Your garden variety summer of ministry!
What a summer it's been! We knew that as soon as July arrived, the time would fly by and sure enough, here we are staring down the end of summer already! In just a few weeks the kids will return to school and instead of playing in the sprinkler and keeping the sidewalk chalk producers in business, we'll be trying to figure out 4th grade math and helping with social studies projects. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves … we can definitely fill up a whole update with the joys, struggles and events of this past several weeks! Here goes …
We were so thankful for all of the encouragement and prayers that held us up as we prepared for and went on our Family Mission Trip to Johnstown, PA. Soon upon arrival, one of the trickiest issues of the week was settled – we were offered a somewhat set apart corner of the church where we could sleep together as a family. The kids were tucked back in a large closet of sorts that allowed them to catch a nap or early bedtime without being in the middle of activity, and Frank was right there sleeping beside me. (Which is turns out is pretty important when one's pregnant bladder ends up demanding attention at the exact same time that your 16 month old wakes up crying in the night, without fail!) We truly wouldn't have made it through the week without this blessing. As it was, we figured out that a full 4 days of ministry was about one day too much for little ones, but we are expecting that our experience will give us the ability to create Family Mission Trips in Philly that will be do-able for families with kids of any age.
We were so impressed with the organization of the details of the trip, and the heart of the leaders. It really was great to totally take of leader hats and just get to serve. We spent two mornings at "the goat farm," the home of a family who have served as missionaries overseas for most of their married lives, but who returned back to the States in order to learn goat farming so that they could return to a third world country with a skill that could really meet people's needs. They have three children, and were expecting their fourth just about any day after our departure. I knew right away as I stood next to Rachel and talked with her that we had much more than big bellies in common. They are overwhelmed, under-resourced, living by faith and trusting that God has called this child into their family at this time even though common sense would say that it's awful timing. I find it easy to complain and worry because we have a lack of space, but those couple of days at the goat farm I saw the flip side of how utterly overwhelming it can be to have SO much space that you can't keep it up. It was a joy just to do what we could to pull some weeds, spend time with the kids so that the adults could tackle some important projects around the farm and just spend time with this family who were blessed by the tangible love of Jesus.
For the rest of the week we stayed as busy as we could with all sort of other activities — visiting at the nursing home (Callum & Selah were a hit!), spending time at the skate park that our host, Crucified Ministries, began with, playing with kids at an impromptu VBS at a housing development, and just staying available and open as pray-ers, encouragers, servants and learners. We did learn so much, and most of all the experience of actually being on a Family Mission Trip just removed the intimidation factor of endeavoring something new, and left us excited and encouraged about what we will do (the same and different) when we host Family Mission Trips in Philadelphia.
(Wow, so many words already, and I haven't even told you about our mission trip week in Philly!!)
Before I forget, here is a link to our shutterfly page where you can see an album of pictures from our Johsntown Trip. There is also an album called "Summer 2012" that has pictures from the rest of our summer and our Philly mission trip. There are captions on each picture, so if you've reached your word limit, check those out an finish this up later!)
When we left Johnstown, we decided to have a quick visit with Grandma Patrick and our friends at Goss Church in Akron. (Since it was such a short trip, and since we give time with Grandma top priority, we kept a low profile, but hope to get to see LOTS of people when we come back to Akron in February for a family wedding.) This detour to Akron gave us a limited number of days to get ready to receive our mission team from Hayward Wesleyan Church in Wisconsin who joined us for a week of ministry. Thankfully, Elizabeth's mom came up for the week to help with the kids and whatever else was needed. We couldn't have done it without her! We had a fabulous week with the ministry team — a worship night in the lot, kids club each afternoon, a talent show, a movie night, beautifying the wall that runs along the side of the lot, cleaning up the block — it was a busy week, but so fruitful and so enjoyable! The team just really captured and honored our heart for our neighbors, and spent the week doing exactly what we would do if we had 18 more hands & feet! We got to know some neighbors much better and got to meet a new family from around the corner who were just such a joy.
So, here we are — it's August and the time has been spent and the seeds have been planted. When I look at the literal planting that we did at the beginning of the summer with our garden space, I see so many parallels with the spiritual and figurative. Our basil has gone crazy, so we've enjoyed pesto, and can even sometimes smell the sweet smell of the leaves all the way on the front sidewalk. Our green & yellow squash looked gorgeous before we left for Johnstown, and although a neighbor faithfully watered all the plants while we were gone, we came home to a sad, dead planter upon our return. We figured out that it was vine borers who had their way with our plants, and despite our hopes and investment, there's not a zucchini to show for it. When the butternut squash showed some of the same symptoms, we were able to recognize it, prune back the infected vines, and now we are cheering on four or so little gourds who made it through. A few tomatoes are growing, but nothing red yet. One HUGE cherry tomato plant has green leaves galore, but no fruit to show for all of that display. The carrots are still underground, so we don't know for a while what we will see from them. The cilantro scorched under the sun before it could even take root. The broccoli sprouts, attempt one and attempt two, never made it from the top of the refrigerator in their starter pods and into the ground — diapers, meals and every ordinary to-do's left them neglected. Just this morning, the jalepeno plant that had nothing a few days ago is bursting with four gorgeous chilies! And the grass — oh, the lovely grass! We have enjoyed is so much! It was quite trampled after all of the activity of the mission team, so it's needed some tlc, rest and water in the past week. (we did too!)
Every single one of those plants speaks to my heart. They are like me, and they are like our neighbors who we love. There are some high hopes and big investments that have ended up rotting, despite every effort. There have been fragrant lives that thankfully thrive, even seem to come back from the dead, just like our basil. There are surprises when all-of-the-sudden fruit springs up. There are lives that we cheer and hope for, knowing that they are so much like the ones who we've already seem crash & burn. So we keep planting. We keep tending. We keep trying our best — I would say that we sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, but I'm a learning that the presence, volume or size of fruit is not necessarily the mark of our success & failure. We are just trying to be faithful workers, and leaving the results to the One who makes things grow. When we see rot and death, we keep trusting Him and say as we have before, "there's always next season."
Thank you, thank you, for each and every one of your prayers for us, kind words toward us, sacrificial gifts, prayers lifted up for the people we serve here. Thank you for being a part our our journey and call just by reading these words and keeping up with us.
Blessings and love,
Frank, Elizabeth, Selah, Callum and butternut-squash sized baby girl
