Missionaries are people too…

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.

How can I be still?

Last weekend was a whirlwind of activity in our household and this weekend is not much different. It is really hard to have a still moment that isn’t flooded with thoughts of what is next on our family agenda on weekends (or weeks) like this!

One of the most difficult adjustments for me with regard to the way MS has impacted my life and brain is the extreme difficulty I have prioritizing and organizing. This used to be an area where I excelled and I REALLY enjoyed juggling a schedule full of deadlines and activities. Now, I get easily overwhelmed and fatigued just thinking about trying to maintain a schedule of 3 or 4 activities.

Keeping this in mind, let me tell you about my recent shenanigans 😉:

Our daughter went to her school’s Homecoming football game where her choir sang the National Anthem and then stayed to cheer their team on. The weather was wet and she got soaked from head to toe. She got home at a little after 9:30pm and went straight upstairs to change clothes and get warmed up and into bed. This was not chaotic for me since she drove herself. I had a peaceful evening at home watching TV with my husband and getting our son settled in bed before she rolled in at about 9:45pm.

The next day (Saturday) was Homecoming. One set of Homecoming traditions our daughter and her friends have is to meet at a friend’s house and spend the morning getting dressed and doing their hair and make-up together. This getting ready party is followed by an afternoon outdoor photo shoot and then they head to the main Homecoming celebration. After Homecoming is over, they gather at a different friend’s house for another party where they change into more comfortable clothes, relax, play games and eat snacks.

Because there is so much driving and so many people needing rides, I was on deck to take our daughter and a group of her friends from the getting ready party to the picture taking and then to Homecoming. In addition, the Mom who is a professional photographer who had taken the Homecoming pictures the previous two years was unavailable this year so it was up to me to take pictures.

Knowing that it was supposed to be raining the whole day, I suggested a different venue for pictures - one with a gazebo and large trees overhanging a bridge, etc. We have friends who live on a small farm near our house who offered up their home and property for this picture taking extravaganza. This would allow for all the individual and smaller group photos of just the smaller group of girls to spend time posing and getting pictures taken in relative shelter AND it served the purpose of preserving my sanity as the photographer. I was present last year when my daughter’s group of 17 friends (boys and girls) spent a couple of hours at a park that had no real shelter from the cold. And last year it wasn’t raining or windy. There was a lot of walking around on uneven ground though and I was still taking pictures even though I knew there would be professional pictures. There were pictures of my daughter with her friends that she wanted and one photographer can’t do it all. So, I had to juggle a cane and a camera (my phone) and hold my daughter’s coat, etc. It was exhausting. This year it poured all night Friday and all day Saturday except for a 2 or 3 hour window during all the picture taking! Thank you, Lord! But the ground was muddy, the wind was blowing and the group gathering at the same park as last year was now 30+ kids. There was one Dad (who is a professional sports photographer) lined up to take group photos and his son was in the group so this photo shoot wasn’t cancelled. We just added an extra photo shoot on private property with a group of 9 girls.

Thankfully, my daughter is a really good advocate for me with her friends and, even though there was some friends of hers upset that she was trying to change some of the plans, she persisted and ultimately got everyone on board with adding this new (and smaller) photo shoot to their schedule. It was fun and beautiful and so much less strain and pressure on me. I felt at peace and relaxed, knowing that I would not be responsible for taking the larger group photos and my daughter and her friends would still have all their fun, more individualized and unique pictures.

After all the photos were taken in both locations, I drove my daughter and a few friends to Homecoming and then picked up dinner for the rest of our family on my way back home. After Homecoming, I picked my daughter up to take her to a friend’s house for a fun night of games, food and hilarity which I picked her up from at 11:30pm.

Just to add a little spice to our already very busy day, at about 9:30, as soon as I got parked into our garage (after dropping our daughter off at the after Homecoming hangout), our power went out. It remained out until 3:30pm on Sunday.

So, it was a cold, dark night in our house Saturday night. Early Sunday morning my husband got up and got our portable generator fired up and strung extension cords throughout the lower level of our house to power our refrigerator, garage freezer, fireplace blower, a few lights, etc. It was a lot of work for him and he had to stay home from church to monitor the generator. But we didn’t have to throw out any food and we were able to keep warm.

This week was quite busy as well. It was the last week of the quarter for the kids in school and our son came down with a cold. Tuesday he stayed home which was also the day my husband had his annual physical scheduled with his doctor. I normally do my grocery shopping on Tuesdays but had to postpone it and do the shopping on Wednesday. Thankfully, our son’s cold was minor and he was able to go to school the rest of the week.

