Stepping Stones

Last week we were able to spend five days in Kalamazoo, MI visiting our friends and the church we attended for eight years at the beginning of our marriage.  It was such a great time reconnecting and reminiscing!

As we went from house to house and meeting to meeting our eyes were opened wider each time to the gentle, beautiful stepping stones that God has been putting in our lives to guide us.

• We were surrounded by beautiful, knowledgeable people from day one, pointing us to scripture.
• We had kids in our youth group who have now become some of our best friends and biggest supporters in ministry.
• We had people who had lost children and knew the gentleness of asking questions in just the right way because they know our pain.
• We had a youth minister who valued Christian education and watered that seed without even realizing it.
• We had people who had fostered and adopted kiddos and while it wasn’t easy, it was so beautifully worth it.
• We had people who had a special needs child and are now loving on and caring for that child as an adult as will we one day.
• We had a missionary couple that we communicated with often and led groups to work with them in the summers.

So many realizations were flashing before my eyes that I had never seen before.  Each one of these things were stepping stones in our life that we didn’t even realize at the time.  Living life alongside each of these families helped prepare us for the future God had in mind for us.

I hesitated saying “stepping stones” because that seems like something that you use to get somewhere.  Instead I see them as firm foundations under our feet that kept us from sinking when the going got tough.  Every step of the way we have had so many people in our corner supporting, cheering us on and reminding us of that foundation.

When God called us to a small county airport back in Indiana after being in Michigan where Jack had a job working on famous people’s corporate jets, we needed that firm foundation to answer God’s call and follow Him blindly without the “why”.  And it turns out that both of those jobs gave Jack the exact skills he needed to serve God through MAF.

What a beautiful, loving, gracious Father we have.

I hope that you can see the stepping stones in your life that God is giving you.  Don’t miss a single one.  Sometimes they are disguised and don’t make sense but keep praying and asking God to take the scales off of your eyes and help you see.  No matter how hard, your life is beautiful and God is writing your story.

We love you, dear friends!