Perseverance 26.2 Miles

Crossing the Finish Line
26.2 miles

  As many of you know for the past six months I have been training for the Grand Rapids Marathon.  In the beginning I thought I would only run a half marathon.  The full seemed like it would be too many miles and too much of my time would be taken up.  So I started training for the half.  After about a month I was talking to my friend Anna and she said she was going to run the full marathon.  After talking to Benj I knew it was now or never. I didn't have much responsibility at camp this past summer and I knew I would have help with the kids once we moved back to Michigan. So I changed my training plan and got to work.
  Some runs were easy, others were hard to get motivated to do. I had lots of support from family and friends.  It was great knowing that I was not doing it alone.  I knew Anna was training with me and that helped me stay focused but I don't think it would have been possible without God.  I know people would say that God has nothing to do with running but to me I think he had everything to do with it.  I loved spending my time running praising and thanking Him for giving me the strength and ability to do so.  Thanking Him for the time and energy to run. Praying for friends and family whom I knew needed prayer and some just because I felt that I should. I saw such beauty on the mornings I got up for an early run watching the sun rise.  And the animals that were "running" with me. The rabbits made it look so easy!
  The race was the past Sunday.  It was great to hear from family and friends the night before encouraging me and letting me know they would be praying for me during the race.  My friend Jen sent me this verse from Hebrews 12:1-3..."Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." I take this verse two ways.  One for the actual race and one for the path we are taking to Uganda.  I had to look to Jesus for strength to finish the marathon.  I was not sure I would be able to accomplish it but I persevered and finished with a time of 5 hours 9 minutes and 55 seconds. I gave it all I had and left nothing behind.  This is how I want to live every day.  Giving my all...leaving nothing behind.  Am I loving with all that I am?  Am I doing the work God has set before me with all that I have?  We desire to be in Uganda by December 27, doing the work God has set before us. But am I doing my part? Am I running this race with perseverance?
  Feel free to ask us about what God is doing in our lives and the lives of the people in Uganda. We love to share the mission that God has set before us! We would love if you would join us in this mission anyway you feel God leading you!

AHHH! The stuff in my head is coming out!

We have been in Michigan for two weeks now.  It's crazy.  It still feels like vacation instead of the permanent move that it is.  The two weeks were filled with lots of family time because my sister Meredith came in town to visit and go backpacking with us and Beckie (my sister) and Ruudy (my brother-in-law).  Maybe that is part of the reason it still feels like vacation.  We had a great time in the woods and the kids did great.  Izaac carried his own pack with Ellie's sleeping bag, his pillow pet, and some of the food for the three days, two nights we were there.  Ellie had the easiest hike because she got to ride in a pack, although she did complain of being tired as I (Christina) carried her up a dune. We played in the dunes and in Lake Michigan.  The kids had a blast and it was a great time to reflect on our transition. I really don't care much for going to the bathroom in the woods but was told I need to get use to it for when we go to the villages in Uganda.

But it is not vacation and I am reminded of that fact as school for Izaac starts in two days.  It can't possibly be.  How can I have a child who is going to be in Kindergarten?  Not only that but all day, every Monday through Friday. I become more emotional than I would like to be.  He seems so little and I am afraid of what affects these outside influences might have on him.  Yes I know it is just Kindergarten but we live in a fallen world and kids can be mean. What if my kid is the mean one?  Have we trained him up in a way that he will make good choices and be friends with those who others won't? He is only in school until we leave for Uganda in December/January and I do think it will be good for him but I have these fears I keep giving to the Lord (and taking back again and giving back and so on).

We are also trying to figure out where we should start with our fundraising again.  It is humbling and nerve-wracking asking people to come alongside us and support us with their prayers and finances.  I feel like we were doing a great job before summer but in the busyness of camp and moving we have been slacking.  If anyone would like to meet with us to hear more about what we will be doing please contact us through Facebook or email or phone call.  We love sharing about what God is doing in our lives and the hopes and dreams of the future.

On another note, we are hoping that Benj does not need to find a "real" job but that we would find enough people we know that would have projects they would be willing to hire him to do. He is glad to do light remodel/renovation work, general home or yard maintenance, basically any kind of handyman work inside or out.  If you have any such projects or know of anyone that does please let us know!

I know this is all over the place but welcome to my brain these days!! I know that God is in control and we just need to follow His leading.

Leaving and Arriving, Goodbye and Hello

This feels like the first big step toward Uganda. There have been a lot of steps leading up to this and in reality this is just another along the way. However, the nature of it makes it feel very different. 

