Last week, after putting our youngest son into college, I was fortunate to spend one Sunday in Charlotte and hear a message by Jim Kallam, "Inviting You Into His Story". My mind was full of pictures and videos of the past 17 plus years with Benjamin, and the huge hole didn't seem quite as large when remembering. So right then and there, I made a decision that beginning this week, to be more faithful with inviting you, our friends, families, and strangers into our story which began over seven years ago. You see, God is writing your story, and by reading or hearing the stories of others, your story may be dramatically different! I wrote this story earlier last year, and it may have been posted elsewhere, but here it is! So, the story that began it all.....
Wooed by God to the
Mission Field
The first inkling of change
I remember the
television images of 9/11, the household events of that day, and the eventual
call by then President Bush to service (not just those in the military, but
everyday Americans).
That day was pivotal
as I sat on a comfortable couch, recalling the year my husband, Brian, and I
spent in Pakistan long ago. I realized that, since returning to the U.S. in
1991, we had accumulated material possessions, put down roots in the beautiful
Southeast, and were living a comfortable North American lifestyle.
I prayed that day that
God would use me -- a homeschooling mom and nurse -- in some way to redeem
human suffering in the world.
I explained to my three
young children, as best I could, the events of 9/11, and we had a fundraiser in
our driveway for the Red Cross. We thought we had helped, at least a
little.
Steps toward life change
Brian and I became
foster parents in 1996, after realizing our children needed a ministry they
could take part in. How better to introduce them to service and the needy of
the world by loving and caring for infants as they awaited their permanent
placements in other families. Our family served together and learned to love
unconditionally and deeply. We sometimes wept as the babies we loved went to
less than optimal situations. Then, we decided to adopt, growing our family in
a marvelous way as we taught our children that God made us all in His image.
But we still lived the
American dream. We moved to a bigger house, and our roots grew even deeper.
God knew what He was
doing, though. He was using our everyday lives to prepare our family for what
lay ahead.
I went back to graduate
school after being led to a website for Frontier School of Midwifery and Family
Nursing more than once while answering emails and shopping by internet, way
before it was popular! This was during a particularly low point in my life, and
when I asked my husband what he thought, he encouraged me to apply and see what
transpired. Of course, God’s hand was in it all and less than six weeks later,
I was headed for the on-campus, out of state orientation to the community-based,distance
learning program. The family cheered me on and stepped up to many of the
demands of running the household. We continued to homeschool our children while
I was completing coursework and eventually taking 24 hour call on maternity
wards in metropolitan Charlotte and coordinating clinic time in metropolitan
Charlotte, Greensboro and with a Native American population in Oklahoma.
It was part of God’s plan.
I was blessed to welcome 43 new babies into the world, to empower women in one
of the most intimate experiences in their life, and to personalize each one
with a pink or blue birthday cake. I saw that my world was vastly different
than much of society, and that just listening to their struggles provided peace
and not being able to
fully communicate with all of my clients in the same way was frustrating,
though as many were either Hispanic families and spoke Spanish, or Native
American with dialects foreign to my ears. I knew simple words of greeting and
body parts, a pig Latin sort of Spanish gained on the job in an emergency room
in Houston, Texas. Those seven years of French were frustratingly useless in
Native American and Hispanic contexts. It left me a little disappointed. Was it
possible to cross those language and cultural barriers?
We’d soon find out.
A growing pull towards missions
Individually, members
of our immediate family served on short-term teams to post-Hurricane Katrina
New Orleans with EFCA TouchGlobal, and we took a vision trip to Latin America
with EFCA ReachGlobal. God was wooing us ever so slowly back into the world of missions.
Only God, the Master
Creator, could weave such a unique tapestry through our everyday lives, careers
and family life to prepare us to willingly step out in faith to serve cross-culturally
-- first in the U.S. with peoples of all nations passing through our
workplaces, foster babies of all ethnicities, and hosting a foreign exchange
student from France, in New Orleans post-Katrina relief, working as a midwife with Native Americans in Oklahoma, and finally serving overseas in Latin America.
Who does God use?
When I left North Carolina four years ago (wondering how God
could call a family of six from comfortable suburbia to be missionaries in San
José, Costa Rica), I was just an average North American woman. I was not a
Bible scholar nor a church planter, but a chocolate-craving, Target-loving mother
and wife.
And yet, I desired more than anything to alleviate human
suffering in the world.
Some days that means serving a friend by providing refuge from
culture shock. Other days, that means providing health care to indigent women.
You may be living an ordinary life… but God can use you to
accomplish something extraordinary. A
seminary degree and proficiency in a foreign language are not required. A
willing heart, a teachable spirit and the placing of one foot in front of the
other as He leads will do.
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