After the power outage, my husband said it was getting too difficult for him to do all the physical work of getting our generator hooked up and running around the house unplugging things and plugging them into extension cords, etc. He has been talking for years about installing and wiring up a generator transfer switch box that we could plug our generator into that would power all the essential things in the house without having to run extension cords everywhere. This week he decided to bite the bullet and get it done. He worked on that project for 2 days this week and has completed and tested it and we are ready should our power fail again in the future. I am so thankful to have a husband with a skill-set that includes household wiring! This is supposed to be another wet and windy weekend so we will see what happens.

Thursday afternoon I carved our Costco pumpkin with our son who chose a spider as his inspiration for our pumpkin this year.

Our daughter had a costume party to go to Thursday night. I drove her to the costume party because of limited parking availability and we didn’t want her walking to the truck (yes, she is driving my old S-10 pickup) late at night on a road that is not well lit. I picked her up at 10pm.

She drove to school Friday morning but had a half day because of the end of first quarter so came home for lunch and to drop off her backpack and pick up her luggage for the retreat. After lunch I drove her and her luggage back to school where she and her fellow choristers met and then left together at 2pm for their weekend retreat.

I will interject a fun fact - our daughter dressed up as the mouse in the cute “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie” story for her costume party and Friday (October 31), as she rode the ferry to the choir retreat, she wore a cow costume and handed out candy.🤣

Friday afternoon I picked up my son (who was already wearing his medieval knight costume because it was the last day of spirit week at his school) and brought him home.

I then dashed out to pick up an early dinner for 3 and then left to take our son to his friend’s house because he had been invited to join their family for trick-or-treating. Again, the weather was supposed to be windy and rainy so I did not tag along on this adventure. The Lord answered (in the affirmative) my prayers for a let-up in the rain showers while he was out walking the streets begging for candy from strangers. 😉

When I got home I lit the candle in our pumpkin and turned on our porch lights in case any little neighborhood cuties decided to stop by - but no one knocked on our door before I had to leave to pick our son up (at 8pm).

He had completely filled his bucket with candy (which I spent Saturday morning going through to make sure it was safe for him to consume). I took him from there to a local church where there was a fun (and covered) Halloween party for neighborhood kids that he wanted to check out. It was supposed to go until 10pm but since the majority of the kids that attended the event had come earlier, they were in the process of closing up and packing everything away. It was no longer raining, the worship team was still singing and there was a fire burning for warmth so we stayed for a bit, my son got more candy and we left at about 8:45. Having gotten home earlier than planned, we decided to get into our pajamas, pop some popcorn and watch a movie (Migration) before going to bed.

Saturday has been quiet. We have no big plans and so far the power hasn’t gone out. But if it does, getting our generator going and hooked in to our essentials will be much easier now after all the work my husband has done over the last couple of days!

I am tired but I am thankful to still be able to be so involved in the activities of our children.

And I am thankful to have survived October, our busiest month of the year, without getting sick and without a single fall!

Today I am wearing my sweatshirt with Psalm 46:10 written on it - “Be still and know that I Am God…”. As busy as the past 8 or 9 days has been, I have still prioritized time with the Lord each morning- being still and settling down my mind to focus on what HE wants me to think about.

And, yes, I have also taken time to be with my husband - I went with him to his doctor appointment (check-up) on Tuesday and we went out for coffee and a scone afterward. I also helped in the garage whenever he needed some assistance and I went around the house helping test the new generator switch set-up. I watched several documentaries with him this week too. Juggling the duties of being a wife and mother is touchy sometimes and, as I said at the start of this, I don’t juggle very well anymore. Organization and prioritization are difficult for me. I am often in the middle of a tug-of-war between my husband and our children- everyone competing for my attention. I admit I don’t always handle that very well because I get easily overwhelmed and sometimes I can’t pay attention to ANYONE and have to just take a nap!

Homecoming Court

It’s homecoming season for schools everywhere. My daughter’s school has their homecoming this Saturday and her friends are all abuzz with preparations for the Friday night homecoming game and the homecoming celebration on Saturday night.

One topic of conversation these past couple of weeks has been about the homecoming court nominees and who she feels is deserving of her vote. She attends a Christian school and feels strongly that the winners should be people of good character who consistently show school spirit but who also exhibit good spiritual qualities like humility, selflessness and kindness. She told me that she did not vote for anyone who she saw going around ASKING for votes because those nominees weren’t exhibiting the humble spirit she values.

I am impressed that she chooses to make even these smaller, less significant life decisions based on her knowledge of scripture. She is looking at the content of the character shown by others and does not look at their outward appearance. She voted for homecoming court nominees based on what she has witnessed of their character since since the beginning of the school year - or in some cases from previous years of knowing them.

This morning I was reminded of the story in Mark chapter 10 where two of Jesus’ disciples asked to have seats on the right and left of Jesus in His heavenly kingdom and all the disciples at one point had been discussing amongst themselves who was going to be the greatest in God’s kingdom. Jesus shuts down their prideful debate and tells them that “…whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.” Mark 10:43. He later ends up washing the feet of the disciples as an example of humility and service we should all model.

