Worry Easter Sunday Failure Given All We Need

Going Out & Coming In

Psalm 121:8 "The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore."

This is the verse the Lord spoke to me when I went on the mission field. Then 7.5 yrs later while sitting on the same beach on a visit home He gave it to me again saying it was time to come back.

I'm so grateful for the years that I got to serve on the mission field. It was such a great time in my life filled with so many great memories and experiences. So many friends that I still keep in touch with & follow their lives on Facebook. It gave me such a bigger, broader sense of the world and of God. I loved seeing God work in different cultures, same Spirit just different countries.

For me, when God let us know it was time to come back to the States it was through a sense of restlessness like I knew it was time for change. It was the same feeling I had when God was inviting me to go to Hungary. I think there should be an excitement & joy in serving Jesus. When that is gone, when you're just doing it because, I think it's probably time to step out and do something different. I love the challenge of new things. God confirmed my restless feeling with His still small voice again that it was time to return to the United States.

We are called to live by faith, this is when we make God the most happy. When we are in a place or circumstance where we need Him, we have to lean on Him. I believe that's why God calls us to step out into the unknown.

I know it sounds weird but coming home felt almost as scary as going out. I was married on the mission field and lived there for the next 7.5 years. So we had never had a 'normal' life together in the States. Now we had to face finding jobs, new careers, a house, insurance, cars.. We were told this was not a good time to return to the States with the economy doing so badly.

But God...

He always makes a way. We thought we would go back to where we both came from and we did for a few months. We kind of were stuck there, my husband found a job but I didn't. We didn't feel like we could rent a real house yet so we lived in a rented room, which felt like familiar territory. Then my husband's pay checks from his job started bouncing! So we took that as final confirmation that we weren't in the right place yet.

We ended up moving states away to live on the same property with my Dad. We thought we would be living in my Dad's spare room and then a house opened and they were giving us not just their house, it was also fully furnished. To top it off, my daughter and her husband and our two grandsons moved here also. God blessed us all with jobs. This was far and above what I could ask for.

God has given me my heart's desire.

I think one thing my husband and I have both struggled with in coming home is sometimes we feel guilty, like we took the easy road rather than staying on as missionaries for life. Of course, guilt is not from the Lord and He doesn't need any of us to do His work. It was also hard to make the transition from doing God's work to doing the mundane work of just earning a living and paying the bills. It's very difficult to give up your home, your country, your family. We did it for a season and God gave us the grace to do so when we needed it. I just don't think we were called to do it for the rest of our lives. I do pray for missionaries in this area though because I know it's one of the biggest challenges and one of the hardest things about being a called to foreign missions.

Sharing the Love of Jesus

I'm currently working where I get to help women and babies. I have the chance to share the love of Jesus with many of them. It seems like God doesn't waste anything. My husband and I led a couples study on relationships on the mission field and we're doing the same thing here. We also teach a Sunday school class for kids.

Our new church asked us to oversee the Missions Department which supports 13 missionaries all over the world. It's been great to still have a hand in missions & to support those on the field in practical ways as well as with prayer. It's different being on this side of it but hopefully we can bring our understanding of missionary life to the job and be more effective because of that. Each of the missionaries have a care group who stays in touch with their missionary and lets the board and church of any prayer requests or needs. So we get to oversee the care group leaders & see firsthand the things that God is doing locally here with the Navajo Indians, as well as in Fiji, Japan, Africa, India, China and a few others. The church also supports CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship), they work with the young children in our town. In August we'll be hosting a Vacation Bible School, the church's first time in many years. I get to drive the big church van to go around & pick up the children from one of the poorer neighborhoods. Again, all the training we did in on the mission field with kids will be helpful.

I'm convinced that geography is not important to God, after all, the whole world belongs to Him. His heart is the same for all people the world over, that they would know Him.

What is important is that we are obedient and that we serve Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength wherever we are. Our calling is the same everywhere we go to show God's love & share His plan of grace and salvation to everyone He puts in our path. He is mighty & promises to direct our steps we just have to keep walking in faith.

When we do our little part He is always so faithful to do His part. I have definitely seen the faithfulness of the Lord!

It's always a privilege, an honor and an adventure to serve Jesus.

Our greatest desire is...
for people to come to know God personally. The simple truth is that there is a God who created you and loves you very much. (Genesis 1:1) He gave us life and deserves our gratitude and love.

We, however, have chosen to disobey Him and sin against Him; all of us have done wrong and failed to do what is right. (Romans 3:23) We may not be more sinful than our neighbor, or we may be far worse than anyone we know, it does not matter. Either way, we are guilty before God. (1 John 1:8)

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