Something to ponder, while drinking your morning coffee…
This last week, I was pretty pumped to have gotten a few instagram messages from Ann Voskamp! For those of you who don’t know her, she is an author and public speaker, who has a very thought-provoking and poetic writing style. A few weeks ago, she was a speaker at a conference and she introduced her new book called, Waymaker. I have yet to read the book, but during that conference she shared some thoughts & stories from the book; she talked about how we don’t always understand why difficult things happen or we may wonder “Where are you God” during certain times of our lives or in painful experiences. She made the point that “When we don’t know the way, look to God-He is the Way!” and “When we say, ‘there is no way’, turn and look to The Way”
During that evening, Ann had also shared about how one of her daughters has a heart condition. This pulled on my heartstrings a bit as some of you know about our story with our daughter, Kara.
Kara was born in August of 2017, a few weeks after my Mother-In-Law, Linda, passed away in July. That August we entered into the realm of the NICU at Minneapolis Children’s Hospital. As a newborn, Kara had pulmonary hypertension and a “damaged” heart; later cardiologists figured out that she had experienced a heart-attack (which is super uncommon in babies). Those of you who have had kiddos in the NICU, understand the ups and downs you experience there. During one of her first nights there, she was unstable and they needed to call a Rapid on her. That night around 3am, I sat in the corner of a hospital room full of people trying to figure out what was going on; alarms beeping, kind of chaotic and yet in my soul I felt this peace that could not have come from myself and felt like God was saying in my soul “She is my daughter”. As a nurse and a mom I felt so helpless and yet I could trust that she was His. After that experience, my fears and worries didn’t go away for forever. But I’m reminded that I can lean into the One who is Peace, even in chaos, and a that He is present with us in the ups and downs of life. (Also, give a shout-out to some counseling)
Kara still has a “unique” heart, but her heart function is strong and her heart has healed significantly. Every few years, she’ll still be needing to check in with her cardiologist. At her appointment earlier this month, they said they have a 6 mo old who had a similar issue and they were able to let the family know, they are seeing another girl (Kara) who is 4 years out- Hoping that our story can encourage and bring hope to others along the way.
Back to the conversation with Ann Voskamp :) On Instagram she had shared a picture about how they put a Bible by their coffee pot as a reminder to drink from the Living Water on a daily basis. I had sent her a super short message saying “what a great idea!”, not at all thinking that I’d get a response… she responded to me saying “It deeply grounds us in Him over and over and over again!”
Here are some of my thoughts and you, coffee-drinkers out there, may appreciate this ;) …. When we combine water with ground coffee, there is a unique reaction which results in a flavorful drink. We as people, go through life and are molded and ground by our experiences, both positive and difficult and when we we mix our stories with the Living Water, there is something unique that is created.
The Bible doesn’t talk about coffee, but it does talk about a connection with Jesus. In John 15:5 it says “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remained in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit” If we are connected with God, we create something unique with him and through him that we wouldn’t be able to on our own.
Praying that in the ups and downs, you can experience the rich goodness that comes from God and that you are able to encourage, empathize with, or support each other with your unique stories and experiences.
Tomorrow morning, if you pour yourself a cup of coffee, think about how you can connect with God today. You are unique, valuable, and have a one-of-a-kind story.
Ministry & Life Updates:
We are 3.5 months away to when we arrive in Germany!
Over spring break, we took care of some projects around the house to prepare to move and sell our home…and we already have a purchase agreement for the sale in July!
We have 80% of our monthly support raised!
In the next few months we will be visiting a few partnering churches to share about our ministry at Black Forest Academy
This month will be my last month working at the foot care clinic
Jameson just started his third and last trimester at Tartan High School
