given a choice he would not pursue learning ANY method of cleaning. He needs direction to make sure he understands what is expected of him. Once he is taught, he needs supervision until he gets to the place where he can be relied upon to do his work without close monitoring.
The same holds true with his school work. He does not like to talk or think about school once the school day is over. If I wasn’t logging in to his school account every day to make sure I know what assignments he might be missing, he would never tell me that he had homework and would head straight upstairs to play with Legos. I have to micromanage our son’s schoolwork to help him successfully move on to the next grade.
It has been paying off though, he is finally starting to take some responsibility and lately has been getting his homework done as soon as he gets home from school each day. His school emailed me last week to tell me how much improvement he has made in classroom engagement and focus and that they are proud of him for staying caught up on his assignments in all classes! This morning he even prayed at breakfast that he would be able to stay focused and get his work done and assignments turned in at school today. He is finally starting to think like a student! Maybe I won’t have to micromanage him as closely next semester and can feel better about how he will handle high school next year!
My daughter, on the other hand needs very little micromanagement. In fact, she responds much the same way as I do to people hovering over her “helping” her with her assignments. I am happy to let her manage herself in most areas but can’t help but to remind her about important things (like the constant reminders to wear her Invisalign retainers at night). My “nagging” reminders almost always backfire. If I regularly remind her to do something she is purposely avoiding or putting off, she won’t do it. This bit her hard in middle school with her math teacher having to step in. But she must learn her own lessons about stubborn pride and I cannot nag her in to a life of humility. I can only serve as an example of how difficult it is to identify and eradicate pride once it has a firm grip.
As I was thinking this morning about the way I handle micromanagement I started thinking about the Lord. As much as I dislike being micromanaged by people, I welcome being micromanaged by Jesus. I feel calm and relaxed when I allow Him to take over my life - my heart, my thoughts, my actions- everything! I know that the reason is that the Lord is perfect in wisdom, knowledge and understanding. He is trustworthy and never fails to do things in absolutely the right way - His way IS the only “right way.”
When my husband or someone else steps in to tell me there’s a better way to do something I get annoyed because I feel like their way isn’t the ONLY way and if I am getting something done it shouldn’t matter to anyone HOW I accomplish it. And at the heart of it is an understanding that they are human, like me, fallible and not always correct the way the Lord is. I lack the trust that I have in Jesus. I realize, when I really think about it, that I don’t think they are looking out for my best interests and are just selfishly wanting me to do things their way because they believe their way is better than my way. In short, it hurts my pride.
There’s that ugly word again but it is SO true!
I remember when I was first married. I had lived on my own for a number of years but I didn’t have any specific feelings about a right or wrong way to do laundry, dishes, shopping, cleaning, etc. But my husband did. So, understanding that marriage requires compromise, I decided that I would adapt to his methods of doing things because it didn’t really bother me to change my methods to make our transition to married life more smooth. I actually made that conscious decision.
The problem was that I applied it to everything I didn’t have strong feelings about. Decisions like what to fix for dinner or what movie to rent or what TV show to watch (I’ve never been a big fan of sitting around watching TV just for something to do). Not having opinions or not feeling like my opinions mattered on these smaller issues caused different problems.
Truthfully, I am just thinking out loud here, I struggle with achieving a balance between submission to my husband and maintaining an overall awareness of when it is important to have and offer an opinion so my husband doesn’t have to be burdened by all the daily decisions that have to be made in a family.
Sometimes it’s hard to gauge when I need to step back and let my husband make a decision and when I need to step in and offer suggestions. I do not want to create unnecessary conflict and yet, avoiding offering an opinion can in itself cause conflict!
Marriage is not easy. But it is in the struggle that we grow and I struggle all the time so I must be growing- right? I certainly hope I am learning lessons that have value and that my mistakes are being used by God to grow me up spiritually and to serve as examples (more like cautionary tales!) to others (like my children).
It seems as if I have drifted from my original thoughts on micromanagement but in truth I am proving that, as much as I hate to admit it, I need a fair amount of micromanagement in my life. I need to micromanage MYSELF, my thoughts, my words, my attitudes, my actions… all of it needs constant adjustment. Pray for me!
We have a friend who has a small farm. They have alpacas, chickens and now sheep. They received a call asking if they could take in 3 sheep whose “shepherd” had passed away and his wife overfed them to the point that they could barely walk. Our friends agreed to rescue these sheep from eating themselves into oblivion and now they are much healthier and are being well cared for by a new “shepherd.”
