In the Labor and Delivery room, they put this small slimy body on top of mine, and I remember looking down at it, thinking, "What is this?!"
I did the magic hour and all that jazz but it wasn't until they took him to wipe him down and weigh him that they called out, "9lbs 9ozs" and I broke down sobbing.
At 41 weeks they had done an ultrasound and told me my son would within a pound of 9lbs 15oz. Within a pound! So he could be 10lbs 15oz!
Everyday I was overdue, I was thinking about delivery, for nearly the 24 hours since I had checked into the hospital, I had been focusing, working, laboring to deliver approximately 9lbs 15ozs.
And when they called out his weight, that was my victory. That's what I had worked for.
9 lbs, 9 ozs.
The whole baby thing had taken a backburner to the immediate obstacle of delivery, but that probably shouldn't have been the case.
In the same way, we've been very much focused on fund-raising recently. Of course, there's no harm in that, actually there tends to be success in focusing on a task. But we can't forget why we're doing this.
For a year we've been on the road raising funds to go to Papua New Guinea.
I started fund raising in 2009. Jacob in 2011.
It's been a major focus for a very long time. But now that we're about to leave for the field one way or another, we need to look past that foreboding gateway to the Land of the Unexpected behind it.
There are three stories that I tell again and again at churches. In fact, you've probably already heard them.
I tell the story of the Somau Garia people who showed great generosity in order to convince the missionaries doing survey work to stay, who when they later realized how it wasn't nearly so simple, decided they were unworthy of the Word of God.
I tell the story of the Waran people who did a checking session with an old man who the missionary thought was about to nod so far off he would jerk awake comically. But when the man heard Jesus crying out from the cross, "Father, forgive them" for the first time in his heart language, the shame and guilt of his sins had truly reached his heart. He wasn't nodding off but hanging his head in the traditional Waran gesture of shame.
I tell the story of the highland man who was murdered as part of a series of retribution murders between two tribes. But this man was a Christian. So instead of going along with the cultural norm and killing his murderer, his family begged their tribe to show mercy and forgiveness.
I love these three stories because they really hit on the major three elements of our mission:
To see transformed lives through God's Word in every language.
Every language - no matter how small.
God's Word - working in peoples hearts
Transformed lives - a proof of the Spirit within them.
We're still 17% shy of 100% of our budget. (Every now and again we hit these weird ruts where we're getting new supporters but only just enough to manage other supporters needing to withdraw their support or a pledged supporter ending up committing a bit less than they originally said or having trouble reaching a pledged supporter. Last time our rut was 71%... We just could not get past it! But then we leapt up and here we are waiting for another boost!)
That's still looming over us as we get closer and closer to Departure Day.
$783/month total.
17 people giving $46/month.
But we try to remember to see past this door to remember why we're even approaching it.
To see transformed lives through God's Word in every language.
Please let us know if you'd like to join us in this endeavor.
I think it's worth investing my life in and the life of my son. (My husband is also investing his life in this.)
And we'd like to ask you to consider sacrificing one of your dinners out a month, one of your Starbucks drinks a week, or whatever your guilty indulgence is, to give an entire language and all the generations thereafter a taste of water that will leave them never thirsty again.
I didn't intend for this blog to be about fund raising, but the fact of the matter is that we can't do our jobs without an income to keep us alive in the meantime and work funds to accomplish our goals. I wish it were otherwise but God has a vision of sharing the ownership of this work with those He hasn't sent to the field. And He has proven again and again that His way is best.
Transformed lives through God's Word in every language.
I know, I know, what it's like to have financial stress. Taking $46/month out of your spendable budget may very well make life a little tight. We ourselves are missing $783/month out of our already tight budget!
But the financial stress is worth it.
The worry about whether the malaria meds I'm giving to my infant son will have persistent neuropsychological effects is worth it.
The living in a bush house with a bucket as "indoor plumbing" for at least two years is worth it.
Because this world is fleeting, but the next is eternal and I want to share that eternity with all people, tongues, tribes, and nations.
But there are still some tongues and tribes and people groups who can't hear about God's Word in a way that will really ruin their hardened hearts and transform them.
Only our heart language can speak to our hearts.
I believe God and His Spirit speak that language and so should His Word.
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