- 12/19/2007 11:45:43 AMAll is quietWe're preparing for Christmas as usual this year. In the extra moments of each day, Peggy packs and organizes our luggage for the coming trip to Moscow. Earlier in the month I had spoken with Lisa Smith of Lighthouse and then again later with Val the adoption coordinator. It looks like the earliest we will know of our appointment will be on January 8th. That doesn't mean the appointment will be on the 8th, just that this will be the earliest date that we will be notified of the actual date. I wish I had more news than that.
As I said, Peggy is packing the luggage and looking for appropriate gifts for the people in Russia. I am keeping my eyes on news from the Homer's adoption adventure and the Wagner family via email. Between those two and the Frank family, it seems that every one has a very different story to tell. What will our trip be like? I am afraid to pray about it.
One time we had a missionary come to our church. She told of how she resisted God's calling on her life to be a missionary until one day she came to the place where she agreed - but on one condition. She told God, "I'll go if you promise to make it very interesting". Later she said, "I didn't realize how dumb that sounded. God must have been laughing and thinking, 'I'll make it interesting alright... don't you worry about that!'". Then she went to Africa and ate all kinds of things she said she would never eat.
If I pray, "Lord please help me to grow in my walk with you on this trip to Russia" - what kinds of things will God use to make me grow? Will he take all the things that I fear and throw me in the middle of them? It makes me think that when I pray, I need to choose my words very carefully so that my desires are not misunderstood. But perhaps that is just foolish thinking on my part. The Lord knows what is on my mind even before I speak it. The Holy Spirit will interpret my words and emotions into their true meaning and God will hear and know clearly. The God I serve is not one who tricks people, manipulates their words and uses what they say against them - that is something that humans do to each other.