I am a rescued sheep. Baaaa!
Sometimes when believers grow up in Christian homes and accept Christ as children we think we have a boring testimony because we can’t remember a time before we were saved. But the story in the Bible in Matthew 18 is about 1 sheep in a fold of 100. All of the sheep had the same shepherd, but while grazing, one sheep wandered off and got lost. The shepherd (Jesus) tracked the lost sheep down and rescued it. Just because we have accepted Christ as our Savior and Shepherd of our lives doesn’t mean we don’t wander off and get lost sometimes.
I was really young when I accepted Jesus into my heart. I grew up in a stable, loving Christian home. I went to a Christian school and our family faithfully attended church. I witnessed to every neighbor and unsaved family member when I was a kid. I was bold and fearless. I remember riding in the back of our truck on our way to the city dump with a load of junk and singing Sunday School songs at the top of my lungs, hoping to save anyone who might hear me.
When I graduated from high school I enrolled into a Christian college. My parents understood something about me that I didn’t. I thought my faith was strong enough to withstand any opposition that the devil could throw at me. I was firm in my faith and convinced I would not waver. But my parents would not allow me to go to a public university if I was going to live on campus. They were concerned I would be lost to the world. That hurt my pride but I wanted to be independent. I was ready to prove I could take care of myself so I agreed to go to a Christian college.
I didn’t realize that the way Satan would detour me be so subtle. I thought it would be so obvious which choices were right and which would lead me astray. But Satan is so good at blurring the lines of right and wrong. He also recognizes and exploits our weaknesses- especially when one of those weaknesses is pride. And boy was I full of myself! Talk about pride!
I was so sure my faith was solid and I could withstand every temptation. I was confident in my education and my spiritual pride was off the charts! Was I reading my Bible daily? No, but gosh, I had read the Bible so much over my lifetime - it was all familiar and I didn’t need to read it EVERY DAY did I? I had never really developed a daily reading habit- I just relied on school and Sunday school to feed me what I needed. And if I needed anything more, I could just look it up as necessary. How arrogant!
I spent only a year at college. During that year I dated a guy who was not saved and who chewed tobacco and complained that he had to drink non-alcoholic beer because of the school’s no alcohol policy. I also went with a friend to a party in a different friend’s college dorm (at a public university) where I tried alcohol for the first time. Actually, my friends were guys (one was a Christian and a ex-boyfriend) who mixed my drinks for me so I could safely experience what it was like to be “buzzed” (drunk). Fortunately, my body rejected the poison and I spent a half an hour or more expelling all the alcohol and then I was driven back to my dorm. It was also during this year that I decided that swearing was okay as long as I didn’t misuse the name of the Lord. Interestingly, it was the non-Christian guy I was dating that told me that kind of language was NOT attractive. It was uncomfortable for me to use curse words since I wasn’t raised in an environment where I ever really heard that kind of coarse language so it was easy for me to just stop. I later heard someone say that if you can’t get your point across without using curse words, you are lazy in your speech and don’t have a good command of the English language. I wasn’t lazy, I had Satan whispering in my ear the way he did to Eve in the garden- “Did God really say you couldn’t use swear words?” It was a question I thought I knew the answer to. I did not pray about it or consult my Bible. I was wandering. Baaaaaa!
I decided not to pursue further college education. I had no direction. I was interested in a lot of areas but nothing enough to pursue a degree. But the real reason I left after only 1 year was I felt like I was more mature than the people around me. I felt they were holding me back from becoming a responsible adult. So much pride! I cringe when I recall my arrogant attitude!
I wasn’t career minded. I decided I was ready to get a job and pursue life. My plan was to get a job and just do my best at whatever job that was and work hard until I found a man to marry and spend my life with. So, at 19, with my life all figured out, I moved back in with my parents during an economic downturn. There were no jobs to be had by college dropouts with no work experience. Undeterred, I scoured the newspaper want-ads for jobs I could apply for (back in the days before the internet existed). Without consulting the Lord, I lined up an interview and went to the mall to purchase a professional pant-suit to wear for my interview. As I was leaving the mall with my new outfit, the owner of a bakery in the mall stopped me to chat. He offered me a job at his bakery on the spot. But I was not open to the idea of working in the food services industry and I had an interview lined up for a job selling perfume. I turned down his offer. Sometimes I want to go back and confront my self-righteous younger me about my dumb choices and the motivations behind them! It wasn’t an evil decision, but it was a bad one!
