Reflecting on 2013

The year of 2013 was a year of momentous decisions for our family.

We began that year with answering God's call to serve orphans and widows as full-time missionaries in Zambia, Africa through an organization called Every Orphan's Hope. This wasn't an out-of-the-blue decision as we had been serving in various facets of this ministry since 2010, but it was a leap of faith to depend on our Lord for every need we would have.

As I look back on this journey that we have begun, there have been some extremely exciting moments. The calling in itself sparked our adventurous spirits and at times, we found ourselves trying to outrun God's timing. But each of those moments, our Lord has either gently (or sometimes with a swift kick in the backside) put us back on His path and not our own.

The biggest lesson of 2013 for our family has been obedience. We have realized that our ways are not God's ways in very real experiences. Some of these have created extremely happy moments in our lives, while other instances have refined us to a point that were difficult to bear. Above all though we have found that God is present through each of these times.

We began our 2013 with a calling to prepare and that's exactly what we've done. Here are the highlights of our 2013:

We started that year with a new chocolate labradoodle puppy, Tobiah, and by the end of that year, we realized that Zambia wasn't the place for him. We found an amazing family who waited on us to make a decision and ultimately, he went to live with them in September 2013. We still have "visitation" times with him!

Preparation was the key to 2013 so that's what we did.

Looking through all those things that you have and no longer use is never fun. We made some decisions as to what would go with us to Zambia and what needed to bless others. We learned in that process that we are blessed well beyond what we deserve, and many of the items we had were never even used, being set aside for a special occasion that hadn't come. Looking at what you need is such a freeing experience. Lightening our load has given us a new perspective of ourselves; this lesson has been irreplaceable.

As the months passed, our preparation led us to another step: the selling of our house. Many have seen this as foolish but for us it was a lightening of our load we never anticipated. Part of the American Dream is to own a home. This is not a bad thing, but for us the home was a huge idol for us. We spent more time upgrading, manicuring and upkeep, which led to less time for relationships and serving. Selling our home of 13 years was an extremely freeing moment. We became completely untethered, able to go wherever God led us. What an awesome moment for both of us to be able to serve at a moments notice. So in September 2013 we became homeless.

Sadly, through all this preparation we did take a misstep and began to plan. We moved into a home with a lovely family, which I think they are still recovering from us. I've learned that our children are being raised as wild animals at times and I may need to actually step up a little on my structure of their behavior. I'm just joking, they are great, but we all act like a bunch of kids sometimes. We had a lot of fun the 3 months we lived with them, but it was during this decision we went ahead of God.

If you hadn't noticed this blog went silent for awhile. It wasn't until now that I was able to sit and write as I look back and see what has been of God and what has been our desires. I finally was able to realize what has happened through this Christmas holiday and this is the analogy I've come up with. I want you to imagine you have been given a present that you completely desire. For us, this present was to serve the Lord full-time in Zambia. We had prayed for God to show us how we fit into this picture and how He would use us. He did just that, but in the showing He never said exactly when; He just said prepare. So now pretend that this present sits on your table day in and day out. You look at it as a reminder of the plans He has for you but just like all of us, after awhile we want to just shake that box a little. For us, in the box is our departure date; I imagine it's the plane tickets, seat assignments and everything.

Well, we started shaking the box a little, then a little more. Everything looked like it was all in place for us to launch. Changes within the ministry showed us, undoubtedly, we were needed. A house in Zambia already furnished opened up for us. Fundraising was going well and so we set a date to depart. Huge mistake. We allowed the needs of the ministry to overshadow God's timing. Filling those needs are not wrong, but putting it before God's direction is not right. All of a sudden, we were leading the path and not letting the Lord lead us, thinking our ways were also God's. Not so.

We did set a date for the week of December 9th and we found God has a sense of humor. We saw that as we drew closer to that date, it was not going to occur. We realized that we went from "Preparation Mode" to "Planning Mode" something we were not asked to do. The week of December 9th we actually did move but not to where we expected. After living with the amazing Bell family, we realized it was time to move into a small apartment to readjust onto the path God sent us on and not our own. So we did move...

I love how God works with us, even when we take a misstep; He guides us back. With a loving hand, He picks us up, wipes our tears away and says let's start again. So 2013 ended with a new command from God, WAIT.

Waiting is hard. I am far from the picture of patience, but sitting still is essential to being led by the Lord. This lesson is also essential in the mission field. Our western tendencies are to act; many of us do that before thinking. As we prepare to live among a different culture, sitting still and watching is going to be an important portion of that ministry. We must learn to do that at home so we can do that in Zambia.

Now as we look toward 2014, God has asked us to continue serving at home with Every Orphan's Hope. I will return to my former position as Program Manager for Missions and will also begin learning the Sponsorship side of the ministry as the Sponsorship Coordinator will be on leave in June/July. Peter will also continue to learn about the aspects of the ministry and will use his talents to participate as needed. Our blogging and newsletter will be reflecting less on our journey for awhile and will focus more on the ministry.

So we have completed our year of preparation and we begin 2014 with waiting. Quite a different journey we are entering upon still encompassing dependence upon our Lord and an air of excitement, as we do not know what we will encounter each day but to do His will.

May we also encourage you to find moments to be still in God and seek His desires for you, too.