December 2009
Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” he said.
Matthew 14:27-29
A few weeks ago a friend was praying over me and saw an image of Jesus pouring a clay jar of water over my head, then washing my feet as the water ran to the ground. That image has stayed with me, an image of peace and rest and renewal.
Recently, I’ve felt that need for renewal acutely. My closest friends in Bolivia, Heather and Wes Goertzen, decided not to renew their contract after 5 years in Bolivia. This is a Lord-led decision for their own renewal and rest. But of course, it leaves a tender void. It means that Suti Sana will look drastically different, without Heather’s vision and counselor’s training.
There are a lot of shiftings in our ministry lately. The birth of Bakers twins and their move down to the city for health’s sake means that our community is split by an hour of travel. We’ve also added five new Bolivian staff in the last few months in preparation for Suti Sana and just accepted Adam and Becky Thada into our community. They’ll arrive in January in time for my Bolivian wedding.
Oh, and I’m planning three weddings. Yep, three. A Bolivian civil ceremony (to facilitate paperwork), the actual ceremony in Charlotte in January, and a Bolivian reception. The fun never stops. I mean, why not stretch the most exciting day of your life into two months?
During a retreat last month our community studied Matthew 14, when Jesus walks towards the disciples on the choppy waves of Galilee. The interesting thing about the disciples fear in this passage is that it is directed towards Jesus, who they think is a ghost. We were asked the question, “In this stormy time, with all the changes, is it possible that what you are afraid of is actually the work of Christ in your lives and community?”
It’s a rhetorical question. Of course all these monumental changes are Christ tinkering with the mechanisms I work so hard to keep under my control.
So my job in all this is just to accept the rest, the water he’s pouring over my head.
In Christ,
Cara