Year 2021 Update

 

MISSING TRACK

By Kristen Kelley

2021

Researching, organizing, printing, and purchasing . . . I thank the Lord for the new school year that awaits us. But I will admit my tears.  Preparing to use more school books “here” instead of “there” has not been entirely easy on my heart.

Last March, we were at a conference, thousands of miles away from home, when the pandemic hit.  Up until that point, life had felt like a speeding train.  Traveling to meetings, packing belongings into airline luggage, Brandon studying for his ordination . . . In my mind, I picture what happened next being much like an air raid. The bombs fell, and without warning, the speeding train came to a screeching halt.  When the dust settled, we stepped onto the platform; safe but stationary.  The track in front of us was completely gone. How were we going to move overseas? And when? A year-and-a-half later, the COVID crisis continues, and much in our lives is still “on hold”. 

To be perfectly honest, it can be challenging living without a timetable. What if we’re here for another 6 months? Should I hang decorations back on the walls? Should we let the girls wear the clothes packed in the footlockers? Should we buy a new mattress? But what if paperwork suddenly begins processing? Should my heart be ready to say “goodbye”?  These are new lessons in faith like we’ve never experienced before. 

Psalm 27:13 says, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”

God is good.  And He is still at work behind the scenes. 

By no means, has this “pause” been completely bad.  In many beautiful ways, COVID has given us the “gift of extra time”.  We’ve been able to make special memories with our families.  We’ve had opportunities to encourage, witness, and serve.  We’ve begun online language classes.  But surrender can be hard.  It isn’t over in a day.  It’s a repeated act and an ongoing state of heart and mind.  Like missionary wife Elisabeth Elliot, there are many times when all I can do is “the next thing.” 

This wait; this schedule; it isn’t mine, Dear Lord.  But I know that the place of surrender is exactly where You want me to be.  Your plan is for me to keep turning the pages of the calendar, not knowing the “when” or the “how”.

Psalm 39:7 “And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.”

Like the beautiful song, by Ron Hamilton, “My Hope Is Jesus”.

And when I let go – giving to God the uncertainties and the unknowns – He “restoreth my soul” (Psalm 23:3).  He reminds me that He is in control.  The earth is His – “ . . . the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1)  And while He holds the Universe in the palm of His hand, He merely asks that I trust Him.

The pencils are sharpened.  The charts have been made.  The textbooks are on the shelf. I do not know the future, but I can do “the next thing”.  And thus another school year begins.

 

* I pray that this transparent update will somehow encourage you in your walk with the Lord. “Many things about tomorrow I don’t seem to understand, But I know Who holds tomorrow And I know Who holds my hand.” 

 

 

In The Valley of In Between - DINNER #100

IN THE VALLEY OF IN BETWEEN

 Caught “in limbo” . . . Life on pause . . . Stuck in a holding pattern . . . Walking in The Valley of In Between . . .

A valley seems a strange place to be penning “Dinners In The Oven-Devotional #100”, but this is where you will find most missionary families, this summer.  These brothers and sisters in Christ are currently facing new challenges, either on their field of service, or here in the United States, or even in a different country altogether.  During this COVID crisis, they are uncertain and unsettled, and they need our prayers.

Who are they?  These “nomads of the pandemic”?  They are children separated from beloved pets and toys, friends and grandparents.  They are mothers missing their own kitchens, and churches, and photo albums.  They are fathers navigating cancelled flights and changing departure dates. They are large families in small spaces. They are preachers without pulpits, and ministers without meetings. They are furlough-waiters, longing for hugs and hamburgers.  They are deputation-completers, enduring the “final goodbyes” on an endless loop.  They are burden-bearers.

The Valley of In Between can be a lonely and discouraging place . . . I know because I’m here, myself; watching, and waiting; clinging to hope.  

This global pandemic is, indeed, a valley for many of us, and yet, even in a valley, there is no “height nor depth” that separates us from the love of Christ! (Romans 8:38-39)  As the prophet Habakkuk declared, “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” No matter what.

As I dwelt on this thought, the Lord brought to my mind an article I wrote about Habakkuk 3:18, over 8 years ago:

We can put our trust in God to take care of ANYTHING and EVERYTHING we place before that “yet” in our lives!

In Habakkuk 1:5, the Lord tells His prophet, “Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.” God has plans for us that we wouldn’t even believe!

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We may not be able to see why certain things are happening in our lives, or why certain things are the way they are, but God is ever working . . .

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil . . .” Whatever you are going through, whatever you THINK you MIGHT have to go through, God is with you!  He is a God Who faithfully keeps His promises, and He has promised us in His Word, “ . . . I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5)

And He IS with us, Dear Sisters in Christ!  Even in “The Valley of In Between”.

There may be much that we do not know or have the answers to, but God knows every doubt and concern of our hearts.  A friend of mine recently shared this beautiful thought: “Rest tonight knowing whatever is on your mind is in God’s hands.”

God has taught me much on the journey of missions and motherhood.  I close out this blog with great anticipation for what lies ahead.  I look forward to the next season of my life, when, Lord willing, I can write to you and encourage you from the other side of the world!  It may be this summer, or this fall, or even the beginning of next year, but “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me . . .” (Psalm 138:8)

God has a purpose and a plan – for me; for you. 

Thank you, sincerely, for always allowing me to share from my heart and from His Word.  God Bless!