Last day of 2022.

One year ago, we were heading to Weyburn, SK, our vehicle loaded with smoked pork ribs and our fancy clothes.  Our son, Daniel was to be married on January 1 to Michaela Klassen!  What a beautiful way to begin the new year, welcoming a new daughter-in-law, celebrating the holy institution of marriage with family and friends.  It was a cold day but our vehicles started!  

We all were still under restrictions regarding COVID-19 at this time last year.  In our province, restrictions for unvaccinated folks to go to restaurants, movie theatres and many other places of business were open on February 14.  Gradually, different regulations were lifted and travel became possible again for Walter and I in our ministry.

In April we traveled to the west coast of Vancouver Island - Esperanza - as we have NCEM missionary staff there and other locations on the island.  In July, we ventured into the U.S. to connect with our new office volunteers and board members.  We attended an "Indigenous Faith" seminar, as well and had great fellowship with many fellow workers among Native American ministries. At the end of August, we drove to Prince Edward Island for a staff conference. So we literally traveled coast to coast across our amazing country of Canada!

Following the whirlwind of three staff conferences for our organization all within a month, we were freed up to take a three-month break from our responsibilities with NCEM.  People were asking, "Are you taking a trip somewhere?"  To be honest, I just wanted to stay home!  So the past three months have been mostly sleeping in our own bed, cooking our own meals and slowing the pace to really rest.

As I have mentioned  before, this break was for us to intentionally take time to process our recent transition away from Healing Hearts Ministry.  The leaving was hard; the letting go of what once was has been difficult, emotional and sad for us.  But along the way, we found God's provision of a retreat for a week, some resources for us to read/listen to and friends to pray for and stand behind us through the grieving.

Highlights have been the retreat at Kerith Pines in MB.  The Grey Cup game in Regina in November.  And wrapping up our break with a trip to hot springs in BC and visits with the Selke family in AB...and here we are, concluding the time off with Christmas festivities and all our kids came home!  That fulfills a mother's heart more than any sabbatical or retreat or spa day!

Expressing what I have learned or experienced in the past year, or even during our break, is a real challenge.  How does one summarize the lessons, the moments, the truths and the tears in a few short paragraphs?  Two main points rise above the many:

God is faithful.  Lamentations 3:22-23 is a classic scripture proclaiming the mercies and compassion of the Lord.  "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."  As Walter and I have spent significant time talking, praying, crying and seeking the Lord, He has reminded us over and over of His wonderful deeds through the years.  We reminisced, we rehashed and we remembered the many miracles God did as we began our journey into ministry.  The many people we met, the many lives changed by Jesus, the ways God met our needs and the needs of the ministry all pointed to God's faithfulness and goodness and generosity to us.  We had to process the losses, but also give thanks in all things.  God never abandoned us but showed faithfulness to us all the way through.

God never changes.  How easy it would be to let negative events and circumstances reflect on my understanding of God.  When things go well, God is good.  But when things go poorly, is God not good?  In Malachi 3:6a, the Word says, "For I the LORD do not change..."  There is no getting around the pointedness of this verse: God declares about Himself that He does not change!  And to reinforce in the New Testament, Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."  Nothing and no one can make God, nor His Son, change their minds, their ways, their character.  They are unchanging, immutable.  

My journey of processing and healing has brought me to these very basic truths that God is faithful and unchanging, no matter what I feel or have experienced.  Stripping away the expectations, the familiar and the comfortable, I am left with my faith in the Lord, who has been with me the whole time!  He has already shown that when certain ministries, relationships or even possessions are taken away, He is still good.  He is still the Lord!  And as Job declared through his experience of utter devastation, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." Job 1:21b

As we say good-bye to the old year and welcome in a brand new one, I have chosen to bless the name of the Lord!  Wishing each and every one of you a Christ-filled new year!  Happy 2023!!!