“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8

The season of Fall or Autumn, whichever you prefer to call it, has arrived and with it come numerous changes that can be processed by the five senses. The leaves on the trees begin to change as God paints a rainbow among the trees, the weather gets cooler, the smell outside changes and we begin to bake apple and pumpkin everything (well at least we do in our house)!

There is something soothing to my soul when I walk through the crunchy, brightly colored leaves that have fallen to the ground. As this happened the other day, God stirred the following thought within my spirit: just as I love the beauty of the new season and look forward to it there is also a piece of me that does not want to welcome Autumn in with open arms because I know what follows Autumn and that is Winter . . . and . . . dare I say it  . . . s n o w. What is happening here is change and change is a very normal part of life. Just as our family is approaching and preparing for a new season of change this December. We anticipate it with much joy and also some reservation.

At the beginning of October, I had the opportunity to attend the Hear the Call retreat with International Ministries in Rhode Island. It was a time of learning, quieting myself before The Lord, letting go, and many opportunities to connect with missionaries and future missionaries. To listen to their stories of how God called them and is calling them to the mission field was awe inspiring and a reminder to me of the dream that God gave me.

Our Bible Study leader, Travis Collins, taught on The Stretching & Trembling Missionary during which he talked about how a missionary is courageous and can also have fears at the same time. When God leads you to the mission field it will be exciting and there will be hard moments; fearful moments mixed within the excitement. It is in these moments that we need to remember that with God’s hand on our shoulder we can have the courage to do what he is asking us to do. His teaching was an encouragement to me and exactly what I needed to hear during this season of my journey. 

The current season of change for our family is going to be vastly different than anything we have ever experienced before. We are both excited and yet within the excitement there are fears of the unknown.  There are even moments when the day feels like the tasks that we are trying to accomplish are swirling out of control, like fallen leaves being swirled around by the wind. Some days it feels like there is one complication after another, this is especially true for the process of obtaining our one year provisional student visa for language study in Costa Rica.  It is during these swirling moments, that we get down on our knees and we pray for God’s favor, patience, wisdom, and the courage to do and say what is right. Will you pray for us that the remaining needed documents will come without a delay or further hiccups? Will you pray that the Costa Rican Embassy will grant us our visa without issue? 

Blessings,

Sarah