A missionary mom

As a missionary, one is faced with many choices not just in ministry but especially in your personal life. But as a missionary mom a whole new dynamic is added to life’s decisions while on the mission field. Lately among my fellow missionary mom friends I have noticed that we are facing similar choices with varying circumstances. The same dilemma we face is this:  How as mothers do we reconcile raising our children in the healthiest and best environment and at the same time be totally committed to our calling?” We are called by the Lord to “go and make disciples” and sometimes that means exposing our children to environments that poses threats and risks to not only their health but also to their upbringing. For moms this is scary and daunting to make these kinds of life choices with your husband; choices that are made FOR your children not WITH your children.

I have heard of testimonies by other missionary families that have lost children to the mission field through various situations. This is a parent’s worst nightmare, especially for any mother who tends to be emotional and thinks the worst about life’s “what ifs”. Immediately the following floods our minds:

“How can I raise my children in such an environment” (an environment that might mean less comforts or a health risk).

“What if I actually were to lose my child, how could I live with that?”

“What will my family say about moving their grandchildren or nieces/nephews to such a different /risky environment?”

“Is this the best time to be moving my child? Should we wait until they are older or moved out of the house?

“What about school and the friends they have? Will they be able to find a spouse where we are moving to?”

“What if we wait? Not to say that we won’t go at all but maybe we should wait until the kids are_____?”

“I can’t possibly go on a mission trip with a baby who is breastfeeding and not potty trained!” or “We can’t move to the mission field with a newborn, there’s no support system, I will be all alone!”

I could go on and on but, well, you get the picture. Maybe to a seasoned missionary mother who “has been there done that” this may not be an issue for you but for other mothers, including myself, these questions and doubts are real and are confusing.

For myself, I have always said, “I never want to tell God ‘No, I won’t do____’ “. Yet I have before and it didn’t last very long. But there are other ways we tell God “no”; we can delay in our obedience or we can choose to take a different route, one that leads to the same result but just not the way God has indicated for us or maybe we squelch the Holy Spirits persistent drawing with our doubts and questions that we end up giving in to our emotions and in the end we say, “I want to___ BUT it’s just too____”.

Let me get more specific and more personal. David and I are facing a decision ourselves, one that is a year away but to me I think about it every day, contemplating and testing the waters of which avenue to take. As I am sure you all know, we are expecting our 2^nd child, Jacob. We also have planned our 4^th mission trip to Kenya, one in which I play a vital role. I lead 2 VBS programs and this year had planned on leading a woman’s discipleship course. These two events eclipse one another. Our mission trip is scheduled when Jacob will be 10 months old. He will be breastfeeding and not yet potty trained and Hannah will be 6. What do we do?!

Fact: The Lord has called me to “Go and make disciples”.

Fact: It is not an accident that our 2^nd child will be less than a year old at this time that we are supposed to be in a 3^rd world country.

Fact: We would come against opposition from many people who would disagree with taking our infant into this environment.

Fact: The Holy Spirit (always taking from the Father and giving to me) is ever constant and never changes in His leading and imparting wisdom.

Fact: God has never led us into something then left us and He has never failed us.

Ok, say we do take our infant and 6 year old to Kenya. I would be breastfeeding, changing diapers, taking care of Hannah, trying to keep to a minimum sanitary problems that come with staying in Kenya, doing all of our laundry by hand for all 4 of us, all the while leading a woman’s discipleship class and a VBS program. David will be able to help and bear some of the load but he has his own responsibilities while there, he is responsible for 2 pastor’s conferences, private counseling with leaders when necessary and preaching church services on the side.  Will I be able to do this with an infant and young child in toe?! How can I be of any benefit to those I have come to serve if I and David are so stretched thin with just family responsibilities? Is it even healthy to take a young baby to this environment?

So, again, what do David and I do? Whenever I am faced with this kind of question, whether in my own life or from listening to someone else’s dilemmas, this statement always pops into my head: “What does the Bible say about this situation?” Now unfortunately I can’t turn to, let’s say, Deuteronomy 3:6 and find the answer specifically for David’s and mine current choice (but it would be nice). That means our choice is subjective, meaning there is no “one size fits all” answer, meaning that we have to make a choice based on what God would want us to do, not what other people want us to do or what we would prefer to do.

