Be patient and just give it time... (FMF post)

Just.

When I saw the writing prompt for this Five Minute Friday write, this most certainly IS NOT the direction I originally saw myself going.

But it is what I've been thinking about and it does include the word just, so...

Here we go!

I first took the Myers-Briggs personality test almost 30 years ago. It is a took I've come to appreciate, not as it it reveals gospel-truth about who I am and my personality, but rather as in it reveals certain personality traits that help to explain why I act and think as I do in particular circumstances. It helps me understand myself, often helping me to adapt and change my initial first-and-best-option-according-to-me, to better meet the needs of my family, my friends, my colleagues and others I'm seeking to serve.

My initial test results said I was an I/ENTJ. Dead even on the introvert/extrovert scale, intuitive regarding my understanding of the world and people, I made decisions based off of logical analysis and I preferred a plan rather than flying by the seat of my pants. Then I became a mother... of many. For the last 20 years, every time I've taken the test, I turn up an INFJ. Introverted to the extreme (perhaps a reaction or coping mechanism to having worked much of my life in a third world country surrounded by immense needs in every direction and then inside my home, having eight third culture kids in 13 years, and having rather intense side effects to the malaria prophylactic I took while working/living/raising a family in that third world environment), intuitive (where time has consistently demonstrated that my intuitive read of the world around me is usually pretty accurate) decisions based off of feelings - often the feelings of others of which I'm intuitively aware, as in they are screaming at me so loudly it is hard to identify my own feelings, and I'm still someone who prefers a plan, though I've learned to be flexible in adapting that plan.

It is that intuitive part that I've been mulling over lately. 

I do read people well most of the time. I know when someone is hurt, frustrated, angry... and I want to come up with a plan to make it right. 

I try and come up with some sort of constructive action or reparation to resolve the conflict, to heal hurt feelings, to reconcile and restore what has been ruptured.

Sometimes that is the absolutely right thing to do.

Some times, however, I just need to be patient. I just need to wait. I am not really part of the problem, but will rapidly become part of it if I try and force the solution.

I just need to stay out of the way, pray and let the Holy Spirit do His thing...

photo credit: Mara ~earth light~ 

Camel - the ship of the desert 

via photopin (license)

Across the Great Divide

As a kid, I vaguely remember watching a movie called Across the Great Divide. I don’t remember a ton of details – essentially two orphan kids have to get across the Rocky Mountains and to the West Coast to get their inheritance. In the process, they meet up with… and end up partnering with… a con man which ends up being key to reaching their goal.

The title of the movie has an obvious meaning. Those orphans had to cross the Continental, or Great, Divide – a hydrological boundary that runs from the Bering Strait in Alaska to the Strait of Magellan, at the tip of South America. This line divides two great watersheds. To the east of the divide, all water drains, ultimately, into the Atlantic Ocean. To the west, it courses to the Pacific.

There is, however, another more symbolic meaning to those words. The Great Divide was not just that place where geologically, water flow separated. It was also the converse – it was the place where, for a moment, those ultimately heading in very different directions actually met. Thus, metaphorically, what could be seen by some only as only a source of division could, conceivably, also become a summit meeting place, a place for conversation and dialogue, a place for challenge, growth and change...

Within Christianity, there are a number of these “great divides,” and missions is no different....

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To read the rest, join me at a life overseas: the missions conversation, where I'm posting today!

“I would I had a thousand lives that I might give them...”

On Aug. 27, 1888 while working in Zhenjiang, Lottie Moon made the above statement finishing with the words "...for China."

It's one of those inspirational missionary quotes likely to land on a striking or haunting photo featuring those in this world who most likely don't know Jesus. The desired response is conviction and motivation. Get people moving, doing, giving, going, supporting, praying, partnering... something... anything! Animate and embolden others so that they engage and global missions benefits.

It is also one of those quotes that usually prompts me to self-evaluate, asking: "Can I say the same...?

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And please click here to head on over to  a Life Overseas to read the rest!

