
He’s on his way!
A transparent view of the life I live!
March 21, 2019
Letting Go, Parenting, Prayer of release, Supporting our missionary children, Uncategorized, willing to release adding to our children's burdens, children, depending upon God to carry our burden, God's calling, lightening our children's burdens, parents, sacrifice, what to avoid Leave a comment
He’s on his way!
March 8, 2015
Uncategorized children, fiery darts, obedience 2 Comments
February 23, 2015
Bush Camp classroom bush camp, children, sand snake, story time 1 Comment
Our unwelcomed visitor made a fatal decision the day it decided to crawl around the ceiling of our class room!
May 28, 2014
Being available, Bush Camp, Live and Learn, Living in the bush, Uncategorized anxious feelings, availability vs ability, children, feelings of inadequacy, fiery darts, preschoolers, school time Leave a comment
After much preparation, many anxious moments, and what seemed like a million logistics to coordinate, Kelly (not her real name) and I finally were able to be about the business of teaching our students. Our school consisted of seven children: four preschoolers, one kindergartener, a first grader, and a third grader.(Classroom size a teachers dreams of) I was to teach the preschoolers and Kelly was to teach the older children. Considering my friend and I were former high school teachers, the adjustments we needed to make were challenging. (But by God’s grace we did it!)
My first day with my preschoolers revealed I had too much lesson time and not enough playtime. (I was a former high school teacher, remember) Therefore, I adjusted and came up with a plan to work on the alphabet in the first part of the morning while interspersing story time. Snack time (a vital part of any preschooler’s day) happened around 10 a.m. Then after snacks I concentrated on math concepts, mostly about counting, and, of course, interspersed with the reading of stories.
Parents came to pick up their children for lunch around 12 ish. After a lunch break, it was back to the school house and we enjoyed play time with our kiddos; not the formal learning as in the morning but learning on a more casual basis. Nature hikes, chalk drawing on the big ole rocks by the camp, singing, playing board games (a favorite was Candy Land), etc. defined our afternoon school day.
My anxious feelings began to subside once I had a grasp of exactly what I would be doing. And while this did help, I found that those anxious feelings were now being replaced by feelings of inadequacy. (Plain and simple, I didn’t think I knew how to teach preschoolers, for I wanted to do more than just babysit them.) The fiery darts were working on me with a vengeance. My son was my greatest source of encouragement. Actually, he kept me going. We had such inspiring conversations that just when I began to feel overwhelmed God would use him to speak a word to me that would give me incentive to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Somehow in the midst of my feelings of inadequacy, God took my meager efforts and blessed them beyond what I deserved. I learned afresh, the awesome truth of a very familiar phrase to most Christians. I learned that,
Looking back on my time at the training camp, it seems I whined every day to God about issues I was having with others, about the harshness of my surroundings, about feeling on the outside and not truly fitting in. I whined about having no one my age with which to hang out or have camaraderie with. Yet, in spite of all my whining God used me. Why? Because I was there! Certainly, not because I was this super Christian who brought volumes of wisdom and ability to the experience. It’s humbling to look back on my time in the training camp. For at first I can’t see anything but failure and inadequacy. But then when the fiery dart thinking is rejected, I hear God affirming me by saying,
May 10, 2012
pray for missionaries on their birthdays, Uncategorized child, children, happy birthday my son, missionary's family, technology 1 Comment
Celebrating birthdays with thousands of miles between me and my child isn’t one of my favorite things to do. It takes quite the adjustment to accept this reality, but because it is reality then I must find a way to accept it. Wishing it wasn’t so, changes nothing and evening makes it harder to deal with.
So, I choose to focus on the positive things about this very special day. Here are just a few:
I am proud and grateful to have a son that loves the LORD
I am grateful for the abundance of memories I have with him.
I am grateful for the relationship my son has with his sisters and they with him
I am thankful for the great relationship my son has with his dad
I am grateful for my daughter-in-law; for my son needed a woman like her
And, of course, I’m humbled and thankful for the relationship my son and I have
I’m so grateful to know that thousands of people are praying for my son on his birthday
And, oh yeah, thank you God for the technology that keeps my son and I close
That’s only a few of the positive thoughts I have on this very special day. If you have such a son or daughter as mine, then you have ever as much to rejoice over as I do. I hope you will continue to pray for me and my family as we make adjustments to this new life God has called us to. But you know something? I hope you aren’t feeling sorry for us, in fact there’s much about this life as a missionary’s family that is exciting and appealing. It’s a matter of focus or perspective, really. I’m planning on a trip to the country where my son and daughter-in-law live and that’s pretty exciting. Hopefully, I’ll get to work alongside my son when I do visit and join him as he ministers to those he has been called to. How satisfying it is to be an instrument of God’s will in making Christ known to those who need Him.
So, happy birthday, my son and know I love you, I miss you, and I have tremendous peace that you are where you are, doing what you are doing! I’ll be there in a few months and the anticipation of that is thrilling…