Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Romans 12:12

The past month has been an amazing whirlwind full of a variety of events, trips, emotions, and encounters! Yet, out of all of this past month’s events my heart has been humbled and has increased in hopefulness of what is to come.

My heart is feeling humbled and hopeful because God placed us here in Painesville and I love the ministry here and yet at the same time He is calling our family to go to a foreign land that I also love and am hoping to get to soon. It is a situation that neither Peter nor I have ever been in before; ministering in one place and at the same time waiting for God’s timing for the next place of ministry to be able to begin. I have had moments of not wanting to see our current ministry roles come to an end. Yet, they already are beginning to come to an end. My role as the leader of the Women’s Sunday School class at First Baptist Church Painesville officially ended on the 26^th of January. I handed over the leadership to a sweet sister in Christ who is very excited about stepping into this new role in her faith journey. This past year has been an amazing time of spiritual growth not just for these women but the church. I am very excited about what God has in store for these amazing godly women for the years to come. Our God is amazing! Despite the feelings of sadness that come with stepping down from a position that one loves I am hopeful, full of joy and overflowing with hope about our call to the Dominican Republic.  I await with joyful and hope filled anticipation on the Lord’s timing for the day we will reach 100% of our needed financial support. Just in this past month, I have been at different churches sharing our call to missions and God has moved in some very special ways; specifically giving words of encouragement to myself or to our children through people we just met or people we hadn’t seen in over 7 years.

The last two churches I spoke at in January also brought back a flood of emotions and memories as they were the churches where Peter served as pastor in New York prior to his current position here in Ohio. Our children were able to accompany me to both churches.  Both services are moments that I will hold near and treasure dearly in my heart. It was a joyous time yet also humbling to go back to attend and share from the pulpit at both churches. It was awe-inspiring to see the children’s reactions and responses. Our youngest desperately wanted to remember both places (of course she doesn’t because she born in Ohio). Each of the other three children could only remember bits and pieces about the people, the churches, the parsonages, and the communities. Yet, the children were full of excitement to come along to help share about our calling. It was enjoyable to see their reactions of delight and surprise at how many people knew who they were! Yet, on the inside I was feeling a range of emotions ranging from excitement to nervousness to hopefulness to sadness that we were called away from both churches to minister elsewhere. And now God is doing that again only this time it is much farther away and to a new vocation. Again, despite sadness that comes with the reality of leaving a place or position that one loves there also comes an excitement, and for me the excitement is almost an uncontainable hope. I am genuinely hopeful about where God is calling us to serve and what He is calling us to do.

Amidst all of this God is filling me with hope and drawing me closer to Him. I daily find rest in His peace and in His comfort knowing that He will guide, protect, comfort, and love me.

The Lord your God is in your midst,

The Mighty One, will save;

He will rejoice over you with gladness,

He will quiet you with His love,

He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

 

May you also find God quieting you with His love wherever you find yourself.