helping women connect with their world
“Honey, I’m worried about Rachel. She hasn’t been sleeping well, and at 14 she’s too old to be clinging to us so much.”
“See if you can get her to talk, Janet. Being her mom, you have the best chance to hear from her. In the meantime, don’t worry. She’ll get over it. . . whatever IT is.”
The dark secret that haunts Rachel is sexual harassment. While going into town on the bus, a young man purposefully brushed her breast with his fingers. Insignificant? Unimportant? Hardly.
Here we are on the brink of another year. Have you, like me, been looking back? As Micah told God’s people: remember your journey (Micah 6:5). Where have we been? What have we done?
Some of us began a new journey this year. We’ve finished deputation and are making final plans to go to our first overseas assignment. Others have been home on furlough visiting many old friends and family. Some have gone through the very real stress of changing fields in this last year, with all the upheaval of packing, saying goodbyes and resettling.
A few have experienced threats to the work or even their lives. They learned about persecution at a very personal level this year. Sickness may have struck. A few may have even lost loved ones.
Working in cross cultural situations gives us a unique opportunity to see other people. But sometimes we see through filters we are not even aware of. How we see others affects the way we respond to them. And therein lies the importance of clear vision.
Many of us wear glasses to improve our vision, and also wear much thicker lens on the eyes of our heart. We see through the lenses of stereotypes, misconceptions, fear and pride. These lenses were fitted to our hearts from childhood and have become so comfortable we don’t even know we are wearing them.
One day sitting at a traffic light, a really strange person crossed in front of my car. He had dyed hair in a radical style, huge jeans and chains and spikes across his chest. I instantly judged him a troublemaker and profoundly disturbed. Just as he passed in front of my car, he glanced up at me and our eyes locked. Tears began to pour down my face as I realized this was some mother’s son. How her heart must grieve for this son of hers. God changed my sight by touching my heart.
There were so many great responses to the last newsletter about change. It would be wonderful to be able to include all of what everyone wrote, but then this email would be way too long!
For this newsletter, we will excerpt from the letters those parts that seem to apply to a large audience. But when you have time or want to see comments on specific aspects of change, go to our website. You’ll find the link at the end of this newsletter. [Read more…]
From Margaret
Several years ago, when our second son went overseas, to England, he planned to settle there. That would have made, one son in Australia and the other in England. How awful! I had some sort of emotional/panic attack. I couldn’t sit still. I had to walk all the time or work. I was exhausted. I had to open the car window all the time, as I “couldn’t breathe.” It really got bad!
I decided to go the Adventist Hospital. God was really in control as He directed me to a wonderful young doctor. He interviewed me and I did my best to explain my “symptoms.” He listened and then he prayed. He said, “I am not going to give you medicine. I think you have a ‘wonderful problem’, a problem that I wish more Chinese mothers had. You care deeply about your children and you did not try and talk them out of going in their chosen directions, like a lot of mothers. But now you are feeling sad, lonely, scared (for them). God sees your heart and He sees the extreme love you have for your boys.
