I recently wrote an email to a friend that I had been out of touch with for many years. This excerpt basically sums up my life over the last 12 years.
From the time that I went on Royal Servants with you in 96', I had always thought that missions was where God was going to send me. The summer after my senior year of high school, I had been planning on going to Trinity Western University. I decided that summer, to go on Interface with NTM, hoping that that mission trip would give me some direction as how God wanted me involved in missions. Well, through that mission trip, I felt that God was leading me to go to New Tribes Bible Institute. So all the way from Papua New Guinea, I faxed my application in. As soon as I got home to WA, I packed my bags, and within a few weeks, I was attending Bible school. I had thought that I would be going into tribal missions. Well, looking back now, I can see that the reason that God brought me to Bible school was to meet my husband, Brian. He too had been planning on going on the mission field. He wanted to be a bible school teacher at an MK school overseas. So we met in Jan of 1999, and we were married in the summer of 2000. After Brian graduated from NTBI he transferred to Lancaster Bible College. While going to school to get his teaching certificate,he got an internship as a youth director at a local church there. It was while he was youth director there, that we both began to see that being a teacher overseas was probably not so much in his gifting as being a youth pastor was. Anyone who knows my husband now could tell you that Brian probably wouldn't be the best at doing homework everyday. He is much more relational, though does have a passion to teach the bible. So here we are in youth ministry. I admit that it wasn't easy for me to accept not being a missionary. God had to really bring me through a process to be content in whatever role that He had for me. So now we have been at our current church for over 6 years now.I feel very blessed to be in the kind of church that we are. I feel so free to use the gifts that God has given me without expectations of fulfilling any certain role. So, I help Brian out with the youth as much as I am able. Having two little girls has definitely changed my role some because I can't be quite as involved as I used to be. I do love being involved with the girls in the youth group. I am much more of a one on one person or small group person, rather than a large group person. Another role that I've taken on in our church is as a worship leader. Believe me, I never in a million years would have thought that I would do something like this. It has definitely been out of my comfort zone and has stretched me a lot. I still feel very inadequate at it. I can sing alright, but I have very little training in the technical side of music. So I rely on other qualified people to help me in that aspect. So I lead worship once a month, and then am actually paid part time by our church as the Worship Administrator. Basically I do all the secretarial stuff that our worship ministry needs. My husband and I have also been leading a community group together for the last 4 years. It has been mostly with younger couples, and we've had a lot of fun doing it.
So, I am very busy with all that stuff, but my main focus is of course, being a mom. Wow, what a joy and a challenge. I don't know how motherhood has been for you. For me, that first year was just a lot of fun. I have been blessed both times to have really easy babies. Both of them slept through the night at a very young age and were very happy babies most of the time. I guess I didn't mention yet, my oldest Ellice is now 4 and my youngest, Annyah just turned 2. So, after the first year of Ellice's life, motherhood became a little more challenging. I still enjoy it immensely, but there are definitely moments when I'm pulling out my hair thinking that I am doing everything wrong. Ellice is a ball of energy. Most people watch her and ask me, "how do you do it?" She doesn't stop. She is a lot of fun, but definitely keeps me on my toes. Annyah now is just getting to the harder stage. I am seeing such a strong will in her. I think she is going to be my child with the attitude. Right now my biggest battle is to keep her from shrieking. If she is ever frustrated with anybody, she lets out a loud shriek. Parenting has been a whole new lesson for me. God has been teaching me patience daily. The biggest thing that I have been working on lately is to remember what my focus is. It is easy to just get into survival mode as a Mom and to just survive the day, rather than taking every opportunity to create teachable moments with my kids and to remember that I am modeling Jesus to them. Anyway. I guess this email has turned into a book. My husband is sitting next to me laughing at me. He is much more of the 5 sentences or less email kind of guy. So how has parenting Noah been? I bet you are a great mom. I remember how positive you always were, never complaining about anything. That is definitely a great quality to have as a mother. I never knew I had a temper until I had kids. I pray that God will help me to master my temper soon. That is a tall order. Your baby is at my favorite age. I just love that age where they smile at you all the time and respond, but still can't move and get into everything yet.
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