Thank you for being our anchors! We literally couldn’t do this without you!
10-31-2021
I’m sorry it will be rushed again. I’m grabbing the 30 minutes available to write while Rick conducts a baptismal interview. We still have to make our plans for MLC with the Assistants shortly and have much more to do tonight.
In short, we had the most incredible Mission President Conference in Nashville last week. Being gone for 5 days where we got to be fed by the spirit, supported by the brethren and receive training we can take back to our missionaries was phenomenal! Like a virtual blanket of warmth and comfort! But coming back was super hard again to jump back in, not just a bit behind, but with some difficult new things to navigate on top of the normal bustle that always accompanies this week.
Without even an momentary pause from Sunday to Saturday, decisions on transfers had to be finalized, assignments and calls had to made. We received, prepared and hosted a new senior couple, 25 new missionaries at the mission home, conducted a full day of training for them, fed, housed, sent them out into their areas a couple of hours before hosting the out-going group of missionaries for a meal, devotional, breakfast and airport the next morning.
Within hours of taking that last batch of missionaries to the airport, we were on the road to Springfield Missouri 2 hours away to speak in the Saturday night session of their stake conference and drive the 2 hours back that night because Rick had an 8:30 am meeting in Bentonville this morning.
On top of that, we have temporarily re-shuffled companionships so 6 more missionaries can trickle back to their originally assigned missions, had to emergency transfer out 2 sets of sister missionaries from their area because of a stalker and another serious threat which took hours to unravel and properly handle.
Underneath it all we’re still unraveling a host of issues we inherited and have been both figuratively and literally constantly on our knees about it!
We have worked 16 -hour days for 4 months, seeing much progress, but after a well- intended survey was sent out by our assistants to identify problems, there is suddenly a different picture immerging that contradicts all the experience and interactions we’ve had.
Is it real, accurate? Does it represent “things as they really are? We don’t yet know, but we want desperately to unlock it so we know how to help.
Understandably, I became very discouraged and begged Heavenly Father for guidance today...
God lovingly and mercifully brought to my mind the story of Joshua and Jericho (Numbers 13:17-44 and Joshua 14:10-12) I found some really helpful direction so I drew it out in picture form to help me visualize it.
As many stories are in the Old Testament, the application is better when focusing on the abstract rather than the detail. In short when Joshua was asked by the Lord to take the city of Jericho for an inheritance. He sent spies (or surveyors) into the land to check things out, essentially see what they were dealing with, and make a plan.
Those men “painted a picture” of GIANTS in the land and the seemingly impossible task to do as the Lord commanded. They, in effect, painted a picture with THEM and the GIANTS in the same picture frame.
That’s what I was feeling this morning... “It’s too big, too much, too hard, too overwhelming and too impossible!” Essentially, I was- seeing and numbering ALL the GIANTS we are facing!
Now, I love this...When Joshua did his own assessment, he didn’t leave out the giants, they were still there, but when he paints his picture, he puts GOD in the same frame with all of them! That was the part I needed to conscientiously do!
Immediately, a warmth came over me and I saw the impossible immerge as possible again. I realized that when some try to speak for others, they may project their views or fears or interpretations. We still need to believe and acknowledge the GIANTS- because we know they’re there, BUT by putting God in the picture frame with us, He’ll help us not only meet the challenges, but see things as they really are from His perspective!
It’s His work, They’re His children, we’re His servants. He’s in the frame with us! I get to move over a few more inches or feet, or whatever is necessary, to put Him back in the same frame with us again and IF that’s what some of the missionaries, who have lost their focus need to do, well then, we’ll help them do that!
If we conclude that whole story of Joshua, the task is accomplished by whittling down a huge army to a few men (another impossible probability) and then God makes the wall tumble down Himself. Showing us that once again, that no meaningful success will occur through our own power.
I’m not sure what that’s going to look like for us, but we’re on His errand so He will instruct us how and when to blow our trumpet.
