Today is an emotional day for me.
It marks significant beginnings and endings.
June 5th has carried weight and caused reflection for the past 15 years.
In 2006 we landed as a family of 5 for the first time in Uganda. Toby, Acacia and Kevin were 4, 3, and 2. Our belongings filled 3 luggage carts. In a driving rainstorm, Geoff pushed one of the carts as we navigated the outside walkways to the waiting vehicle there to receive and retrieve us--THANKS Dave and Raych Clay!!! Silently Geoff wondered what he had gotten his family into. Not silent at all were the cries of a couple of the exhausted children in an unfamiliar environment.
Our actual first commitment to New Hope Uganda was for 18 months. But, in our hearts we were there for however long God had for us to be a part of the thriving, vibrant, compassionate ministry. Secretly we hoped it would be, at a minimum, at least until all three of our kids were finished with their senior year in high school.
Thirteen years later to the day, June 5, 2019, we were back again at the Entebbe airport saying our goodbyes to Sam, Nabukeera, and the Dangers family. We would never again work full time on the ground in Uganda as servants of God at New Hope Uganda. In fact, to date, the 5 of us have not been together in Uganda again.
Yesterday, June 4th, was Geoff's last day as Vice President of Ministry Relations for New Hope Uganda Ministries, a position he's held in the U.S. since January 2020. We took a sabbatical from June-December 2019 and as soon as his sabbatical finished he was anxious to start working again for the ministry we love so much.
But, God has a new season for us. He has made that very clear. It's not been easy shifting our focus, changing where we put our hand, and knowing we won't be an active part of that ministry day-to-day.
It is no coincidence that today, June 5th, is the first day of our new season.
The future is not totally clear for any of us. I'm reminded of a few sentences in a book called, "James," that became painfully real to us in 2009 when we were involved in a horrendous motor vehicle accident with a lorry laden with charcoal. There we were traveling down the dirt road, returning home from Kampala, the Monday after Easter with many groceries and items for a soon arriving new missionary family, the Biedlers. Around a corner of the freshly grated dirt road came the overloaded, speeding lorry sliding toward us as the driver applied, with futility, the brakes. It clipped the front of our van on the side where I was sitting and pushed us backward into the ditch, and then the charcoal, piled way too high, careened down on us, smashing the van and windshield, cutting Kevin's face, breaking his leg and pinning me in. I'll spare the rest of the details. But, suddenly everything changed. Our plans for how our next month was going to look, for how we were to welcome the Biedlers, for lessons in homeschool, etc. immediately were upended.
James 4:13-17, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit,' yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast in your arrogance, All such boasting is evil. So, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."
Obviously, the words in this passage soberly framed our outlook and experience that day in March, 2009. And not just on that day, but God brought the last sentence to the forefront again in October 2019 when Geoff and I realized we needed to plant ourselves in Denver to be near his parents. The right thing for us to do is to be present for his parents as life deals unexpected changes and required shifts. We could have said no to God's move on our hearts for Denver and returned to the ministry we love, but that would not have been right because it was not what He asked us to do.
Geoff's VP position kept us connected to New Hope Uganda and softened the shift to the U.S. away from Uganda.
Now? Yes, we're excited for his new position, but admittedly sorrowful over not being an active part of New Hope Uganda.
Another new beginning.
Geoff's new chapter is a new chapter for all of us. The kids have never known Geoff to work outside of the ministry; have not known what it is like to not have Dad present and available to them in the middle of their days. We have had the rare experience of not only eating dinner together each day, but also breakfast and most lunches, too. Of course, the kids being at FRCS since august 2019 and Toby going off to JBU last fall has changed the look of our days, but Geoff was still available at a moment's notice.
In addition, Acacia and Kevin's graduation from high school last week ushered in new seasons for us. in a couple short months Kevin will begin university, along with ROTC, while Acacia explores various aspects of agriculture and other opportunities during her gap year, and Toby will return to JBU in Arkansas.
But, for now it is summer and Toby is here, hallelujah. So, we are all together again. The kids each have at least one job outside the home for the summer--also something new for us.
So. Much. Change.
New schedules, new foci, new living situations, new jobs. The old song rings true for us these days, we don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.
And that is the stabilizing support for all the emotion welling up within.
Praise God He never changes.
Praise God for new seasons.
Praise God He is always with us.
Amen.
