Reflections near the beginning of the year...

Hey y'all...
I wrote the following a couple of weeks ago for our newsletter... but seems like it's too long to include in the email. So, in case someone clicks over and is interested in this, I'll post it here. :)

(January 2012)
Today we had an old friend over for lunch after church. She is my age, and called to one of the most closed countries in the world. When I last lived in Ulaanbaatar (which would be about 2002-03), I was part of her life-group at our church. She reminded me of that today.  Since then, she has faithfully and consistently been serving the Lord and keeping the vision He has given her for this group of people He loves in a very tough place to reach—let’s call it the Hidden Land.

How did He prepare her? She served our church here in Ulaanbaatar and also served in a very rural, countryside fellowship in Mongolia. She studied and graduated from the Bible School here. She has ministered to street children and hopes to work with orphans in the Hidden Land. She followed the Lord to another country, where she had to learn 2 new languages (English, to communicate with team members, and the language of that country, to minister there and to take care of daily life) while planning and preparing to move to the Hidden Land, and also studying that language as well. She has been living there, by faith, for some years now, and finally it seems the Lord is opening the door for her to move to the Hidden Land… may it be so, Amen!

And just what does this have to do with us?

Oh, it just encouraged me so much to see my beautiful, full-of-faith Mongolian sister leaving all that she calls home for the chance to share the good news with those who so need to hear that there is hope, there is Someone who loves them with a powerful, gentle, Father’s heart love… She also blessed us by saying that visiting us was also a blessing for her.

It was also a message to me from the Lord, underlining the promise of His provision and faithfulness He reminded me of over the last few days. Friday night was one of those nights when, despite being tired, sleep would not come. My mind was racing, thinking of so many things: things to do, things to prepare for, things left undone. I tried to put all into God’s hands, but still, it was a long time before I finally drifted to sleep. Saturday morning came early—seems like it’s always after a night like that that one of the kids wakes up super-early, cheerful and raring to go! ;) Anyway, bleary-eyed, I think I put on a video (I admit it) and, bleary-eyed, opened up the old copy of Daily Light I’d just come across a day or two earlier. What verses do you think I found? Any fans of Daily Light out there? January 28 morning (here’s a sample): As thy days, so shall thy strength be (Dt 33.25). Take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (Mt 6.34). The God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power unto His people. Blessed be God (Ps 68.35). My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness… that the power of Christ may rest upon me… for when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12. 9-10). Thank you Lord!

We are doing well, overall. I am just at the end of winter break, so have had a delicious taste of what being a stay-at-home-mom is like. I say “delicious” because I do love being with my kids! But they can wear me out, too.  It’s especially hard, I guess, in cold climates since it’s difficult to get out of the house. But we enjoyed our time together; now, when I’m finally figuring how to make the day run a little more smoothly, we have to get used to our old routine of going to school again. ;)

The other night, I watched part of a movie—the Descendants. Not sure if I’d recommend it or not. It seemed rather depressing to me. At the same time, though, it reminded me that most of us go through really, really difficult seasons at some point in our lives. Right now, Javkhaa and I—we’re still in a season of adjusting, I’d say. But my heart was just tuned in to the fact that people we love, friends and family here and all over the world, are going through a really tough time. Some things we know about. Other situations I’m sure we have no idea about, but I just want to say that if you’re in that kind of dark, lonely, or desert place, that God is right there with you. And my prayer is that you will sense His great love for you, His tender Father’s heart reaching out to enfold you and cover you with His wings. Again, from Daily Light: I know their sorrows (Ex 3.7), A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Is 53.3), Jesus, being wearied from his journey, sat… (Jn 4.6), When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then Thou knewest my path (Ps 142.3), In their affliction He was afflicted (Is 63.9). Our Lord is not distant, nor was He immune to trials, grief, or sadness while He lived in our world. He knows exactly what you are going through, and I pray that His great lovingkindness and mercy will supply all that you need, by His Spirit and through His children too.

Looking back at 2011, it’s been quite a year of seeing God’s provision and trying to figure out where He was leading us. We're still listening and watching but it's exciting to begin to see where things might lead...

becoming human...

To do for yourself the best that you have it in you to do-- to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worst--is by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still. The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life itself comes from. You can even prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own.

... Frederick Buechner (b. 1926), The Sacred Journey, San
Fransisco: Harper & Row, 1982, p. 46

A quote I liked...

We hunger to be known and understood. We hunger to be loved. We hunger to be at peace inside our own skins. We hunger not just to be fed these things but, often without realizing it, we hunger to feed others these things because they too are starving for them. We hunger not just to be loved but to love, not just to be forgiven but to forgive, not just to be known and understood for all the good times and bad times that for better for worse have made us who we are, but to know and understand each other to the same point of seeing that, in the last analysis, we all have the same good times, the same bad times, and that for that very reason there is no such thing in all the world as anyone who is really a stranger.

- Frederick Buechner
from Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons