May. 11, 2007
Jeni and Africa
Posted in Home Life
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What a wonderful week it has been, you know, despite all the uncontrollable happenings that God allows to show up in our lives :) I am so grateful to be able to say that, like king David, " my hope is in the Lord." These are the very busy weeks of the season for us as our caretaking business means the homes we care for must be cleaned and opened up for the season. We have six homes to clean and ready for the owners arrival. This is the kind of work I enjoy doing. I like to go to a job site knowing what I am needing to accomplish and getting it done while having my children working with me and listening to praise and worship music while we are at it! And, at least here in Door County, it is decent money as well. Often Rick shows up on the sites so we are all together working, which thrills our children. Jeni is preparing to leave for Africa a week from Sunday. I am so excited for her. Each day she receives letters with her support and the comments and encouragements bring tears to our eyes. She has had all of her vaccinations and has the tender arms to prove it! We still need to get her Malaria meds and then she is ready in the health department. Yes, there are concerns, yes, there are risks, but we serve a Sovereign God and He is ultimately in charge of all of our children. They are not mine. God keeps speaking this into my heart as I ponder where each of them are in life. Many of "my" plans and desires have not come to fruition as I had planned, but oh how sweet to see how God's plans have blossomed and brought great joy, even through hard and difficult choices and events in their lives. One of the hardest lessons that I have had to learn is the letting go and letting God have His way with our children. I want them to always be with me, live close and we will all stay bonded together through the years, that seemed so right to me. I did not realize and think past my own heart to each of our children being individuals before God. All this work of homeschooling, and indeed it is HARD work, all the training and prayer and teaching and experiencing together was to produce a child of God, sold out to Him, committed to following God to the ends of the earth if God so chooses to take them there. That all sounded fine until it started to happen! :) God called Jeni to college in Minnesota, Matthew lives in Green Bay, Mandy and her husband will live an hour away. God's plans, not mine. Psalm 11:7 says that the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness and His countenance holds the upright. I studied this last week and the word countenance means ( in Hebrew )to mentally perceive and contemplate with pleasure. Wow! My children are all believers so God is ever mentally thinking about them, contemplating them with pleasure. Why, oh why would I be tempted to worry? He is holding them with the greatest mind of all time, and has His strong right arm ready to respond to their needs as He sees fit. He is so good. And, this is how He sees me as well. I weep at the thought that my God is "minding me." Oh how loving He is toward us. Africa is not to far from His mind, my child will be continually watched by the only eyes and mind that really matter in the grand scheme of life, I trust my Lord. |
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