The book of John tells me that in this life there are going to be troubles. What! I don’t want trouble!! But that’s what God says will happen. So my marathon called “life” is a race that has some potholes and hazards along the path. Bummer!
It may seem like a bummer but this is the place God does some amazing work. Here are a few of the events of my life that could be called “trouble.”
- I moved away from all my family and friends when Quintin went to seminary. It helped us develop our own relationship in the first couple of years of married life. I learned to understand people from other places and situations of life. I had to trust God for a job and our finances during these years of education.
- Next, we moved on and into our first pastoral ministry. It was culture shock. We lived in a town of 5,000 in rural Iowa. Everyone knew everyone and families had been there for generations. We went there to begin a new church. There were 17 people in the church. Oh my! This was much more difficult than I could of ever imagined. I had two babies while we were in that community. There was little money, a lot of work to be done and I lacked female friends. I remember when Quintin and I prayed that God would send me a friend. Within a few short months, a couple came to our door saying they were considering buying a house in our community. They didn’t want to do that until they found a church and met the pastor. Yes, this couple became our best friends in that town. In fact, we hosted the husband’s RAGBRAI team this summer. We were able to go back for the wife’s 60th birthday party a few weeks ago.
- Now, let’s fast forward to 2003. My life was busy. I had two teenage girls and a son who had some challenges that we were hoping he would grow out of. It didn’t happen. Our son was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome on the Autism Spectrum. This was the beginning of the hardest decade my life. I was raising a family, trying to encourage my husband in ministry and making changes to help my son. That was enough!
- I didn’t have time for all the other things that would happen. I developed four immune disorders in the space of 3 months. I was taken to Iowa City because of a potential diagnosis of Cancer. It wasn’t cancer and that was a great answer to prayer.
- Three of our four parents died during this time with illnesses that lasted for several years. My car almost was on auto-pilot to Oklahoma to see my mom for the last five years of her life.
