"People take your example far more seriously than they take your advice."We have written to you over and over about how our family is a large part of our ministry. Many people ask if it is hard to be a a family in missions. We usually reply: "It's all we know!" This is true. But just to be real for a moment, of course there are challenges! They may be different than you would expect. We have been doing this all of our children's lives so there are some things we have become really good at. Traveling 20+ hours with kids by plane, car or bus- check! Adapting to foreign cultures and foods- check! Keeping our kids healthy and taking care of them with weird tummy things/fevers and no resources- check! The challenges: We know that our family is under a giant spotlight 24/7, we share our lives with EVERYONE around us, and our kids say goodbye... ALOT.
The things that are challenging are also beautiful. If we balance and have boundaries they can be channeled and used to bring glory to God. We DO believe that God has asked our family to lay down some of the comforts and securities of typical life, but we DO NOT believe that has asked us to sacrifice our family at all. There is a great difference between laying our lives, our family and our children down as a sacrifice before the Lord, and another thing to neglect our call to be a family. We are still students in this. Thankfully God has given us VERY patient children and some incredible people in our lives to help us as we learn to do family well. Even in our messy moments our family really has been a HUGE part of our ministry. So many of our students and staff have told us that they have been learning a lot from our family and many have said that our example has been a tool God is using to bring healing and restoration to their lives! It is so encouraging to see the fruit of this. We really believe that it is important for us to keep pursing this. NOT being the "perfect" family... at all; but being healthy, full of love, purity and realness. We are discipling young adults from a generation of broken families and working with victims that have had every sliver of purity, love and authenticity stripped and robbed from their lives. That is why our family MUST continue being a part of our ministry.
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AuthorWe are a family that has given their lives to the service of Christ. Archives
May 2015
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