Love makes the Difference

Feel the love

Sometimes it is the simple, most basic messages that we need to hear again and again. Probably because, although simple, the most important messages are also deep and profound. You can understand them immediately but can continue to explore them and learn from them for a lifetime.

Love is important. Love is essential.  It is not a new idea, but we need to be reminded.

This past week we were at a biannual conference of people that work in similar contexts all over Africa. This conference is always an encouraging time. We have many beloved colleagues from all over that we only see every two years at this gathering. It is refreshing to be with people who automatically understand our situation and challenges without much explanation. We can dive right into deeper topics because we know that they are on the same page. We always learn a lot from our time surrounded by this special group of people and each time there are some essential lessons that we learn and relearn.

This time it was about love. Do we really love the people and country where we serve? Are the things that we do from a sense of obligation or an overflow of love from our heart?  Because love makes all the difference.

It is easy when we are surrounded by people that understand, to actually wallow in the negatives, in all the hard things about our location and the people we serve, in the frustrations and heartbreaks we’ve endured. We might defend ourselves and say that we are just sharing requests for prayer, but we are also venting. This venting is sometimes cathartic, but if our hearts stay wallowing, if this wallowing is actually our normal state of mind, then our service becomes a burden and not an act of love.

We are called to rejoice always! If love is our starting place then rejoicing (not complaining) becomes normal! When we love someone, we are thankful for them and it is easy to see the good.

It is not that our visible actions or to-do lists will necessarily change, but our hearts and attitudes will change. For us, joy will increase and burdens will become light. For others, they will feel the difference. Our love can have the power to soften hearts and tear down walls.

Some of you may ask, “But how can we control who we love? It is a feeling outside our control.” The answer is that we pray for it! And while we wait for love to grow in our hearts, we do acts of love in obedience. We practice a thought-life of love, lingering on the positive thoughts of compassion and thankfulness and shooing away the thoughts of frustration and annoyance. And again we pray for more love.

God is love. He has enough to fill our hearts to overflowing, let’s ask Him for more.

Travels continue

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The conferences went very well! It was so good to be surrounded by so many great friends and colleagues. The times of singing and prayer were sweet. One of our colleagues is a speech therapist and she was able to meet with our boys and is helping to make a plan to help them speak well. We are blessed by her willingness to serve us in this way. The work continues to spread, there is the hope to spread work into new countries and among lots of new peoples in the coming years, pray for the right workers and connections and love for these new pushes. We are meeting Tom’s family for some vacation! So far travels have gone smoothly and we look forward to some family time!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
There are various islanders that are hoping for us to bring things back for them, pray that we would be able to meet as many of these requests as possible and that by doing so that it would strengthen relationships and give us opportunities to share with them. Many of our island colleagues are returning to the islands this week, pray for their transitions back. Also pray for a new family coming to the smallest island to live for the first time. Pray for them that they would have the energy to dive into language learning and relationships, that love would overflow from them in the initial challenges of island living. Two of our old teammates who now live on the French island weren’t able to come to the conferences because she was put on bedrest the day before (she is over 7 months pregnant), pray for the rest of her pregnancy, for a healthy baby and safe delivery.