Two things come to my mind, a passage of Scripture and a song. The song is “I surrender all” and the passage is Luke 14:25-33

“25 Once when large crowds of people were going along with Jesus, he turned and said to them, 26 "Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and themselves as well. 27 Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples. 28 If one of you is planning to build a tower, you sit down first and figure out what it will cost, to see if you have enough money to finish the job. 29 If you don't, you will not be able to finish the tower after laying the foundation; and all who see what happened will make fun of you. 30 "You began to build but can't finish the job!' they will say. 31 If a king goes out with ten thousand men to fight another king who comes against him with twenty thousand men, he will sit down first and decide if he is strong enough to face that other king. 32 If he isn't, he will send messengers to meet the other king to ask for terms of peace while he is still a long way off. 33 In the same way, concluded Jesus, "none of you can be my disciple unless you give up everything you have.”

Wow, both hit home for me.  Now applying this verse to our situation and the solution is one that intimidates me and leaves me stuttering, “But..but…but…”. This choice cannot be made hastily or recklessly or can even be made by taking a poll amongst our friends and family members to see what they think. In the end it is us following our Savors plan for us and our children, young as they may be. 

Thankfully, a choice does not need to be made right now at this very moment. But there will come a day when David and I will need to look at this choice square in the face and make a decision. Right now, I am praying. Praying for what, you might ask. Praying that until that time comes, I will not worry, I will be patient and I will not rush the leading of the Lord in our life. The fact that my future and this choice remains unresolved at the moment drives me insane because I like to have everything planned out and know what to expect and what to do ahead of time. Therefore, in this scenario I think the lesson just isn’t in making “the choice” but it is also in the “waiting” to make the choice. Sometimes God does say “wait” and for the time being that is what David and have heard from the Holy Spirit. Obviously God knows what we will do and how everything will unfold but for some reason He has chosen to conceal the answer from us at the moment and I am just gonna have to learn to be okay with that!

I ask everyone reading this to pray for us this coming year. Pray that we will follow Gods leading no matter what it may mean for us, even if it means an unpopular choice.

All I want as a missionary mom is to exhibit to my children through my life what it looks like to be a total, sold out disciple to Christ every single day and in every situation. Yeah it might mean doing things that seem “risky/unwise” to many, yeah it will probably mean discomfort not only for me but for my kids as well and yes it might even mean sacrificing our earthly lives for our heavenly one. In order to be completely sold out, David and I need to count the cost and be ready for whatever might come. Praise the Lord He has found us worthy to be trusted with the family and ministry He has given us to lead while here on earth.

Whatever may come I know that David and I can say, “I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength”


Only by His Grace,
Heather

Improving the bottom line

So for the past 2 months David and I have been trying to lower our monthly food bill. We have come up with 3 ways so far. The first is the art form of couponing. We started out trying to find coupons here in PR and on the internet. We discovered most Puerto Ricans do not know what coupons are let alone provide coupons in the Sunday papers. That left us with finding them online. We were able to print many coupons at first but soon realized there is a limit. We combined in-store sales with the coupons we had and our bill was $130, without sales + coupons it would have been almost $200. This first attempt lasted us a month, it blew my mind away that we had food that lasted us a month for only $130! Normally $130 grocery bill would mean what we bought would only last about 2 weeks. We were so excited and the next month tried finding more coupons but our coupon supply was dwindled from the last grocery trip and we couldn’t find any suitable coupons that we needed or we could use.  That is how we came up with the following idea: why not ask our friends, family members and our supporters if they would be willing to clip coupons for us if we provided a pre-posted envelope? We sent out e-mails, letters and posted the idea on facebook. A few people came forward and said, “Yeah, sure I can do that!”  We received our first “coupon donation” and excitedly sifted through the coupons. We have received 4 “coupon donations” so far and it has helped tremendously!  Go figure, right?! We use coupons for everything now, shampoo, dog food and basically any household, grocery or office item you can think of.  Hannah is even learning what coupons are and how they work. When she see’s candy or her favorite snack food she immediately asks if we have a coupon for that! We have had to retrain how we view in-store sales and how we shop using coupons. Even though PR isn’t as engrossed in couponing as the States, they still have websites where you can view each stores weekly sales circular. So instead of driving around and gathering all the circulars, we can just view them online at home, compare them with the coupons we’ve received, and make out a shopping list. No longer do we hop in the car and arrive at the store couponless and ignorant of sales! 