Moving, leaving, changing causes me to reflect (there isn't much that doesn't, if I'm honest) and as I spent time thinking about the people who have had such an impact on my family and I over the past five years, the thing that I regret, the only thing, is the shortness of quality time we spent with the quality people we were blessed to live and serve and worship alongside. 

To our PA friends and adoptive family: we are better people because of the time we spent in your presence! The privilege to work side by side, to learn and grow together, to laugh and live in proximity has not left us unaffected or unaltered. The tears that we shed as we parted company were shed, certainly, out of sorrow for what was and will be no longer, but they were also shed out of joy and gratitude for the gifts that you have left in our lives and on our character. Praise God that, within the fellowship of Jesus-Followers, there is no permanence in goodbye. So, as we part company we say simply, but by no means irreverently, "see ya soon". At that great family reunion, at the banquet table of our our Faithful Father we will reminisce once again about the impact of our intersecting paths and the way those impacts altered the trajectory of our lives for the benefit of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth! Be well. Be blessed. Be faithful and pray all the more diligently with us: "Lord Jesus, Come Soon" and we'll see you in a little while!     

It is tough as I reflect on the speed at which the sorrow of leaving transforms, through the excitement of movement, to the joy of arriving. I feel guilty about being glad upon arrival as I still consider those we have left behind. It's true that separation is harder for the left then the leaver, and I have been, as of late, the leaver far more often. That being said, with no less sorrow in our hearts for those left, we are glad to have arrived here. As I held my new niece, with most of my family around, in the house where I grew up, I really was glad. 

To our friends and family in MI: it is so good to be with you again! We are excited about catching up and reconnecting. We look forward to the conversations of where we each have been, and where we each are now; of how we, and things, are different now, and how they aren't. We are excited to see what will take place in us through the time we are together, short though it may be. We desire to savor this time with you and, like a good cup of coffee, as we sip on it together, we can be reminded that true community is eternal and intended to outlast just the time we'er together now.  

...More Then Food or Democracy

Interesting article about the need for Biblical Gospel Truth.  

"There are millions of Africans attending churches where the only message they hear is the prosperity gospel. The churches that preach this false gospel are everywhere, but sadly they seem to thrive even more in the poor communities of urban areas. Famous prosperity gospel preachers in the United States are very popular here in Africa. Their books are readily available, and their sermons are played on local television. Many are caught up either as preachers or followers without ever having heard the true gospel. A softer version of the same false teaching is affecting even mainstream churches."

Read it all here:
www.thegospelcoalition.org

WE ARE OFF AND RUNNING (AGAIN!)

God is moving (He's always moving) and He is beckoning us to tag along and see what He's gonna do in us, and with us! We are heading to Uganda to work with Kingdom Life Training Center and Welcome Home Ministries Africa. Check them out:  

Welcome Home & KLTC

We need people to partner with us. If God is moving on your heart to be involved in spreading the gospel by equipping people, young and old and in-between, to love and serve and share with those they live community with, please let us know, we'd love to share more with you! Comment here, email, text, or call. 

Thoughts on How I Got Here

This post is born out of a letter I was writing a while ago. I was suppose to be writing about some of the things that had been going on in our lives recently and I stopped when I discovered I'd been rambling for a long time about something I was struggling with and dealing with in my head. Anyway, I decided its former location was not the correct medium for these thoughts so I relocated it here. I'm afraid most of the people I'd like to read it won't see it here but oh well, here it is anyway in its slightly edited form...

