Will my children know what it's like to get birthday money in the mail from Grandma?
Will I have a mantle to hang stockings upon? Will I have stockings?
Will my children receive report cards?
Will I be able to go to the corner store for milk and bread?
Will we know the news from the rest of the world?
Will there be good neighbor kids to play with? Will the other kids want to play with my children?
Will I be able to make Christmas cookies with my kids, like my mother always did with me and my sisters?
Will our family be in danger?
What if someone gets sick? Will there be advanced medical care near?
Will my children know their cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents?
How readily will we be able to come in touch with home?
Will our family know the language of the people around us?
I have no idea what life will be like. I expect it to be hard. I expect (and hope) it to be challenging and stretching. I expect it to be full of joy. I expect it to be full of pain. I expect that God will be with my family through it all. Lastly, I expect that life will be normal - a new and different normal.
Why do I want to do this??
Because of this:
And this:
And this:
And this:
And this:
And this:
And this:
I greatly anticipate my trip to Ecuador in April and I am anxious to get a trip planned for this summer. I want to be used. I want to be stretched. I want to be confident that I am in the center of God's will for my life.
Serving Him,
Jewel
FOOT NOTE: This post was written in January 2007, and while I have figured out ALOT of things since then, I do still have many questions; however, despite all this, I am content because I know God is faithful and He is going with me!
2 comments:
This is my first visit to your blog. So did you go into the mission field? My son got a Master of Divinity from RTS in Jackson, MS, with an emphasis in missions. He did several stints with Campus Crusade while he was in undergraduate school. He used to anticipate a career in foreign missions, but now that he has a family with two small children, he has gotten a job teaching in a Christian classical school.
Hi Jewel...
My friend, I really do enjoy reading about your "contemplations" through work in the mission field! Ohhh...to be young and to have your whole life ahead of you...so many decisions and so many choices!!! How exciting!!! I know that if you follow the Lord's leading...wherever He takes you...whatever you do...He will be faithful to provide and there will be a "peace" that many never experience (sadly)!
I have very good friends, Larry and Betty, that raised their family while doing work with the WaiWai Indians in the Amazon's of Brazil! I'm sure they may have asked many of the same questions that you have posed in this post...but they were obedient to God's calling on their lives! They have experienced God and His hand at work in ways that most of us here will never see!!! Mighty miracles!!! I soooo admire them and think about the many sacrafices they've made...but it's funny...because if you ask them...they don't feel like they've sacraficed anything!!! God is faithful!!! I'm praying for you, my friend!!!
Thank you so much for sharing this post with us for Sunday Favorites...it was quite thought provoking!!!
Warmest wishes,
Chari
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