Our family has lived an active life of ministry. Jim was a youth pastor and senior pastor. We were missionaries in Australia, foster-parented, adopted special needs children, are self-employed and now we have an orphan aid organization in Liberia!
During the 34 years of our marriage we have had tumultuous seasons. Our home was burned, our animal barn burned down, Ally had 53 surgical procedures, I have had 16 surgeries; we parent children who have been abused and traumatized.
This. Has. Been. Hard.
When I read what C.S. Lewis wrote: Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny, I have to give a hardy AMEN! Jim and I are ordinary. Many times, the ministry placed in front of me seems too big and it is. If I get caught on the entire outcome being dependent on little old me, then yes….it is beyond conceivable to accomplish.
The good news is that while I am ordinary, my God is extravagant. He is more than capable of accomplishing the impossible through people like me and you who make themselves available for His service. One way He does that is by allowing us to go through storms and difficulties because He knows that if we stand the test, we will come out stronger. We will have proven resilient. We will be more prepared for the bigger things that lie ahead of us that require tenacity and deep roots that come from being grounded in the Word of God.
Jim and I didn’t set out to begin an orphanage community in Africa. It was all the tasks
along the journey that have prepared us and led to this moment in time.
What hardships have you endured in the last few years? Might God be preparing you to say ‘yes’ to something beyond yourself? Something that would require you to have full dependency on Him???
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4
Blessings,
Kelly