“but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.” Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”” Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭40‬, ‭43‬-‭45

And, not believing in coincidences, I should not have been surprised that this portion of Mark was one of the portions listed in one of my through-the-Bible reading plans this morning. But I WAS a little surprised. It is always so amazing to me that God frequently confirms that my thoughts were planted by Him by reinforcing those thoughts during my morning Bible study. Sometimes the only thing I can say about this is WOW!

When we get to heaven it will be the ultimate Homecoming celebration. We will get new bodies, new clothes and there will be singing and dancing. The King will be crowned and the royal court will be honored for their service and devotion. And everyone will be celebrating- happy just to be there, in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.😊

Resting Places (MRI?!)

I have never been claustrophobic. In fact, I am more likely to seek out small spaces where I can be alone.

It’s probably my Mom’s fault.😉. My parents had a walk-in closet in their master bedroom that had its’ own heater on the wall. When I was young, my Mom often closed herself into that closet with the heat on and read her Bible when she couldn’t find a quiet place elsewhere in the house.

We were not allowed to go hide out in their closet but I had a trundle bed when I was young. A trundle bed is a bed with another bed that is on a frame that can be raised up or collapsed down with wheels that allow it to be stored under the main bed. Whenever I had a friend sleep over or when my sister and I had a sleepover party, the trundle bed would be rolled out and raised for my guest. But sometimes I used to like to pull the trundle bed out and sleep in the floor under my bed. It felt safe under there - in a small space that had walls on 2 sides, a trundle bed blocking a third side and just a narrow opening at the foot. When I was scared, that’s where I often went to hide.

When I moved into my own studio apartment, I had a walk-in closet. My bed was a futon that served as a couch by day. There were nights I could not get comfortable and the big room that served as living room, family room, dining room and bedroom felt lonely and kinda scary. It was my first time truly living alone. So sometimes I would take my comforter and pillow into the walk-in closet and sleep on the floor in there with the door closed. I felt safe and slept soundly.

I moved around from apartment to apartment a lot in my twenties. I upgraded from a studio apartment to a one bedroom apartment and the futon became a full time couch. My parents gave me their old full sized bed and still, there were nights I just couldn’t get comfortable in bed so I would pack up my pillow and comforter and head to my walk-in closet and sleep on the floor.

I think you can see a pattern developing. When I have needed to find comfort and/or rest I have sought out small spaces.

Even after I was first married and we moved in to our first home with a walk-in closet I would sometimes sleep on the floor in the closet when my husband was out of town.

Having MS now I don’t generally have trouble getting to sleep and it’s much less comfortable for me to sleep on the floor these days - because I’m old.😉 Plus, I get too cold on the floor. But I still like small spaces…

…enter my annual MRI! A small but noisy space. It’s not dark OR warm but my favorite MRI technician (whom I request every time) piles warm blankets on me; places a cushion under my head, a pillow under my knees, and gives me ear plugs and headphones before sliding me into this tube that is a very comforting small space.

I recognize that I am unique in this area. I look forward to my annual MRI with excitement and I am genuinely disappointed when it’s over. My MRI technician pampers me and I feel like I am at a relaxing spa!

And the noises made during the MRI can be pretty entertaining actually if you have an active and vivid imagination like I do. I have been trying to come up with good words to make an MRI rap song with all the knocks, bangs and buzzes and various MRI sounds but haven’t been able to yet. Sometimes my brain pictures cartoon characters dancing or Woody Woodpecker knocking on the side of the tube. I find myself laughing a little at the images my brain conjures up while I’m in there. Sometimes I am feeling a little extra fatigued and have actually managed to doze off a time or two.

I am thankful my growing up years helped prepare me for annual MRIs. I know there are people who are terrified of small spaces and MRI machines can cause those people severe anxiety. God knew what my current situation would be so He prepared me while I was young for the things I face now that I’m older.

If God was this involved in this one minor detail in my life, imagine what He has been doing along the way to prepare me for all the major things happening now or that WILL be happening in the future!

It is so important to look back and reflect on even the minor details to see that God is involved in ways that prepare us for the major issues of life - so we realize how truly trustworthy His wisdom is and how His knowledge of our future gives Him the perspective we lack when making decisions today.

That is why I find small spaces even more comforting and restful today - because small spaces aren’t crowded and are often quiet places where I can be alone with God and truly hear Him directing my steps.

The most restful thing I do in that MRI machine is pray - for wisdom, for my family and friends, for my MRI technician and his family and for anything else the Lord brings to mind.

My car is also small space where I can control the noise when I am alone and can pray.

And I still have a walk-in closet when I really need it.😁