I was naive. I interviewed for a business that it turns out wasn’t even a legitimate business. They hired me to sell cheap copies of name brand perfumes and colognes door-to-door. I had to go through their training program and learned how to sell these knock-off products to unsuspecting citizens. I was taught to use charm, humor and fast-talking persuasion to get people to buy something they didn’t need - or want. I was the only female salesperson. They told me they didn’t have a storefront because you have to have a business license to have a store and they did not have a business license. I was too inexperienced in life to recognize that if they didn’t have a business license, selling even door-to-door was illegal. In fact, one business owner at a store I visited trying to sell perfume and cologne, told me it was illegal and offered me a legitimate job. I refused. Because I’m dumb. Like a sheep - baaaaa!
I prided myself on befriending the unlovely people of the world and thought I was being a testimony to and a good influence on a group of “salesmen” who were drug addicts, alcoholics and at least one was out of jail on parole (drug possession). One day the people we worked for told us they wanted all of us to go on a sales road trip up to Ferndale and sell our wares up there. We would drive ourselves up there and they would pay for us to stay overnight in a hotel but only had enough money for 1 room. So 6 of us (one couldn’t make the trip) loaded up and went North. I was a fool. I was headstrong and naive and that is a bad combination! I should not have gone. But I did. I stayed in a room with 5 men. I had strayed so far from the voice of the Lord! But He knew where I was the whole time and He protected me. Nothing bad happened to me and I quit that “job” as soon as we returned. Did I learn anything? Not at the time - I continued wandering- baaaaa!
I actually started dating the one guy who didn’t go with us on that road trip. He was the one on parole - an alcoholic and a drug addict. I thought I could be a good influence on him and save his soul. I tried to encourage him to check back in with his parole officer, I talked about Jesus. I refused all forms of drugs or alcohol he offered. There were lines I would not cross. One night I went to his house (he lived with his parents but no one was home but him). He was drunk. I was compassionate - and an idiot. When it was clear to me that I needed to get out of there he hid my keys so I couldn’t leave. He turned all the lights off and got a butcher knife that he kept playing with as he talked to me. I have no recollection of what was said or how I got out of there but I was finally able to leave, terrified but unharmed.
It took me awhile before I was able to find a legitimate job. The job market was still bad and I still had no work experience that I could use for a resume. I went into a depression and stopped looking for work. I slept a LOT during the day. If you have been reading this blog all along then you know about my nightmares. I wasn’t sleeping at night - my nightmares were intensifying. I still wasn’t spending time with the Lord even though I regularly cried out in prayer. God hears every prayer. But sin in our lives block all effectiveness. He protected me through everything because I was His child, but He let me continue to wander until I recognized how lost I was. BAAAAA!
I have written before about more unwise choices I made before and after these events. It was years before I finally decided I didn’t know what I was doing and started reading my Bible regularly. But reading it every day isn’t enough. It’s the WAY you read.
I was found by Jesus and He started leading me back. It wasn’t until the COVID lockdowns that I recognized how far I had let myself wander.
A lot of people had a difficult time adjusting to the absence of activity or freedom of movement from one place to another. The social isolation was very difficult for many people. But for me, personally, the forced slowing down of activity and the forced isolation was exactly what I needed. I needed to refocus my attention and I needed the quiet so I could hear God. I think we all should have learned some important lessons during that time but not everyone was able to get over the fear they were experiencing.
But this is when my Bible reading time took on new meaning. I stopped skipping over the parts that were familiar to me or were more “boring” like genealogies and laws and temple dimensions and started asking the Holy Spirit to direct my thoughts and show me what He wanted to teach me.
My mind exploded with new and amazing revelations! I was reading my Bible as if I had never read it before.
Every page opened my eyes to the incredibly intricate details I had been missing. Most of all it created a desire in my heart to know more and more about the love of God and how to take that love in. How does one grasp a love that can’t be measured? God poured His love into my life so that it was overflowing and I needed to find ways to pour it into others so that none was wasted! It was then that I committed to serve the Lord in any capacity He asked of me and trust Him to provide the opportunities, energy, time and ability to perform that service.
