This past weekend, I participated in a Velvet Ashes retreat.
VA exists to support women who are serving overseas in many capacities.
Their mission statement is dear to my heart.
Having lived, and served, a short time overseas, my heart easily connects with women who are in that place I once was.
As I walked through the retreat sessions, preparing for the group I would co-lead over the course of last weekend, I journeyed backward in time to many common-fears, often unspoken, by women all over the world, who are, well, just women…
Those thoughts that resonate with all of us: How do I…
…deal with aging parents, those living close, and those who live a continent away?
…cope with transition and change (that often transpires quickly)?
…uproot and transplant into old cultures now that I’ve adjusted to a new culture?
…manage until I’m settled into a new normal?
…provide, when the finances are wearing thin (because supporting churches, or personal supporters have had to back off, or because we’ve been furloughed from jobs)?
…juggle the normal demands, pressures, and stresses of my everyday, let alone the new demands, pressures, and stresses of living in uncertainty?
…and, speaking of uncertainty, how? How do I do uncertainty, day in and day out?
…raise children to love Jesus and be functional humans, when I feel like I am anything but functional, or human?
…make certain I am mom-enough?
…feed my family what they have come to expect, when normal grocery items I’m used to cooking with are unavailable?
…lessen my expectations?
…pick back up and carry on when life has left me shattered for a season?
….even find a new normal?
If you’ve served, or worked, globally, you’ve asked all those questions at one time or another, plus some.
If you’re still practicing physical-distancing and essential-only-travel, due to the recent pandemic, you’ve asked many of those questions, as well?
Having asked these questions, I’ve discovered a few answers.
Some, I’ve already shared, this one, however, relates to our VA weekend retreat.
The theme: Yet, I Will Celebrate!
The key verse: Habakkuk 3:17-19.
Habakkuk is looking in the cupboards and the provisions are nil.
He’s looking out the window and it’s particularly barren.
He’s gone to the barn and it’s empty…and the plants in the garden have withered.
He’s concerned about all this, because the Lord has just assured him “trouble is coming” and your people are about to be “invaded.” “Devastation is upon you.”
Thank you, Lord, for such good news (I wonder if Habakkuk was as facetious as I am prone to be)!!!!
I’m curious, today, if you sat to write out verse 17 in your own words what would you be writing? What are some of the discouragements you are facing, which then cause you worry, anxiety, fear, or even, panic?
Even though ____________________________________.
Even though ____________________________________.
Even though ____________________________________.
We joke about toilet paper, but that is a very real thing (more on that day after tomorrow)…
