Between The Lines...

We often post pictures or blurbs on our social media feeds that allow our friends and family to capture glimpses of our days, lives, journeys and adventures. 

We have fun scrolling through and catching up with friends and relatives watching them conquer, battle and celebrate different milestones along their journey.   Social media pages scream out daily for likes, shares and acceptance. Depending on who is posting what, many emotions are felt by those scrolling through daily feeds. Some make us feel great, some cause us to get excited, and some can make us feel like we aren't measuring up. As we focus on the highlights of ones life, and magnify one portion, segment or moment of ones journey, we forget they too have real life happening 'Between the Lines'.  You see we all have stories, we all have what we call 'real life' happening each and every day. The one moment we tend to post may actually only be 1% of the reality we faced that day.

Over the last 10 days many of you have seen pictures of our time in Rwanda. You've seen pictures of us scouting out land, celebrating the purchase of land, holding precious babies and so much more. Those were all the amazing highlights! Truth is traveling is extremely  hard on my body. This trip in particular as we are on our final lag home from Rwanda, after a few delays, 18 hours of air time, and an 8 hour layover I find myself weeping on the plane as I listen to Healing is here. Crying out before the Lord to heal my stomach, to heal my mouth. Smells and certain foods can make my stomach rumble, leaving  me quite queazy. Africa can be one of the hardest places for me to be as my stomach can be temperamental and once I leave the hotel setting, washrooms are  rare not the norm. As I eat foods my body isn't use to, it can send signals almost instantly to my stomach which causes me to sweat and desperately look for a restroom. There were many bouts of an unsettled stomach this trip, but one time specifically this week where it was more than I could bare. We were in a coffee shop and it hit me.... Jamie pointed to a restroom. As I bolted for the not so inviting door I was hesitant to go in as what lied just beyond it was a mystery. But at this point I knew there was no other option. I raced through the door and saw a beautiful sink... praise The Lord,  looking just past the sink my eyes looked through the stall ...and there it was, a hole... an itty bitty drain hole. How in the world?!!
Oh God, come to my rescue!! THERE IS NO WAY!! I ran back out to Jamie and asked him to lay hands on me. We cried out to The Lord to settle my stomach. God was faithful! My stomach settled for the rest of the day. That may seem like a small feat to some but for me that was a miracle and a major answer to prayer. Truth is, each day as we left the hotel in the morning and again in the evening there was part of me always calculating how close the next bathroom would be. Would there be one? Would my body be okay?  Oh God, help me. Not only do I wrestle with my stomach but also with my mouth. I am prone to cankers. Seriously, these things are terrible. With lack of sleep and acidic foods they roll in. I'm not just talking about one or two of them, but they seem to sound the alarm and rally the troops filling my whole mouth and depending on their location can radically effect how and what I'm able to eat.

Why am I writing this? Why am I giving you a little too much information? Because pictures don't paint reality. 

We simply don't just hop on a plane, enter a dream,  take a few pictures and head back home.There are things we have suffered through when The Lord called us. There will potentially be things you could suffer with when The Lord calls you. Laying in airports, awaiting planes and delays, putting up with cramping and rumbling stomach issues, a mouth full of sores and pain is the 'between the lines' portion of the vision. Making arrangements for children, church, school and work to allow us to GO, is the 'Between the Lines', portion of our lives. Leaving the comfort of our home, vehicles, food, finances and precious children, is all for the glory of God. It purifies my faith and helps develop my perseverance. 

You see I never asked The Lord  to call me to missions, but I did ask The Lord to give me the nations as an inheritance. I did cry out the Lord and prayed 'SEND ME!!' I did cry out to the Lord and said, 'USE ME!' There are so many things in life we dismiss and give up on because when we start walking it out we leave what we thought would be bliss and enter suffering... so we walk away. We give up the faith we once had, the dreams we once dreamt and the visions we once saw because we thought they'd look and feel different. . We look at others public lives and roads and forget to realize they too have 'Between the Lines' moments.' 1 Peter 1:7-9 is a verse I cling to. 'These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold- though your faith is far more precious than gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials. It will bring you much praise and glory on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed.'

House of Hope was nothing I ever imagined The Lord would call me to, and when He called me these struggles were not something that was for seen (by me). But in spite of the physical challenges I've tried to be obedient to His call, to cling to the verse 'I CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens ME!'  God showed me the vision, but I can't do it alone. I rely on His voice, His strength, His healing, His peace and His Wisdom, to lead me, guide me and gird me up each and every hour of each and everyday and through that and through Him is where I find the JOY in the process. 

 

After all the physical shenanigans when we finally landed in Toronto
we got to our vehicle and saw our two tires had been slashed. So
we arrived home in a tow truck after 33 hours of travel!
We honestly laughed when we saw our car. God is good. We have
learned to try to find the humour in the chaos!!