"Doing Missions" without Pete

Took another hard step this week. Pete and I always loved going on mission trips…some have been here in the United States and some have been overseas. Each trip has been special and each time we went, it strengthened our hearts even more to want to help by encouraging those we went to serve whether it was through teaching or construction with our main purpose being to share Christ. One of our favorite trips was about 16 years ago when Pete, Brantley and I went to Kenya for 2 weeks. Pete worked with some of our team alongside some of the Kenyan men to build a roof for churches in several locations. The churches there were literally mud hut structures with straw for roofs. Pete’s team would build the new roofs and the church would meet under the new roof until they could afford to add concrete block walls. Brantley and I spent our time sharing Christ through an interpreter as we walked from family community to family community. The families there lived in groups of several huts circled around together. When we would enter a family community area, we had to ask permission to speak from the head of the family. We could not share unless he granted us permission.  Graciously, we were always granted permission…I am sure it was part curiosity so they could hear the “funny way we talked”! But it worked! We would share about our relationship with Christ and invite them to the church.

This is my favorite picture from that trip! The morning this picture was made was the last Sunday we were there. Pete and his crew had built the roof structure for this church in the area where Brantley and I had been working. The church was a long way from the road. As we got out of the van that Sunday morning and started walking down a dirt path to get to the church, we could hear a lot of singing. We came around the corner and the church people had gathered under the roof singing praising to the Lord! It brought such joy to our hearts and you can see it in our faces! What a blessing to be a part of the growth of this church!

All the memories of past trips flooded back into my heart this week because I went on a mission trip to Chicago with a group from our church. You may remember from Pete’s Celebration Service that we were supposed to be in Nicaragua with a team that week. We would also have gone on this trip to Chicago together.  I knew I needed to go on and go to Chicago…but I will tell you, it was hard to do! I missed Pete tremendously not being beside me ministering together like we always did. Although I held it together during the days, the first two nights, I came back to the hotel and just cried! As I cried those two nights, He sweetly sent me prayer warriors and reminders of Who He is…I had been reading in a great book by Anne Graham Lotz titled Why? Trusting God when you don’t understand and He reminded me once again that I needed to “trust Him beyond today, beyond the physical, beyond the emotional, beyond the temporary, beyond the material, beyond the visible, beyond the grave! Trust Him when you can’t see the big picture or the end of the story. Trust Him when the worst happens and you just don’t understand why.” So once again, He pulled me up off of the floor and reminded me to “trust Him”! Things were much better the rest of the week. I was given an opportunity to develop new friendships with two women in particular who have lived hard inner city lives. I am looking forward to continuing my friendship with them through emails and am sure God will use us in each other’s lives. The best gift of all, though, was an opportunity that I had on Wednesday to share Christ with an 11 year old boy who asked Him into his heart! That was worth the trip and any amount of tears!! What I love the most was how God had been working in his life. Timothy was not a member of that church but had gone on a youth trip with them a few days prior to our arrival. Then some of our group poured into his life while we were there through some activities for his age group. Then I was given the blessing to share with him on Wednesday and his heart was so open and ready for Christ to walk right in! Such a sweet reminder of how God uses the body of Christ to plant, to water and to reap!

Pete and I had been planning on focusing on lots of mission opportunities stateside and overseas over the next few years. I am having to learn that I need to go on and complete our dreams without him even though it will be so hard to do. I must be obedient to God’s direction on our lives even when I don’t understand why He is having me do it alone instead of with Pete. It made perfect sense to us…God would use Pete’s construction knowledge and my education knowledge and we would have great ministry opportunities together around the world! However, our Sovereign God had another plan…and so I will just keep holding on tightly to His hand and seeking His will…even through tears along the way!

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.” Proverbs 3:5 - 6