The second way we are reducing our food bill is that we have started a vegetable and fruit garden. We have taught Hannah to gather seeds, plant them and water them. Hopefully in a few months we’ll have our first crop! We also plan on using the fruits and vegetables to help out anyone who is in need. We don’t have a big yard but we have learned various ways of growing things inside and how to recycle pop bottles as planters for when the seedlings grow out of their indoor pots. We have made a shelf outside that sits on our porch. David is already building another place for when the plants get bigger and start producing food. Hannah is so excited about gathering seeds that every place we visit she is looking at the ground for various seeds; she has gathered Kenipa and palm tree seeds so far. She has said many times that if we take the peanut from her M&M’s and plant the “seed’ we could grow our own chocolate tree!  

The third way we have come up with goes hand in hand with our food garden. David has been learning and researching about Aquaponics.  Basically you raise fish in a tank of any sorts and recycle their water to grow and fertilize your food plants. Through various means of pumps , piping and simple gravity the water starts in the fish tank or tub, gets pumped up a pipe to your plants, the water passes through a sediment bed, watering your plants and the excess goes out another pipe and goes back down to the fish.  David is even researching and learning about solar powered pumps so that we won’t be using electricity to run the pump. Buying a small solar power system and battery is surprisingly cheap; the cost of the small system is even cheaper than using electric for running this Aquaponic system the first month!  Many people just use goldfish or some other small fish in this system but we have discovered that you can use Tilapia. Raising them and caring for them is practically free, you just have to make sure there is enough room in your fish tub. Tilapia are perfect fish for rising in our PR climate, they are resilient to illnesses and produce offspring quickly. Therefore, we will not only be raising a food garden but growing our own Tilapia as well. Now, I am not crazy about fish but as any good mother who wants to set a healthy example, I make a fish dinner at least once a week and Hannah has no problems eating Tilapia. But with this new means of food we’ll be eating fish probably about 2-3 a week along with fresh veggies from our garden!

It will take about a 5 months to build, raise the fish to maturity and produce our first harvest before we can take advantage of our work.  We have an old swimming pool that has sat outside going unused for about 1 ½ years; we are cleaning it up and getting it ready to accommodate its first aquatic habitants.  It is exciting to work, grow and harvest the food that you will be giving to your family for meals on a daily basis. Raising a garden and your own food is something that American culture has almost lost but in other parts of the world it as an every day event that is naturally done and taught to the children along with their ABC’s. 

I hope that as you have read this article it has encouraged you and maybe even given you some ideas to try to reduce your own family’s food bill. All of this might sound complicated and you might think it takes a lot of time but really anyone is capable with the mind God has given them and the Bible says, “We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength”.  If you have any ideas to add, I would love to hear them as would the other people reading this article.

God bless,

Heather

Hannah Banana

We both had fun making her Birthday cake and cupcakes.

      Our first born just turned 5 a few days ago. I can still remember bringing her home from the hospital and marveling at how amazing it was to finally have her home and begin our life together as a complete family.  For those of you who are unaware of her story let me share with you now:

David and I started out as any newly married couple wanting a family. However after 4 years of trying to conceive we were pretty sure that something was wrong and the possibility of never having a child was very real and hurtful. We did not have the means to get ourselves tested or even try for IVF (In vitro fertilization). 

Corky just after his surgery.

      When we first moved to Puerto Rico in 2004 we hadn’t been here for more than a couple weeks when news came that David’s dad was going in on a Friday to have angioplasty but was immediately rushed into surgery for a quadruple bypass surgery. Since we had just moved 3,000 miles across the ocean we were pretty tapped out for money. We could only wait by the phone and pray. News came Saturday morning that David’s dad had sat up during surgery and lost more than 30% of his blood but the surgery was over and successful. We called our friends back home and our supporting churches to pray. Sunday morning when David’s mother went in to see her husband, he was sitting up in his hospital bed eating breakfast and asked where she had been! We went to church that day still worried but prayerful. A Deaf friend of ours named Tony was there and he could see that David was worried but David did not take the time to explain everything that had happened, he simply said, “My dad is sick”. Tony went home that night and prayed and asked God to show him what was wrong. God did show him in a dream and that next Sunday morning Tony shared with David all that God had showed him. God had showed him about the surgery and his recovery, he said that his dad was having problems eating and recovering but because David had honored God He would smooth all of his dad’s recovery problems away and he would live a long and healthy life. We did not know about his recovery problems because David’s parents hadn’t told us because they didn’t want us worrying. His dad started eating normally that same day. We praised and glorified God over healing his father and the miraculous recovery.

