In the Eye of the Storm

We are currently in the rainy season in Costa Rica.  Pretty much every day, from 2pm-until, it rains....hard.  One afternoon, the storm was pretty nasty: loud, cracking thunder, terrible lightening, and quite the downpour.  As were were preparing to walk out the door for yet another doctor appointment, I caught my son standing in the garage, watching the storm and singing:

"In the eye of the storm, He remains in control.

In the middle of the war, He guards my soul.

You alone are the anchor when my sails are torn.

Your love surrounds me in the eye of the storm."

Lately, I've felt like my sails are torn due to being tossed in every direction.  Just a glimpse into the waves tossing our family around the sea of life: My son is having academic testing which will take three hours a week over the course of three weeks; my daughter somehow in just a short time developed a cavity leading to a partial root canal and crown; my husband fell getting out of an Uber, stepping the wrong way and hurting his knee; and, I am having some tests run at the hospital for a problem that has shown itself just in the past three weeks....and, as I write this blog, instead of preparing to take my daughter to get that crown, she's sleeping because she's sick...again.  So, the crown will have to wait until another day.  All of this in the midst of language school.

You see, I'm one of those people who makes the big decisions in life pretty quickly with not much concern of the unknown; on the flip side, I'm also one of those people who can get down when the everyday small nuisances of life just.keep.coming.  Last week, I was in that place.  I was exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally.  You know...we've all been there.  And, it wasn't the "big things" weighing me down, it was the slap of one wave after another hitting me in the face every time I tried to get back up.   But, as I heard my son singing that song, God reminded me that He is my anchor; He does guard my soul; and His love surrounds me.

He surrounds me with His love through the love of His people:
My family and I are in language school right now, which means we have a couple of hours of homework each night that make navigating these obstacles difficult at times.  But it also means we have a community of missionaries and students willing to step in and help however they can.  There are other students here who are experiencing greater trials: bed rest due to difficult pregnancies; children having broken bones; moms/dads having unexpected surgeries; and battling the constant stomach problems that go along with living in another country.  And, yet, God is faithful through it all.  He has already created a way to help one another: the Body of Christ.  If none of us here went through difficulties, we wouldn't know what it means to carry one another's burdens.

He is my anchor because of His character
All of these things are happening our first year on the field--while we are in language school with this "soft landing."  When we go to Mexico, we will not have the same type of community that we have here. A fellow student was on bed rest for two months with her twins.  So many of us cooked meals, babysat her one-year-old, sat with her to keep her company, brought groceries, etc.  She told us during her baby shower: "I was so frustrated with God's timing with this.  Then, I realized had we still been in the states or already been in Uraguay, we wouldn't have had this support system that God has provided for us here.  God's timing is perfect."  We can hold onto Him as our anchor because we know He is working all things together for our good and His glory.

He guards my soul by sending encouragement through the unexpected
We have a doctor on our school campus who serves us missionaries with his time.  His parents were missionaries.  He loves us.  He gets us.  He's making sure we get well and tries to keep us well so we can serve well.

When Ethan had emergency root canal and reattachment of his tooth due to an accident two weeks after we arrived, the school found a dentist who spoke English.  Not only that, the dentist came in on her day off to do what she needed to do for Ethan.  She was wonderful.  The dentist Emily saw last week loves the Lord (and speaks English too!)  She said before we left: "I can't do her crown today because the infection is all the way down to her roots.  But, in the name of Jesus, I claim she will not have an infection next week so we can finish."  God puts strangers in our path to encourage us whom we would have never met without these trials.

Our teachers have a heart for the Lord, for us, and for our families.  Even though their goal is to teach us Spanish, their heart is to see us serve the Lord every day of our lives, in all of the little frustrations and big successes.  So, when these frustrations and difficulties arise in our lives, they pray for us.  They are praying for our families.  They push us to keep going while giving us the space we need to take care of ourselves and our families.  Our teachers encourage us to press on for His glory.

Does life always work out like this?  Do the waves always become calm?  Do the storms always cease?  Are there always people in our lives who drop everything to rescue us?  No, not always.  But, we have an Anchor far greater that can keep the boat steady as the waters move around us and can calm our soul when our sails are torn.