This past couple of years for me have been all about Christ. More of Him, less of me. It has been my goal to point as many people to Jesus as possible and to be an encouragement to others in any way I am able because that is what the Lord asks of me.
I am a sheep, rescued by my Shepherd and I will follow Him wherever He leads. Baaaaa!😉
Yesterday was a day full of activities with my neighbors. Some planned, some unplanned.
Neighbors we have known since we moved in to this neighborhood over 21 years ago are out of the country on vacation. They asked our son to collect their newspapers while they are away. So, that was the first neighborly activity of the day. Before leaving for school, our son picked up yesterday morning’s newspaper.
One neighbor, former boss and friend of almost 30 years picked me up yesterday morning and we had coffee and pastries at a little French bakery I had never been to before. She was taking me out but I treated her instead because she had opened up her home to our daughter and her friends for Homecoming pictures last month and I wanted to show my appreciation for her generous hospitality. We had a lovely time.
This particular friend is not saved. I love her and do my best to stay in contact with her out of love. I hope I am a good testimony for Christ when we are together. She is such a kind and generous person. And she is one of the most difficult people to witness to because she is a “live and let live” kind of person. She loves that I am a Christian - has absolutely no problem with my faith. But she would feel the same if I was Buddhist or Muslim or Mormon. She is an agnostic. She believes that you can’t know whether there is a God or what truth is so she just doesn’t even try. I pray for her and her husband (who is the son of a former elder at our church) on a regular basis and am so happy to be able to remain a part of their lives.
At 4pm I packed up the kids and we went to visit our 98 year old German friend and his daughter and son-in-law who he lives with now. They don’t live super near to us but they are still neighbors in the Biblical sense. They are more than neighbors actually, they are dear friends and we enjoy our monthly visits. It is always a blessing to visit him and we are always a little sad when we have to leave. He asked me to keep writing to him so next week (or sooner if I get the chance) I will write him another letter. He likes the long newsy ones.😁
Last night it was stormy. It was dumping rain all evening and into the night. We were home and playing a game when we heard a loud crash of thunder. A little while later we heard sirens that cut out just as they approached our neighborhood. As we looked out the window we saw that they had filled our neighborhood up - flashing lights everywhere. 3 fire trucks, an ambulance, the fire chief’s truck and a medical unit - later a police car arrived. Our first concern was for our next door neighbor who has several health issues and is a widow living alone. But as we stood in the pouring rain watching the activity we realized the action was across the street from her house.
Lightning had struck nearby and caused a power surge that fried the wiring and started a fire in the attic. Firefighters with chainsaws opened up the roof and cut out a section of the outer wall and were able to get the fire out out relatively quickly after they arrived. Smoke was pouring out of the opened-up roof and the whole neighborhood smelled smoky.
The house was converted long ago to a duplex. The people who own it live in our neighborhood. We have known them for 20 years. They have 2 adult daughters now living in that duplex that was on fire (one in the upper half and one in the lower half). The fire and smoke damage was confined to the upper half but the power to the entire house is out. It’s an old house with old wiring that will probably need to be completely torn out and replaced. Restoration is going to take a long time. But, thankfully, no one was hurt and the girls can just move back in with their parents only 2 doors down from their dark and smoky home. I called our neighbor to see if she was aware of what was happening and she told me her daughter had been home (upstairs) when it happened so had called her parents who tried to find and put it out but only saw smoke so called the fire department. One neighbor (again, a neighbor we have known for over 20 years) came out into the street to watch with us and to tell us that he had seen the lightning and he is the one who shed light on the potential cause. I took a video and some pictures to send to my husband who was out of town and later I sent them to our neighbor to provide to their insurance company. After the fire was out, the kids and I went back into the house to dry off, warm up and get ready for bed. I got a call from my neighbor at about 10pm asking if we had a tarp so they could use it with one of their own to cover the roof and prevent water damage overnight. Thankfully, we just happened to have a brand new and quite large tarp that we bought over the summer and ended up not needing. We had thought about returning it to the store but decided not to. God knew our neighbors would need help last night so He worked it out so that we kept that brand new tarp that we didn’t have a use for.