Who's your Hero?

One of the things I love about home assignment years is watching my kids try some things that are totally new to them... and then seeing how they grow through those new experiences.

Choir/Drama Tour, both a learning and a ministry opportunity for students attending the Baptist academy they attend while living in the States, is one of them. Tonight, the tour opened with the first performance, at our home...or sending... or commissioning church. Tour consists of the school's choir and drama class collaborating for a performance - and traveling around the State over the course of three days to perform eight or nine times in different Christian schools.

My girls, although part of the drama class, do not have parts or stage roles in the drama. They do sing in the choir, though, and so they will be gone the first half of this week, on tour!

The play that is being performed this year is based off of the lives of John and Betty Stamm. The Stamms were a young missionary couple who gave the ultimate sacrifice while serving in China with China Inland Mission.

Are you familiar with their story?

I wasn't - until...

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Please join me over at Missionary Mom's Companion, where I'm posting today!

Encountering Jesus ~ "Learned? Schmearned!"

Education is important. 

It is valuable and something to be attained.

And it comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colors... formally and informally... and frankly, can be attained in a probably infinite number of ways.

Yet there is this "idea" that unless you can write out some letters behind your name, you are somehow under qualified... or less able... even less worthy... than another who has the diploma framed on the wall and can spell out those letters.

But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and [began to] teach. The Jews then were astonished, saying, "How has this man become learned, having never been educated?" (John 7.14-15)

 Apparently this same mindset afflicted people back in the time of Jesus as well....

 

To read the rest of this Encountering Jesus post, head on over to Missionary Moms Companion.

But if you are just interested in today's gratitude journal, you can find that, just like normal, below.

this week's gratitude list

(#'s 4253 - 4267)

singing a new song with my girlies for one of our supporting churches... and seeing God use it

my boy will be home for a few days this week

Nana's surgery went well; she was already starting to get up and about

several hours at the hospital with my grandparents - and unexpected treat, even though they weren't the circumstances I would have chosen

new places to live

understanding the reasons behind the changes

studying through Ruth and some unexpected insights

safety as we traveled under not the best circumstances

pumpkins on the doorstep

lots of pumpkins

church potlucks

visiting with people who faithfully pray for us - some of these visits only happen once every 4-5 years and so they are a treasure

hearing the tck's perspective

listening to an Irish group play music on the radio yesterday afternoon

  

Ten most recent posts in this series: 

• When seeing God at work just isn't what I expected
• "When did You get here?"
• "How do you know you are making God happy?"
• Because He says, "It is so..."
• Wanted "Every When"
• Bread of Heaven... Bread of Life
• "gong-good'-zo" - Go ahead and say that, just like it looks like it sounds.
• "Stop grumbling among yourselves!"
• Not so much about filling tummies... but lives...
• To Whom Shall We Go?
• Incognito

Click here for all of the titles and their corresponding links in the Encountering Jesus series.

I think I’m just gonna start calling it “Missionary Survivor”

We like to watch that reality show Survivor…

DVDs of different seasons are oft requested “gifts” for Christmas or birthdays. We’ve been known to spend hours downloading seasons from iTunes or elsewhere on line, hanging out at the Rec Center with its satellite TV hoping to be able to watch it… or reading word for word the synopsis of the most recent episode even when we don’t have access to watch it.

We enjoy the actual surviving stuff… the unique competitions intriguing… and we find comments about not eating chocolate for three whole weeks downright amusing.

We watch the show as a family and we use it as a teaching tool with our children – a basic intro to many aspects of American culture. It also gives us some amazing and great opportunities to talk about relationships… how what we do, what we say, who we are, the choices we make can all impact immensely how we get along with others and in general, our dealings with other people.

One section of every episode is sure to garner lots of questions and discussion from our tribe: tribal council. One comment repeatedly uttered at my house while viewing the final tribal council of a season is that those people on the jury are making decisions and pronouncements and judgments about things that they aren’t really qualified to judge… on things that they’ve got no real right to pronounce… and deciding, not for legitimate reasons, but rather based upon knee jerk reactions: “Who do I like better?”

