PO Box 3543 Pagosa Springs, Colorado 81147
When looking at 2018 from a bird’s eye view, I say, “good riddance!” Last year felt like a BIG battle – relentless and overwhelming. It prompts thoughts of an old African proverb – “a lion who chases a gazelle runs for its food, but the gazelle runs for its life.” We’ve been gazelles for the last 12 months, facing BIG problems, too many to mention in a newsletter, too fierce for our fragile humanity.
Recently, I remembered a journal entry written long ago that led me see God’s perspective of 2018. His relationship with us changes the race from saving our lives, to a walk of giving our lives for others.
Journal entry Feb. 2010
“I know God cares about everything that concerns me. He longs to share my morning plans, afternoon daydreams and evening thoughts. He asks me to bring pleas and desires before Him with thanksgiving. Even as the earth churns in huge turmoil – abused children, gruesome conflicts and corruption looming large, He never sees any need as too small or too big. Actually, those are places to start conversations with God, who weaves my life into the larger picture.
While I pray for what I believe are immense difficulties, like vulnerable children and persecuted mamas, they are only big to me because, well, I'm not God. He crafts answers to enormous problems; Incredibly, He makes those answers small enough to fit into my hands, and equips me to carry His solutions over a pain-plagued earth.
I think of Elijah who laid his own body across a dead boy. Imagine for moment - the child's body probably smelled from the desert heat. He was cold and unresponsive; like so many people today. Could I literally lay my life over death and believe for the impossible? Elijah did, and God moved - He resurrected the boy. He restored life.
Can I truly embrace someone who lives in gripping poverty, a neglected orphan, a victimized widow, a strange foreigner?
Can I care for one at the cost of self-sacrifice, knowing God will care for me?
If I believe God - I can. He uses both small and big to build His kingdom.”
By knowing Him, we remember those in crisis with a core that feels their suffering, as though we were suffering too. It's easy to forget something we don't feel. If we turn away from disgusting odors, ugly attitudes or unintelligible speech, how can we relate to those whom Jesus refers to as “the least of these?” If we ignore perceptions that don't line up with ours, how can we give the gospel to those who live in darkness? God shares answers for the wounded with those who are not offended by woundedness.
God mends our hearts to bind up the brokenhearted. God removes scale of sin off our eyes, to guide those blinded by lies and help them truly see. Christ sets us free to carry liberty to those who are captive, where He releases them into destinies of His design.
Keep giving Him the small - the two fish and five loaves - and watch Him feed multitudes. He shows us things that break His giant heart, and because of our relationship, He enables us to be His hands and feet in a sad and dirty world.
Simple concerns, like a child showing a parent a tiny scrape on a fingertip and expecting comforting words, are significant to our heavenly Dad. From those experiences of closeness, we learn to love with the same love He lavishes on us.
How God made our BIG difficulties of 2018 small enough – step by step:
1. Henry’s months of USA immigration issues ended in gaining a USA passport. God provided every step of the way. He also helped Henry respond well to 16 weeks of latent TB treatments. In spite of Henry’s developmental delays, CP and hearing loss, and speech impediment, he remains a happy, inquisitive boy; who, just the other day, engaged a sales clerk at Ross, asking her to help him find a fast pair of running shoes. Henry’s uninhibited request was difficult for the clerk to understand but he persisted. Their conversation made us laugh.
2. After a nearly fatal fall, I watched God bring friends who set up schedules to assure both me and my family were cared for well. They gently supported me through months of recovery. Somewhere along the recuperating path we became advisors for two university projects on adoption and development in Kenya. Locally, we’re directing our children’s church program and continue to encourage adoptive families through Among the Least.
3. The vehicle for Among the Least in Kenya could be a nightmare to manage; but God has orchestrated the missionary community to rent it as needed, and payment
goes to the mamas requiring extra money school fees.
4. After the grand opening of the Resource Center and Clinic, the government closed it down till the church could put up a roof/ceiling that met “new building code standard” (which changes like the weather!). During that time, Pastor Mary had a hysterectomy – a serious operation to endure at a local Kenyan hospital. Throughout that interim, the church took more responsibility towards the building and developing of its programs – a necessary step in the family preservation arena. And, the new roof was approved! 
5. As our family knows, adoption in Kenya embroils a daunting process. The Lord used our experience, to help us walk with another missionary family in the tussle of adopting. They finalized in June and in September, traveled together to USA for furlough.
Commitment to family preservation, adoption and foster care creates very personal journeys – ones encompassing a spectrum of emotions and behaviors that require confidentiality. We are honored to come along side those who father the fatherless and share the widows’ burdens. God doesn’t promise ease or reward, but He does provide help in our times of need. He makes resolutions to BIG crisis that fit in our finite hands to carry on.
Thank you for all your continued prayer and support.
If you’d like more information about Among the Least’s local outreach or the work in Kenya, please contact to us at:
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