I love Pentecost. There is something amazing about reflecting on the birth of the church over 2000 years ago, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the empowerment to “Go” throughout all the world that is truly exciting! It’s knowing that it wasn’t just one day that happened and then was done, but a call and continued equipping that we as the church are still living out today. It is the same Holy Spirit that fills each of us and sends us out to make new disciples and grow God’s Kingdom. How can you not get excited about that?! While I have not personally seen 3,000 people be lead to Christ in one sermon, I know it is the same Gospel today as it was then, and through his living Word people are still being brought into the family of God through faithful teaching, preaching, and baptizing in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What an amazing privilege and responsibility to carry on Christ’s work here on earth!
An Update While We Wait
Now … to update you on our family! We continue to travel most every weekend to a new church, inviting people to partner with us in ministry. This has been a long season of waiting, one that is truly teaching me to trust in God’s timing. I had all these ideas of when we would be in the Netherlands: starting our new mission placement, finding a house, getting the kids in Dutch school, and settling into the next season of ministry. And yet, God still has us here – still traveling, still transitioning, still waiting. Why? Now, God may never answer that question for me this side of heaven, but he has taught so much in these periods of transition that we often find ourselves in as missionaries.
When we were living at Wycliffe College in Toronto while David was working on his PhD, I was very aware of our time there being temporary and transitional. And for a long time I was so focused on where God would have us next that I didn’t want to invest in where God had placed our family then. I didn’t see a purpose for the transitional other than to leave it behind. It wasn’t until I surrendered my plans to God and decided to grow where we were planted that I started to see God’s plans for our family – plans which (it turns out) were far better than mine (surprise, surprise). Whereas I originally wanted to just get through our time in Toronto, God made it a period in our lives that I will always treasure for the friendships, the church community, the growth in my own faith, and then, by the end, the clear calling to serve in the Netherlands at Tyndale Theological Seminary. I realize this sounds a little rambling, but sometimes in these periods of waiting, when I can’t clearly see God’s purpose in his timing, I can remind myself about all these other times in my life where he showed me that he didn’t abandon me to wander aimlessly, but that he has had a purpose for each period. I am just called to follow faithfully where he leads.
As a family we are experiencing many blessings during our home ministry assignment: some that we expected, some that have been wonderful surprises. For instance, as you may have seen on social media, a few weeks ago our family travelled back to Toronto to celebrate David’s graduation and the conferral of his PhD. What an amazing blessing to get to go back to a home we loved and celebrate this amazing accomplishment together! When we moved out of Canada last year we didn’t think we would all be able to return together for convocation. We had such a wonderful time visiting favorite places, seeing so many friends, and getting to cheer on David after so many years of hard work!
Another continued blessing has been the opportunity to spend so much time with grandparents. Our kids (and we) are enjoying a period of communal living with family, and that is something we couldn’t experience any other way. The kids are getting to spend so much time with grandparents at an age where they can truly grow close in their relationships. Knowing that we will soon be living overseas with much fewer in-person visits has made this time extra special.
There are also ministry opportunities that have arisen because we are here in north Georgia, and those that come from visiting churches around the United States, inviting them to step out in faith to partner in their prayers and gifts. It’s funny, I’ve always had mixed feeling about some of Paul’s letters in the New Testament (they tend to bring out my most argumentative side in the, “Well why did he say … ?”) but as we travel to churches and call people to this ministry, I find I relate to him as a missionary more and more. Like Paul, I desire to have a full team that can support and encourage one another in the work he has given us to do. As in Paul’s case, our calling to expand God’s Kingdom is not an individual mission but one that God has set before each one of us.
So right now, in this period of partnership-forming, team-building home ministry assignment, we continue to extend our own call to others and trust God with his perfect timing. As long as we are still stateside we will keep visiting churches and inviting people to partner in this amazing ministry of training leaders for the global Church. And when God finally says “Go!” we will be so ready to follow.
Praises and Prayer Requests
We thank God for the amazing outpouring of one-time donations we have received in the past two months!
We praise God for the conferral of David’s degree earlier this month and the blessing of getting to celebrate as a family in Toronto for a couple days!
Please join us in praying that God will bring in new monthly financial partners. We are continuing to see an increase in support, but since we cannot get our visas to move to the Netherlands without 100% of our monthly support pledged, we are praying for God to lead more people to become regular supporters.
Please pray for safety in travel (we spend a lot of time on the road).
Please pray for David and me as we represent SAMS-USA at the next month’s meeting of the ACNA’s Provincial Council and share about the importance of global mission with anyone who will listen.