    It was about 2 months later that Tony came to us again and told us that he had had a dream about us. He said God had showed him a picture of David and me with a baby girl that had blond curly hair, brown eyes, her name was Hannah and for the first 3 months we wouldn’t tell anyone we were pregnant. Tony knows Spanish, not English but he spelled “Hannah” in English not Spanish.  We were very excited to hear this news but we didn’t know when this would happen. In February 2007 we went on furlough and returned back to PR in May. We normally gain quite a few pounds from our traveling and staying with other people so when David started losing and I maintained my thick waist he began to wonder if I was pregnant. I was skeptical simply because over the years of trying to have a baby and buying EPT tests I was frustrated and didn’t want to get my hopes up. We bought a test and it was inconclusive. We bought another digital one and the result came instantly but I waited the full 3 minutes to tell David because I didn’t know if it would “change its mind”! It was positive and we didn’t wait to tell anyone we just started calling everyone. So much for waiting 3 months. or so we thought.

Heather, Hannah, Tony, and Papa Paul

       By the time we got in to see an OBGYN and to see the ultrasound the doctor told us we were 5 1/2 months pregnant! David nearly passed out and fell over! We told her all that Tony had told us and she said we were having a girl. On the delivery day all the nurses knew about Hannah's story and how we had been waiting for her.  When Hannah was finally delivered the nurses and our doctor all said, “Wow she does have blond hair the story was true!”  As Tony had said we wouldn’t tell anyone we were pregnant for the first 3 months because we didn’t know we were pregnant. We were overjoyed and amazed at this unexpected blessing that we thought might never possibly have come true. Hannah means “The Lord hears”, the Lord heard our prayers and even gave us a messenger to bring us peace while we waited!

Hannah helping with the laundry.

     Hannah has traveled to the States 5 times and went to Kenya twice. She can remember what the Amsterdam, Holland International airport looks like and where the “Jungle Gym” is located in the airport. She has a passport with about 5 pages filled with stamps and visas. We have taken her into third world countries and she has built snowmen with her grandparents in Ohio. In each circumstance and in each environment she has adapted and “gone with the flow”. To her if mommy and daddy are there when she goes to bed at night, she feels comfortable and at peace. We are so blessed to have an exceptionally graceful child!

       Now we have a second blessing on the way! Hannah can’t wait to be a big sister and is practicing taking care of a baby on her dolls. She talks all the time about how she will care for her baby brother and about all the things he will need.  She asks almost daily if the baby is “big enough to come out”.  Hannah likes to tell everyone that “mommy has a baby in her belly”!

     We know that the Lord has a special plan for Hannah and for Jacob even though he is still being formed by our Master. We pray for the grace and wisdom as we lead these 2 blessings as we raise them up with this verse in mind: 

 So that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Deuteronomy 6:2

 We are excited to see where the Lord will take them and what He has planned for them.What a truly awesome God we serve. We are not sure what tomorrow might bring that we know whatever may come the Lord is already preparing the way.

In Christ,
Heather  =)

And the story continues...

So in my last post, "Is your life a bank vault" I wrote about our finances and how the Lord had led us to make new commitments and renew old ones. Let me write a follow up because it’s uncanny how things worked out that following week. I believe I wrote it on a Saturday night and sometimes when you get specific with God, He’ll work in ways that are just as specific! Here is what I said last week:

“What will we do if tomorrow we get in the van and it breaks down? The Lord will provide and care for us.”