Sometimes, life on the mission field feels like one unending tribal council, especially when some short term folks arrive in a place.

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Take a gander on over to A Life Overseas to read the rest ~ 

My Mother's Day Musings...

It's such a bane... the tyranny of the importance of THIS particular moment, THIS specific crisis...

I've been thinking about this for a few weeks now, largely motivated by extreme amounts of frustration and not a little bit of hurt feelings as I've felt, at times, the scapegoat for things that were totally outside my realm of control. I know I don't have the market on those sorts of feelings... someone (or more than one... outside my kids) possibly feels I've scapegoated them, so I'll also be the first to admit that I'm quite probably blind and often times, as guilty as the next person, perhaps even more so.

I just wish I knew what to do about it. 

• First, I want to let God help me fix this problem within myself. 
• Secondly, I hope to teach and disciple my children - hoping that as they see me model a more godly action or response, they too will learn. 
• Thirdly, I wish I could encourage those with whom I work on a regular basis to make better, gentler decisions and that thinking about this topic might help interpersonal relationships in work and ministry. 

So... what do I mean by bane?

Not this ugly, scary looking dude... although Batman might disagree with me!

Artwork for the cover of Batman: Gotham Knights vol. 34, Nov, 2002.Art by Brian Bolland.
Retrieved from Wikipedia, 4/292013.

According to Dictionary.com, bane is:  

What in the world am I talking about? 

I'll speak in first person, because as I said, I'm as guilty of this as the next... but I also don't believe it is me alone, a just-my-problem situation.

In general, I have greatly over-inflated, grandiose ideas and opinions about just how important the work and the ministry that I do is, in the overall scheme of eternity. I treat way too many situations as life and death equivalents and am all too willing to find a battle I think worth fighting. In the process, I assume those who may disagree with me are messing with divine plans and possibly out to ruin me personally... and I take personal offense someone might consider my ideas and opinions ridiculous, invalid or as holding no weight whatsoever. I forget that it is most likely that regardless of what happens in whatever particular "crisis" I'm living, the sun will  rise the next morning, whether things go my way or not.

Okay! So that's not the case... exactly! 

That includes a bit of purposeful hyperbole... I don't actually completely forget. I just act like it... or think like it... deep down inside where only God and I can see...

Don't misunderstand me - I do think God cares about my daily activities. He wants me to be the very best I can be, to do all that I do to bring honor and glory to His name, to love God and people, to live holy and pure. I do believe that He works in and through all that we do and that choices I make today may impact eternity... certainly my own. But I've also think I've let it become way too important in MY own eyes, or even when I manage some sense of balance, it is only because I'm fighting that tendency the whole way slash entire time.

In this world, working with other fallen and sinful people, I have to find a balance. 

With a lot fewer exceptions than I tend to imply {by my thoughts, words and sometimes actions}, most of my day to day work warrants very few battles especially not each time someone disagrees with me, particularly not when I'm talking about my colleagues in ministry. You know, the guys on my side? The folks who form my team?

So one of my fellow teachers focuses on the importance of not overburdening the teaching staff while I emphasize the sometimes opposing need of that same teaching staff to go above and beyond to accommodate for the needs of exceptional students. We have different priorities and I don't find anything sinful or wrong in leaning towards one or the other point of view. Sin, however, can barnstorm the picture based on how I choose to respond to such differing opinions: 

• do I stop communicating, 
• do I indicate my disagreement subtly via facial expressions and body language, 
• do I use angry, frustrated or inflammatory words when I converse, 
• do I go behind the other person's back or gossiping about my frustrations,
• do I manipulate and try and get others to take sides...???

Gentle, respectfully honoring and kind dialogue where I agree to support the final decision regardless of my initial position because I trust the motives of my colleague is going to accomplish more in the long run, while preserving unity and relationship. 