What a wild and wonderful day of neighborly love! 💗
I had a check-up with my family doctor on Monday. It pretty much went as expected. She’s not an MS expert but she is very thorough and really understands medicine very well. I have been impressed with her over the years. She asked a lot of questions and I was open and honest about my lack of motivation when it comes to getting exercise (because I’m so tired and everything I do physically makes it worse). She told me that a lot of my worsening symptoms can be attributed to being peri-menopausal and it’s not likely to improve anytime soon. There is only 1 thing I can really do to improve my stamina, alleviate stiffness in my muscles, lose weight and strengthen my muscles and that is to get regular exercise. At this point she isn’t suggesting I try to do anything more than getting a walk in for an hour once a week or so and to do some planks or chair exercises while sitting to help strengthen my core muscles. I do not want to fall and be too weak to get myself up off the floor so I know I HAVE to get more activity and strengthen my muscles (especially in my legs). It is harder now though. I got a pneumonia vaccine (my arm still hurts) and had blood drawn for labs (results are in and everything looks good) and then headed home.
When I got home from my appointment I did some squats and some stretching and then that evening I took the kids to the mall where we met my sister and did some early Christmas shopping (I am trying VERY hard to get my Christmas shopping done early this year to avoid being overwhelmed by all the activities of the holidays). We walked all over the mall for 3 hours! I was SOOO tired by the time we got home but I still had to pack lunches! I was relieved to finally flop into bed!
I woke up the next morning more tired than usual. It was my grocery shopping day. My arm was sore and my legs were uncoordinated, weak and kinda sore. My mouth felt dry AND I could tell it had lost some feeling. I wondered how I would physically make it through the day.
I started praying before I even got out of bed (as is my habit these days) and then started getting ready for the day. I had 6 stops planned after dropping my son off at school (some Christmas related). I was on my feet and shopping until I finally sat down at home at 2pm after having put everything away and gotten a cup of tea. I had 30 minutes to rest before I had to go back to the school to pick my son up.
I came up with the title to this blog as I was driving from one store to another this morning. I was really feeling run down (possibly worsened by the vaccine I had yesterday) and I just had to take my mind off of my list and focus on God. I said “Father, I can’t do this! I am so weak and so tired. But You always provide me with the strength I need and You always carry me through tough days like this. Please pick me up and carry me - help me safely get through this day and finish what I started. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” Then I started thinking about the fact that I really CAN’T do anything without God.
I was listening to the Christian radio station for upbeat music to help energize me and one song I heard was about needing a little help sometimes and that the singer needed to remember what he’s made of. I immediately thought - “DIRT - we’re made of dirt and I don’t just need a little help sometimes! I need A LOT of help ALL the time!” I need ALL the help because I can do NOTHING apart from God.
We try to encourage each other by saying things like “you got this!” Or we try to hype ourselves up by telling ourselves we “can do this!” But we need to stop feeding our pride in this way because, in reality, we CAN’T “do this” and we DON’T “got this.”
God does though and THANK GOODNESS! I am so glad I don’t have to rely on my own strength to get through each day - because I am not a strong person. However, I have an all powerful God and He has never failed to give me the strength I need.
I have gotten more than my 1 hour of walking in this week and my legs aren’t letting me forget it! Getting older and weaker physically is hard - but honestly, MS is the best thing that could have happened to me because it made me acknowledge my weakness as a human being and it highlighted just how much God is doing every moment to sustain me. He always has - I can look back and see that now. Now I am aware, on a moment by moment basis, of His presence, His care, His protection, His provision, His love, His wisdom, His strong arm guiding me. As much as I would love for there to be a cure for MS that reverses the damage to my brain and cerebral spine, I would never choose to erase these past 11 years. I am so grateful for MS in my life because it has drawn me closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ.
I used to be really intimidated by missionaries. I viewed them much like celebrities. I felt that they were so much more knowledgeable of scripture, so much more bold in their faith and had so many more important people to talk to that I was afraid to approach them. I guess I feared rejection by these people I so admired and looked up to!
But then I started feeling the Lord tugging at my heart - telling me to start making a point of meeting missionaries who visited our church - who have long been supported by our church.
So, I started by talking with a couple who have been serving the Lord as missionaries in Ecuador since just after the 5 missionaries were killed trying to make contact with the Auca (Waodani) tribes. I found out that they are human! They have health struggles, they have family drama and they enjoy connection with other believers around the world and especially from home. They have children (they lost one to cancer when she was a teen), grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I am excited that they will be here in a week or so for a wedding and will get to stay until just before Thanksgiving! I am no longer afraid to approach them and hug them and fellowship with them.
