Broken Pieces

I’ve tried several times to sit down and write my thoughts and feelings about how life is changing. Words have been coming very hard for me. Fred has encouraged me to share what I’ve been learning…. but words for that come hard too.

People don’t always understand why we are leaving PNG when Fred has such a useful skill of being a helicopter pilot, especially in a place like PNG.

Fred was able to take the kids and I for a ride in the helicopter the other day and I was able to share with them that the flight we took that lasted all of 5 minutes would’ve taken us an hour and a half to drive. Our kids are getting to the age that they can understand ‘elapsed time’ better.

Isaac is currently an 19 month old mess making machine and sometimes we feel like we are constantly picking up pieces and wiping up spills. But the other night a friend at our small group Bible study shared some verses about Jesus telling the disciples that they could feed the people. Then when Jesus received that bread, He blessed it and broke it into many pieces and used those pieces to feed many people. Maybe we have to be broken into many pieces in order for us to be used by Jesus.

And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. – Luke 9:16

I have to choose to look at the situations around me as pieces that Jesus wants to give to me and those around us to remind us that He is the One who is providing. I hope others can learn from what we are going through and I hope we can see what the Lord wants to teach us through all of this.

Letty and I are finishing up our school year at home. We’ve done a lot of growing together through tough situations. Letty often struggles with the same kinds of things I struggle with, so we often walk through those moments together, learning to trust in the Lord as we go. We’ve talked a lot about how our attitude about a situation can make all the difference in the world about how we look at that situation. So if we choose to look at leaving PNG with a positive attitude then we will probably learn from it more than letting it tear us down.

The following verse has been one of Letty’s favorites.

Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me. – Psalm 51:10

I guess after saying all of that, we just want people to know that while we feel unsettled at times and we don’t fully know what is coming next, we also feel a peace from God that passes ALL understanding. We know we are on the path that God wants us on even though things are going differently than we expected. We pray too for you to be able to learn from the hard moments around you instead of letting it tear you down.

God is on our side, He will never leave us nor forsake us, He wants to prosper us and give us the desires of our hearts. These are just a few of the truths God has given to me over this year in PNG.