My Hope

  With school starting up we've been lifting up the girls in specific ways.  We've been praying for strength and endurance for H with her foot, listening ears and obedience for V and for M, courage and friendships.  We've prayed a hedge of protection over them as we've sent them off on their own out into the world.  We've especially prayed for a hedge of protection over M as she's transitioning from being homeschooled to attending 7th grade at the local middle school.   God answered our prayers quickly and literally.   After the first day of school we were winding down the evening with H, V and I in the bedroom and Tommy and M in the living room.  He'd just asked her to walk the dog and she was stalling- thankfully.  Shortly after he asked her, there was a flash of color through the window and then a loud crash.  I don't know exactly how it happened, but the short of it is our neighbor backed up over the sidewalk breaking the handrail and cra...

  A little while ago, I was meeting with one of the students and we were sitting on a dock over a lake at a nearby park.  It was a pretty spot and easy to focus on God in the midst of His creation.  While we were processing some of the complexities of parenting, a woman came up.  She apologized for disrupting our conversation but said she just wanted to snap a picture because it just looked so beautiful.  One thing led to another and by the end of the conversation she’d poured out a lot of the pain she’d been going through and as we prayed for her, the tears flowed.  Eventually we parted ways and as we reflected on the opportunity to minister to her, a stranger yet another believer, I thought about the parable of the lost sheep.   The Parable of the Lost Sheep Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinn...

  The last post was focused on Naomi returning home and ending with Ruth’s declaration.  Unlike her mother-in-law, Ruth chose to leave and not look back.  Hers is the point that the refugees we work with have reached.  They know they will not return to their country of birth to live, but most cannot even return to visit.  Despite Naomi’s own feelings of bitterness and grief, Ruth had an unwavering desire to follow her, to become like her.     Ruth followed Naomi to Judah, but it was also the welcome of Boaz that continues the story, and the amazing thing is, it’s not just one generation that’s impacted.  The book of Ruth does tell us part of the genealogy, but Matthew shares a detail that’s left out.    5  and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,  6  and Jesse the father of David the king. Matthew 1:5-6 We find out in ...

We’ve been watching the events in Ukraine with grief and heavy hearts, knowing that their stories are similar to the ones we’ve heard before and yet there is also the hope that perhaps their stories will turn out differently.  Time will tell.  Leaving one’s homeland is never an easy decision, and most often those who flee are met with unopen arms.  They make it across one boarder into another country that is often struggling with their own financial and societal troubles.     But the current message I’m hearing is a different one.  It’s one of welcome.  That still doesn’t make the journey easy, just easier.  Families have been torn apart, fathers staying to defend their country; mothers fleeing to protect the next generation.  Homes have been destroyed leaving an uncertainty about what one could return to.  The welcome the Ukrainian refugees are receiving in Poland and other neighboring countries is enc...

  We were honored to have a friend we met in Lebanon stay with us recently.  It was a huge blessing since we hadn’t known we were leaving for good and while we’d seen her before leaving, it wasn’t the same.  Her time here coincided with a midsemester performance at the afterschool program the big girls are participating in.  As we chatted with a Syrian family we’d met the week before, our conversation naturally drifted to Lebanon and Syria.   The husband was planning a short trip with a group from his church to help with relief and outreach in Lebanon, but it had been canceled because conditions there are so unstable at the moment.  He started telling us the story of the pastor of the church they were planning on working with, someone he’d previously known from Syria.  I listened as he told us the dramatic testimony and cost that the pastor and his family had paid for following Christ.  While Lebanon has a number...

I was talking to my Arabic teacher today about the state of things in Lebanon.  To put it mildly, they’re horrific.  Things have deteriorated so much in the time since we first moved, but especially rapidly in the last year alone.  Three fourths of the population is now living in poverty, and many are quite literally living in darkness as some areas are only getting two hours of electricity a day.  Many have given up meat and dairy, not because of any dietary or ethical restrictions, but rather out of financial necessity.  It’s also disturbing to know that many pharmacies have closed because there is a lack of medicine to be had in the country.      And yet, the government has done nothing.  There have been no changes implemented to help the people.  It is as though they see only the ways to line their own pockets or those of their friends.     I have struggled knowing what to say or...

  At Christmas this year Victoria pulled my sister aside and in all seriousness made the following   request  demand of her:     She needed her aunt to take her to the airport because she was returning to Lebanon.   Victoria went on to explain that all she needed her to do was drop her off, she could do the rest.       I guess she figured she’d had enough experience navigating airports and generally speaking lacks humility so I think she truly thought her plan would work.  Who needs passports, adult supervision or even tickets?  She was on a mission and determined to see it carried out.  When she failed to convince her aunt, she turned her charm to her grandma.    She added a few details to explain the importance of the trip.  She had to go and get her toys that had been left behind and there was a pink dog in particular that was critically important.     Fast forward to this we...

