On Friday, March 20, BBC hosted a Ladies’ Night,
the first since Mark & I have been here. Because they were here in town,
Mark lined up Val & Rosie from New Zealand to bring a word of
encouragement to our ladies. We had a good evening, and I think everyone who
came enjoyed the time. In fact, because the ladies had early morning
engagements the next day, we left first. But all the other ladies chatted around our hostess' coffee table. They
were a happy bunch of ladies. We had 14 ladies from all walks of life.
Val had prepared a talk entitled Grace for
Parenting, but as we were on the bus to the subway station, she pondered
whether to use that topic, as our women are in various seasons of life, and we
didn’t know exactly who would come. On the bus she changed her topic; on the
subway she furiously wrote new notes. Instead she developed her talk around the
theme of “When God interrupts your life with His will”, taken from a Christmas
message by Joe K. She shared her
testimony of how God worked in her heart as their family moved around a lot. At
various times, their family lived in Canada, China, and New Zealand. Because
of their moves, she bore six children on three different continents. Her
husband has a bit of a restless spirit and, of course, she followed. But one
day she told God she would go anywhere as long as 1) it wasn’t in a big city,
2) she didn’t have to learn a tonal language, and 3) she wouldn’t bear a child
in a foreign country. That was before living five years in Beijing and having
one of their children here. After several moves, Val just wanted to be rooted
in the same place for a while. But then as she examined the Scriptures, she
discovered that God calls us to be rooted in Him, to be rooted in His love.
Scripture never calls us to be rooted in a place.
In fact, we find the theme of moving throughout the Bible. God’s chosen people
never had a rooted place. Not until Heaven in Revelation do we see a permanent
home. So Val shared very relevant
Scriptural truths for all of us.
Rosie shared how God used some bitter
circumstances in her life to teach her about His faithfulness. She recounted
how as a teenager God gave her a message about her future that included marriage
and ministry. As a 21-year-old, she developed a relationship with a young man
whom she thought she would marry. However, God had other plans for her as that
relationship ended. That breakup almost devastated her but in it, she found God
faithful. In the following years, she served the Lord in various ways including
as a "m" in Borneo. After several months, the Muslim government denied
her visa renewal and she returned home to New Zealand. Again, she felt devastated,
not understanding what God was doing in her life. Yet at that point God brought
a godly man into her life, 10 years after the previous relationship. Rose
always thought she would marry a pastor or a missionary, but again, God had
other plans and proved His faithfulness. They soon married, when she was 31,
and settled into farm life in New Zealand. They now have 6 children, 3 of whom
were born after Rosie turned 40.
God tied both of these talks together
beautifully. I think we see God’s faithfulness as we are rooted in Him. We see
God’s faithfulness in the trials, in the uncertainties, in the devastations. When
we have nothing left, we find Him to be all we need. At the end of the evening,
we sang Great is Thy Faithfulness together and ended with a prayer time.
Glorious fellowship in Jesus.
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