Another couple who serve as missionaries in Peru that I have long admired came to visit our church on their way to Iowa where they now serve about 6 months of the year discipling young missionaries for service abroad. I was ridiculously excited about their visit, anticipating that he would energize our group with a powerful message. And I wasn’t disappointed! His message was on Job and a phrase he repeated multiple times was “Don’t waste your suffering!” I made it a point to meet and talk with them and, guess what? They are human too! They have doubts and fears and get down sometimes. They are excited about finally having a place with a big enough property to have a pet dog and they also enjoy the human connection - in person and via text. Missionaries need encouragement just like everyone else.
Next, I made it my mission to meet and talk in more depth with a missionary couple from Poland when they were visiting because her parents are aging and she needed to be here to help her brother with care decisions. They were here again about a month later because their son is here and he married his fiancée over the summer. They are very human too with real life concerns! They are back again and this time they are here on furlough for 6 months to a year and I am every bit as excited for their visit as I was about other missionary visitors. I hope to be able to spend more time getting to know them. They have experienced the sorrow of losing a close family member to cancer (she had a blog that I read start to finish and cried and laughed my way though - let me know if you want the link to her blog, it was a blessing to read) and they appreciate fellowship with other believers. He spoke at our church this morning and I found out that his uncle passed away a week before they came here and that he comes from a very catholic family - most of whom reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. This couple knows heartbreak and suffering and they appreciate being in an environment where they can rest and receive comfort.
Recently I was asked to reach out to a missionary serving in Canada because she had been diagnosed with MS and this person thought I could be an encouragement and a resource for her. She is a human being! Within a week of her diagnosis her husband started having heart trouble and ended up having quadruple bypass surgery. Their daughter was married soon thereafter and she didn’t have much time to stop and try to navigate and understand this new MS diagnosis. She appreciates the help and prayer support.
It’s a little easier to approach missionaries when they are your peers and you knew them before they were on the mission field. Our daughter had a history teacher in 6th grade who, last year, packed up his wife and young children and went to Indonesia as missionaries. Every newsletter I read starts by asking that we not forward the emailed newsletter in the interest of their safety. They have real life concerns for the safety of themselves and their children.
We watched one missionary grow up in our church. He is one of 6 boys. He is married now and is a missionary with his wife in Columbia. They had both their children while serving in Columbia. She got Dengue Fever while pregnant with their second child and there were serious concerns for her health and the health of their child. Thankfully, everyone is healthy now and our daughter likes to hold the baby when they visit. They have the pull of at least one elderly grandparent and parents who not only miss them but desire to spend time with their grandchildren - Columbia is a long way from here!
Another missionary couple that are peers of mine are missionaries serving in Bolivia. She had a battle with breast cancer during the COVID years and they had to stay in the States while she underwent treatment. After she beat cancer she ended up being diagnosed with POTS. Their sister-in-law was a bridesmaid in our wedding and is now fighting colon cancer. They have since returned to the mission field where they raised their two children who have gone on to ministries of their own. But their son was in flight school when he got into a severe car accident. They were in Bolivia, unable to do much and that was emotionally very difficult! They are currently making plans to return to our area soon as well. They, too, are humans!
Every missionary has a life that goes far beyond the work they do on the mission field. Every missionary appreciates any encouragement and support offered. And, while they all love to talk about the Lord, you don’t need to have a master’s degree in theology to talk to them.
Missionaries sacrifice themselves to serve the Lord and to expand the kingdom of heaven - and they are human beings with human needs for fellowship and connection with other believers. Their sacrifice and service is indeed admirable! But it’s their obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit in their lives that is truly impressive. When the Lord calls you to serve, you don’t really have a choice - you will be miserable if you don’t obey.
I encourage you to reach out and get in touch with a missionary today - get their WhatsApp number or email address and let them know they are in your thoughts and prayers. Your mission field can be to encourage missionaries from home- it’s as important as their work if it’s in the will of God for you to serve in this way.
Don’t be intimidated like I was, they are humble people with a heart for God and for others. You will be blessed beyond measure, trust me!😁
p.s. So many missionaries visiting us this year - I wonder what God is up to? Our area needs revival in a big way and revival starts with us - the Church! Our message today from our Polish friend was a gospel message and an encouragement to spread the message not only of salvation but of why we need to be saved and what we need to be saved from! I pray we will follow the examples of these missionaries and speak openly about our faith to a hurting and dying world.