  Yesterday when I was praying with a friend, we were approached and asked to pray for another friend’s daughter who apparently is strong willed in nature.     Having two rather strong-willed daughters myself (who come by this trait quite naturally), I laughed.     I immediately felt bad about my reaction because I want to be able to help and guide other parents but really and truly, I don’t always know what I’m doing and looking back I generally find ways I should have approached things differently.     So, this morning I spent some time praying for wisdom both for myself and to pass along.     It was amazing because as I prayed, I felt like God gave me such a clear picture.       The Bible tells us that God is the potter and we are the clay.  I took a pottery class in college and it’s not as easy as it looks to do it well.  In order for our pieces to be graded the professor cut into each of them to confirm...

Sorry I haven’t written regularly in a while.  I’ve truly been at a loss for words.  I keep trying to make sense of the world around me and fail.  I keep trying to make sense of all the things going on in my own little world and fail.  It does feel sometimes that everything is chasing after the wind.  We just finished an overview study of Ecclesiastes with the girls and one of the things that I hadn’t realized is the wrong way I’d been looking at many of the verses contained inside.  I’ve always heard the verses ‘Everything is meaningless’ and struggled to make sense of it next to having a ‘Purpose driven life’.     Apparently though, the original Hebrew doesn’t use a word that implies meaningless in the way we often see it.  We just don’t have words for it in English.  It is a grasping of the wind, or smoke.  It is here one minute and gone the next; it is felt but cannot be held....

  Every Easter the story is the same, and yet it’s new again.  It never ceases to amaze me how God can open our eyes and draw us in deeper and deeper to a story we thought we already knew by heart.     This year is no exception.  I’ve been reading a book published in 2020 by Dr. Drew Hart called  Who Will be a Witness?  and he highlighted Barabbas, the criminal that the Jews demanded be set free.     Matthew describes him as a notorious prisoner and both Mark and Luke point out that he was a murderer. These were not new to me.  This has shaped the picture I’ve always had of Barabbas.  But when I’ve pictured notorious murders the ones that come to mind are Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, John Wilkes Booth… I can go on, but you get the picture.  Why would anyone cry for them to be re-released into society?  How could the priests get the crowds so riled up that they would choose someone...

  If you're feeling weary right now, let me know.  I may not be able to ease your burden as God can, but I'm happy to listen. I hesitate sharing this because it feels so small in light of the struggles so many others are going through, and yet, it’s where we are right now and I wanted to share and ask for prayers.     I’m weary.   This transition has been much harder than I thought it would be for one of the girls.  School has never been her favorite and it’s been a weekly battle.  But I think the underlying issue has more to do with the move.   One day after having to unpack some boxes she cried in my arms sobbing that she’d lost count on what move this even is… and it depends on how you count them.  But the lowest I’d say is 7 in her life- twice for Bainbridge, twice for Lebanon and three times for Clarkston.  I thought we’d done well since there were only 4 basic areas, but apparently the moving and ...

It was surreal watching protests in America unfold while we were in Lebanon and it left me feeling as though I didn’t know how to speak into the situation while I wasn’t here.  This week, despite being here, has just left me speechless though.  In my last post I mentioned that I’ve been trying to hold my tongue and not say things that will cause further division and I believe that’s still true.  But I also believe we are called to cry out, particularly for justice.   I’ve been praying throughout the week and trying to listen.  I’ve been trying to seek wisdom from the Father and align my will with His.  As I prayed, I just felt a heavy sense of grief.  It’s an emotion I typically feel throughout January though each year the weight of grief varies.  But this year as I watched the insurrection live on the news, it was not my son that I grieved… it was not even my nation I grieved…    I grieved the souls of...

  2020 has not been the worst year ever- for me.  That’s not to say that this has been my favorite year because it's certainly had it's share of struggles, but 2008 beats it hands down- no question.     But for some of my friends, and understandably so, they just want this year to end and pray that along with it the sorrows and struggles that it’s brought.   I know someone who lost her daughter just before Christmas, someone who has lost 9 family members due to Covid, countless people in Lebanon who have really been struggling with the financial crisis there, the list goes on.  It’s been a rough year and I feel like my struggles have paled in comparison.     I’ve been reading Job searching for wisdom in knowing what to say as one calamity after another befalls them.  But really and truly, it gives more guidance on what not to say.  His friends all said the wrong thing.  Elihu wasn’t repri...