Andy is an MK from Brasil. Gina is a hometown girl from SE Wisconsin. We met in Waukesha, fell in LOVE...well, that is the beginning of a long story, that won't fit into this spot.
Since that day, we have been living and moving, and living, and moving, and yes moving some more! We have served 6 yrs in Brasil, and 4 yrs in Thailand. In both countries our main focus has been on the education and discipleship of high school students. Now we are working with college students. Our desire is to help them know the Lord better. We are serving at Ethnos Bible Institute in Waukesha, WI. Andy is the Dean of Education, and Gina is overseeing the campus library. We are privileged to be discipling the next generation of Christian leaders who will serve the Lord in foreign countries and in their local communities.
"So you, too, must keep watch! For you don't know what day your Lord is coming."
Matthew 24:42
I just love watching my Granddaughter Alice. She is so alive with life and lives each moment as if it was the last, to the fullest, without worry for the next day. As I watch her, I am constantly aware that she reminds me so much of how my life should be lived for the Lord.
This latest photo I took of her has me thinking about how I should live my life as if "watching and waiting for the Lord's return"
You wouldn't know it, but just moments before this photo was taken she was running out, bouncing up and down and playing as if she didn't have a care in the world, and then for some reason she all the sudden says..."Mama be back soon" and runs to the window looking and watching for her to return.
How often we are like that in our lives. We live life, as if there isn't a care in the world, and then all the sudden we stop and realize that "Jesus be back soon"...and our attention is drawn upward in anticipation of the day we will see Him face to face.
This next weekend, we will have a campus bustling with studies, students and sports! We have 110 students coming from our other campus in Michigan, and also 20 students coming from Kansas State University! These students have in interest in missions and will be spending the weekend at our campus during their spring break. What an awesome time to have an outreach.
We will be busting at the seams for sure.
Every year our school and the school in Michigan have a weekend to play sports against each other to keep our "mission family" united and strong even though we are states apart. This time together is called "Tribal Cup".
We enjoy an Emphasis on Missions as well, and spend time learning & worshiping together over the weekend.
This year we are blessed to have Paul Dye coming to speak. Paul Dye is the son of Cecil Dye, one of the five martyrs in Bolivia who attempted to reach the Ayore Tribe in 1943.
This is the headline from the "The New York Times" that ran an article about the situation in Colombia when the Guerrillas took missionaries captive and demanded a ransom. Follow the Link to read more about how God used Paul in this situation.
Paul will be speaking in our chapel times together on Friday, the 23rd in the morning. If you are in the area, feel free to stop by. Please let me know if you plan on coming.
Today during our chapel time at Bible School, we had the privilege of having a member from the "Traveling Team" come and share the Mission of the Bible Story.
Ever since bible school, starting back in 1990 I have been headed to the mission field. Not knowing how that would look, but I was determined to live out my faith in someway, somewhere.
Andy and I got married in 92 and moved down to Tennessee where he went to college, we had three boys and he taught a few years in the states and we were ready to finally embark on the long awaited mission that God was sending us on.
Since that first day, our life together has had many uphill battles and many downhill slopes, with beautiful valleys in between. We have lived with much and have lived with little. We have seen many with much and oh so many more with little. But through it all, we have seen the faithfulness of God in every situation. We haven't always seen it right away though!
This season in our lives has brought us into the waiting season once again. Waiting to see what God is going to do, how HE is going to answer our long and silent pleas in the night. How HE is going to show Himself in some mighty way...or in anyway at all! Just WAITING. That waiting doesn't always come with some mighty faith attached, or any faith at all, "if I'm gonna be raw here". This waiting comes out of frustration and many more questions than silent deliberations.
Its hard to sit and watch suffering, even more so when it is your health, mental struggles, and your own flesh and blood. Wondering if God loves them more than you! Because how could a God who loves your kids more than you do watch them struggle, watch them wander farther and farther away from the faith you were so careful to instill in their tiny precious hearts when they were little!
Oh, the doubts and questions...and what are "missionaries" supposed to do with all that? WE know all the right answers, all the correct head knowledge for sure....but sometimes the path between head and heart is farther away than heaven itself! To be the ones that are supposed to have it all together is much too great a burden to bare.
This song by "Mercy Me- Even if" has touched my heart on more than one occasion, and the Lord has finally given me the words to share about it. One of the things I enjoyed about the link to this song (included at the end of the post) is that it also includes his testimony about why he wrote the song. While listening to it, I found myself in his shoes at many statements he made, so, I have learned over the years one thing....
if the Lord says "say it", "do it", or "write it"...
This past Sunday was one of those days were I had to force myself to get out the door for church. It seems that Sundays are the hardest day to get moving! With Andy not feeling good, each day is unknown when he wakes as to what his brain will allow him to do that day. Sunday was one of those "off" days and I was headed to church alone. Family and Friends await me there, but it just isn't the same without my second half next to me. We have traveled the world together, gone to places and done things that I would never have done if it wasn't for Andy. He pushes me beyond my comfort zone and I love him for it, because I realize that I am fully able to achieve many things in the Lord.
So back to Sunday....I arrived at church, and send a message to Andy at home saying....
"Well....Here I go...Put on a happy face"
Of course in Church, I was greeted by friends and always feel such love. Pastor Ron was preaching on a marriage and I got convicted! Yep....God does that, makes you feel like the pastor is looking right through your walls and speaking directly to you!
He shared this simple insight that he actually came up with that morning!
GET MAD
M...Remember your MISSION
A...Check your ATTITUDE
D...Make your DECISION
These simple steps really hit home. As Andy and I have been working on sending out a recent newsletter, we have been thinking through the past months...and the whole year. There has been so much that we have gone through and are still going through, but one thing remains...GOD IS GOOD!
We just need to stay on task and remember our PURPOSE.