Well, true to His word He did take care of us because on the way home from church the next day, Sunday, we heard a strange noise. I shook my head and said to myself, “You just had to use the van breaking down as an example didn’t you?!” Come to find out the tension pulley had worn out and needed replacing and it was probably time to replace the serpentine belt as well. If we were to have taken it somewhere it would have cost us a couple hundred but David said he could fix it with the help of our friend therefore lowering the cost to just parts, about $75. But we didn’t have $75 at all.  Wouldn’t you know Monday morning we got a call saying a donation had arrived! Wow! However, when David began taking things apart he realized that the fan clutch needed replacing as well. Another $60 expense that we couldn’t meet! But we waited on the Lord and He provided for that as well. We made a commitment, and then within 48 hours we were faced with a situation where in the past we would have used the credit card to take care of everything. But we didn’t and God honored our commitment and made sure we had what we needed.

In addition we received another gift specifically for me to get an eye exam. I had been wearing the same contacts for 3 + months (for the fellow contact wearers we both know that that’s a big NO NO!) and hadn’t had an exam in a year and a half.  I finally went in and the doctor informed me that contacts probably aren’t the best for me to wear for awhile because due to over usage of a single pair of contacts and from wearing only contacts for over 11 years my eyes weren’t getting the oxygen flow they needed and thus blood was not circulating enough and blood was pooling around my eye. She said on a scale from 1-5 I was a 2 ½. The damage is reversible but only if I stop wearing contacts and switch to glasses. The donation we received was more than enough for an eye exam + contacts but glasses are a different story. Thankfully though with the exam and a new pair of glasses we had $6 left over. As always God knew ahead of time what was needed and provided a skilled Dr. to give me advice and warn me of where I was headed. Even though I am not at all happy about wearing glasses, I am thankful that I serve a God who not only knows what I need long before I even am aware of what is happening but provides and takes care of me!

In the midst of all of the above there was a brother in Christ who had begun e-mailing David. He lives in Iowa and works part time here in PR and was led to do a search for ministries here. He found our web page and read through everything. He shared that he would like to meet with us and get to know us better but Hannah and I had become sick and as a last resort David decided to meet with this brother by himself before he had to go back home to Iowa. David and this man had a wonderful time and David took him around town a little and they enjoyed lunch together. At the end this brother gave us $200 and told David to take me on a date when I am feeling better, take Hannah to the hot springs and then use the rest for whatever we needed to use it for.  We were so blessed and surprised. God used this man to provide a nice break in the midst of all our stress and answered another need we had, up until this point we still had not enough funds to purchase Hannah’s school books. This was a need we had no idea how God was going to provide for, let alone provide for it through a brother in Christ who is here all the way from Iowa! And at the time our cabinets and frig were empty, we found as many coupons as possible and went to several stores who had different sales in an effort to make every penny count. God took what this brother gave us and multiplied it like He did when He fed the 5,000 with only a boys lunch. God never ceases to amaze me!!!

So where are we now? Well after 2 weeks the van is finally fixed and my glasses are here. Has God snapped His fingers and made our debt disappear and all of our bills get paid? Nope. Do we have what we need to pay for this month’s bills? Nope. Are all of our problems gone just because we are obedient? Nope. God never promised us a problem free life in exchange for obedience and servant hood. BUT He did promise us that He’ll never leave us, forsake us or let us stumble. God’s timing is perfect and right now, when we are unable, God is doing and we are giving Him the glory and honor.

Does money and financial wealth equate Gods approval on what we’re doing? Not in the least. As my Dad reminded me last week, “There are thousands of churches/ministries who have more money than they know what to do with but they are spreading heresy and destroying lives”. We are here doing as the Lord leads us, we are obedient to His calling even though sometimes we don’t understand the reason or the “how”. For instance, when we tell people we started doing ministry in PR but we have 46 churches in Africa and Pakistan, we never fail to get, “How does that happen” response. It happens when His servants say, “Here am I, send me” and then put their faith in action.

Let me share this promise that encourages me every time I am faced with something I don’t understand:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

When God called us to the mission field, He didn’t call us to worry about paying the monthly bills and allow that to become our focus. He called us to be obedient as He leads us down the path that will prosper us and grow us. We can’t try to fit that into what we think it should look like; we must be willing to allow Him to shape and mold us as we serve Him in any way He leads.

It appears for now that this struggle will be with us for at least the foreseeable future. God has us where we are for our good and for the good of those we minister to. God has never not taken care of us. What we need to learn to do now is let go of our frustrations and worries about finances and focus on how God wants us to continue touching lives and discipling those around us for the glory of His Kingdom. 

His servant,

Heather