I’m not entirely sure why this is happening (probably because I have so much to learn) but in the past few months I’ve had a number of occasions to recall and recount the story of my life thus far and I have discovered a lot of things through those experiences. Don’t worry, I’m not going to dwell on all of the lessons here but there is one that I feel compelled to end this letter with post here. I found as I told my story that I (at least in hindsight or maybe just to myself) seemed to be coming across as arrogant or condescending or something as I talked about how I got to where I am. I spoke of how I “felt called into ministry” or how I needed to do something “bigger than myself”. I found myself at one point talking to a guy just starting college of how it was noble for me to drop out of college, and another time I was talking to a contractor about how I left my job in construction with a great company to follow a “higher calling”. Even the first part of his letter could come across as me thinking of myself as somehow more important or more “noble” because of where I'm employed. I’m pretty sure this isn’t really how I feel, and if it is then I've got a fall coming my way, but it feels like it is how I can come across sometimes and as I’m beginning to see this, I can tell that it is mostly weakness or foolishness or confusion that has led me to where I am. I couldn’t see the ministry I was called to until I was in a place where it was my only choice. I have been raised (directly and indirectly) by people who were so deeply invested in “full time ministry” and they did things like fixing book-binding machines,or caring for sick people, or fixing cars or making tools and dies (whatever that means) or raising kids, but what they were really doing was investing themselves in other people including me. I thank God for all of you who do “full time ministry” without having the assuming, often presumptuous, title or position to hide behind. I believe what I'm doing is important and I'm glad I'm here and I am grateful that I get to do what I'm doing but I also believe that it isn't more important or more nobel or more honorable then what I was doing before or could be doing or will be doing in the future. I think the thing that makes something, anything, honorable or nobel or important is the motivation behind it and the attitude and vision it's done with. All I’m really trying to say is that I want to live the story I'm living well. I want to live it for the people around me and live it with passion and vision to see that I'm on the fringes of some huge work that God is doing and, weather I'm working with inner city kids or African kids, or building nursing homes or if I'm unemployed all together, I want to be doing what God is doing and I believe that what God's doing is bringing healing to brokenness, hope to despair, freedom to captivity, and forgiveness and grace to ... everyone! I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything more important then that and there is no occupation with a monopoly on that work!

Throwing Stones

I guess its been something like 4 months since I've blogged but its been busy so that's just the way it goes sometimes. Now that camp is a recent memory and the change in seasons is right around the corner again, I'll hopefully be writing a little more regularly. It can't really get any less regular, so that's encouraging!

Anyway, here goes. Attempt at blogging, take two.

Izaac and I went hiking the other day and I can hardly convey how excited I am about that! I have been waiting for something like 3 years to go hiking with my son and the best part is that he asked to go and loved being out on the trail and I can't think of anything better in the world then that! I get the impression, however, that he isn't picturing exactly the same thing as I am when he talks about hiking. This first became apparent when he said he wanted to "go hiking in the car". You mean you want to go in the car to go hiking? "No, I want to hike in the car". I'm not quite sure how that works. Its a bit more confined then I usually like, but then he is still pretty small so maybe it works for him. The second apparent divergence in our view of this recreational past time became obvious once we got to the trail head.

There's this place not to far from our house called McConnell's Mill State Park. It has quickly become one of my favorite places on earth. To get there you drive through all of this hilly, rolling farm land, take a sharp turn onto a steep decent and find yourself in a thickly wooded gorge full of massive rock outcroppings etched down the middle by the winding, picturesque Slippery Rock Creek. There are miles of trails that follow up and down the river and it is about as close to wilderness adventuring as I have much chance to get at this point in my life.

Anyway, Izaac and I get there, do a little "hiking in the car", which mostly looked to me like jumping back and forth over the back seat, and climbed down the make-shift stairs cut into the side of the ravine that leeds to the creek. As soon as we get far enough down to see the water through the trees, Izaac, almost frantic with excitement, starts begging to go throw stones. This isn't anything new to me. The most entertaining thing in the world for a two year old boy is, apparently, throwing anything with mass into anything liquid. So, we tossed a few stones and then I managed to convince him that we should walk for a while. With his attention temporarily bouncing manically between sticks and bugs and leaves and all manor of other amazingly curious things, we made it a ways down the trail before he stumbled (literally, in fact) upon a stone that absolutely, beyond any doubt and despite all reason, had to be thrown into, or at least toward, the quietly running stream. And of course, just like potato chips, one is never enough. Ten minutes later, I pried his suddenly vice-like attention off of his endless, yet exhilarating task and back onto the trail. As you might imagine, this scene repeated it self over and over until I finally gave up on my completely realistic ambition of hiking the six miles to my favorite spot to share some quite reflection and deep conversation with my two year old.

At that point I decided to dive whole-heartedly and passionately into my son's vision of what hiking should be. We found the rockiest place right on the creek so we could throw stones and get wet and yell hello to kayakers and go nowhere and never reach any other "destination". In the end, we did very little "hiking" but we threw a lot of stones and had a ton of fun and, really, is walking down a trail and then turning around and walking back that much more beneficial then throwing stones?

As always, I can't help but see this as a metaphor, as I believe a lot of experiences in life are, and try to learn something. I think more often then not, I find myself trying hard to hike when all I should be doing is throwing stones. Of course there is nothing wrong with hiking, but at times the choice between two good things comes down to which one will serve better to build and grow and deepen my relationships with the people around me. I'd love to go hiking, but if you'd rather throw stones, I'm right there with you.