Comfort in the squeak

Our front gate has a squeak.

Yup.

Every time we open it… every time we close it.

It squeaks.

The other day we bought WD40 and Robersy went around to de-squeak (is that a word?!) each door in the house and I saw him heading down to de-squeak the front gate. I yelled!

“Nooooo!!! Leave that squeak! I kinda like it.”

Robersy looked at me with that famous “Ayyy Sarraaaahhhh…” look, but he carried on and my squeak remained.

The truth is. I find comfort in that squeak.

Knowing when someone has walked in our gate. A few minutes to ready myself before someone is at the front door. I like the warning.

A bark before the bite.

Thunder before the storm.

A heads up.

I have truly struggled these last few weeks as we’ve been thrown some serious curve balls.

Between doctor’s appointments, meetings, phone calls, more meetings… all in between our regular ministries of teaching, discipleship, baseball and this past week translating for a group of over 350 people!

I tried to ignore my feelings and just get on with keeping busy, but I realized how much it had taken a toll on mewhen my health was effected. In fact, so much so that one evening, while Robersy and I were talking about everything that had been happening in the last few weeks, the lights went out. No warning. No rain. No flicker. Just out.

I couldn’t catch my breath. “Robersy, where are you???” “I’m RIGHT HERE!” Sounding confused as (see all of my other blog posts) our electricity goes out all the time. That’s when I broke down.

Angry.

Frustrated.

Sad.

Confused.

Scared.

The issues weren’t all necessarily mine, but because my heart sometimes cares too much I carried them as my own. Knowing Satan has been working over-time, while thankful God had brought things to light, was far too much for me to handle.

Serving on the mission field doesn’t exclude us or others we serve alongside from health issues, marriage issues, sin issues, depression issues, kid issues, ministry issues… and being far from home with eyes on us at ALL times make it sometimes very hard to process through tough stuff.

The squeaks aren’t always there.

I mention this for two reasons.

PRAY FOR YOUR MISSIONARIES & PASTORAL TEAMS! I pray regularly that if there is sin in my life or in the lives of those who have the power of influence in their communities that it might be revealed. However, we must pray for God’s protection over them, their families and their ministries too!

Spiritual warfare is real.

SO. REAL.

The reason I mention this is, my friend… if you are a follower of the ONE TRUE GOD, you are NOT exempt!

1 Peter 5:7-9 says, “7Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.…”

We aren’t always promised the squeak, but we are promised the lion is prowling.

BE ON GUARD!

BE IN THE WORD! 

BE ON YOUR KNEES!

The tighter you cling to GOD, the less wiggle room Satan has to creep in.

To end on a lighter note, here are some shots from the last week. As crazy as it has been, GOD has still shown up in incredible ways! We are EXCITED to celebrate HIS precious sacrifice and HIS powerful victory over sin and the grave!

HE HAS RISEN!!! HE IS ALIVE!!!

It was a long week for everyone... but this was just day 1!

This was day 3. We were losing it by then :)

JOSIAH... cool like his daddy! He wanted to go out, but he stayed with his grandma after day 1.

Some of the crazies we were honored to serve with!

Good fun and souls saved! THANKFUL for this week.

Celebrating our 4th anniversary.