I have learned many things over the last 4 years of living
and working in the Dominican, one of the big things is that plans change. You almost always have to have a plan A, B
& C and often times plan C gets scrapped for something else. For me personally I love order and structure
in everyday activities, but also love to problem solve with multiple options in
my head. It is fun for me to run through
possible solutions and come up with options.
Here in the Dominican that skill has proved useful every single
week. Many times we have become so used
to it that the teams that we work with don’t even know that we have had
changes.
Now when it comes to my personal life I have enjoyed moving
around the country and world experiencing different places. I have
moved a lot the last 15 years, but it has been fun to learn regional and
international cultures, customs and styles.
The one thing about all those moves is that I have always had control of
them. I chose to move, I could make
plans A, B & C and if I didn’t like it I could always leave! So what happens when plans change and we have
little or no impact on the results?
Ugh!
I find myself in a place of usual frustration, agitation and
tension.
Life was rolling along for us and looking good for our
family. As far as transitions go, it
couldn’t be smoother. We were finishing
up the last two months with G.O., getting ready to start with World Impact on
October 1st. We needed to
raise almost the exact same amount of money to be missionaries with World
Impact and most of our supporters had given us the thumbs up that they were on
board. We were excited about Sunshine
being pregnant with our second child and everything was lining up perfectly. That is when the plan changed and the question
for me became how to not just survive but grow.
Within days we found out that the baby was having problems
and Sunshine needed to go back to the States.
As most of you know by now we lost the baby. Sunshine had surgery and returned to the
Dominican. Between the airline ticket
and medical expenses we racked up a healthy $3,000+ expense. Right before that we got word that some of
our missionary support had changed and now we needed to raise $600+ per
month. Between all of these things I
quickly felt that my perfect little plan had completely spun out of
control. There was no plan that I could
execute to resolve losing the baby, no strategy to implement; there was nothing
I could do. I became very tense and
frustration set in.
God has been clearly trying to get my attention about
turning to Him in my times of trial. It
is one of those things that I have always known, but seldom do. As a problem solver, my normal reaction is to
dive right in and not take the time to turn to God in prayer. This time however, with the baby, there was
nothing that I could do except to turn it over to Him. As a result it lead to many times of prayer
and not asking for the baby to live but that we would be able to give Him the
glory in all that we do. I Peter 1:3-9
brought me great comfort. It just
reminded me that as Christians we will suffer grief in all kinds of trials, but
that our inheritance can never perish.
How comforting that is! Pain,
sadness and grief are all things that we experience and I have shed plenty of
tears, but those are short lived in that eternity with him will be such a
delight. It is in that knowledge that I find my comfort and joy. Now the challenge is to remember the lessons
from God and continue to apply them each and every day.
Sunshine and I would love your prayers for three specific
things right now.
1.
We have two weeks to sell our car here in the
Dominican and right now we have no viable prospects.
2.
For the transition back to the States.
3.
That God will provide us with new supporters to
help us cover our $600 per month short-fall.