It comes down to this: Do I choose to believe the best in that other person, do I trust that God's Spirit is actively working in his/her life? If I do, then I can believe the other person also sincerely seeks to do his/her job to the best of his/her ability, to honor God, loving Him and people with his/her skills and position with as much dedication and passion as I do. If not, then I am first ready to take offense and respond in kind, weapons drawn and eager to draw the first blood... metaphorically speaking, of course.

I feel as though I've been stumbling through battlefields littered with wounded this year because of these sorts of battles over important but not THAT important decisions and policies - among my colleagues and even within my own family and closest friends. Do I refuse to cooperate because someone failed to communicate my responsibilities in a timely manner? Do I get angry because a colleague disagrees with my professional opinion regarding a child's need for specific services or not? Do I walk away with a lower opinion of one of my teens because s/he stood their ground and refused to compromise in an area where s/he felt to do so would compromise their integrity?

I hope not...

I hope I will recognize and admit that I do have my own personal agenda - something to be expected and accepted. 

The bigger concern is can I... will I... lay down that agenda, admit the existence of an inflated perspective and a way too high opinion of my own importance and work for God-obedient, God-honoring compromise?

Encountering Jesus ~ Found to Follow

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. (John 1.43-44)

Before looking too closely at these verses, I did a quick crash course entitled "Who was Philip, disciple of Jesus?" Where is he mentioned in the Biblical account, other than as the guy usually listed fifth in any recording of the disciples?  Some speculate (based on church tradition) Philip asked to "bury his father" before following Jesus. The text doesn't specifically identify which disciple, however. In John 6, Jesus tests Philip, asking him how they could provide a meal for the 5000 plus crowd listening to Jesus teach. Shortly after the Lord raises Lazarus, Philip helps some Greeks visiting Jerusalem for the purpose of celebrating the Passover Feast "encounter" Jesus. Philip is Greek name so possibly he spoke Greek and could function as a bridge for those foreigners desiring to interact with the Lord. Finally, Philip doubted the unity of Jesus and the Father, struggling to believe that in seeing Jesus, he had already seen God. This gave the Lord a beautiful opportunity to teach His disciples about the amazing, beyond human comprehension unity He shared with His Father. 

I was surprised at how many times Philip actually came to the forefront in the course of the Gospels. Apparently he was a more prominent disciple than I'd ever noticed before.

Once I moved on to actually reading this passage, I noticed immediately that the other three men (Andrew, an unnamed disciple - possibly John, and Peter) all sought Jesus. They had been looking and waiting for Him, finally finding Him and recognizing that He was the One for Whom they'd been searching, waiting, hoping... 

Not so with Philip. 

Jesus had made up His mind that it was time to return to Galilee, so He would be leaving the Bethsaida and her environs - but before He did, He found Philip. 

I was curious because you can find something - as in stumble across it... or you can find something - as in search extensively and locate it. 

According to Strong's, in the Greek either meaning could be inferred by the use of this particular word. However, those really smart people who write concordances and know all about Greek think that this isn't a search, discover, find scenario. Rather, it is more like Jesus was on His way and in the process fell in with... started walking alongside, if you will, Philip. That bothered me at first. A lot, in fact.

I hoped... wanted actually, to dig deep and discover that from the text, I could infer that Jesus had actively, persistently, sought Him out. (Which is, by the way, a dangerous Bible study habit - because then I can tend to try and make the Bible say what I want to say, Informing the Lord what I think He should be teaching... rather than letting Him teach and lead me.)

And I couldn't. And so I had to stop there and think and pray for a bit - actually for more than a bit. The "box" I had pre-constructed for the Lord, at least in this particular scenario, limited Jesus to actively, unceasingly seeking out those He wants to follow Him. That may be the case other times. It doesn't appear to be so here. Instead, Jesus was going about doing what His Father had Him going about to do and "fell in with" Philip.

To fall in with someone means to become involved with that individual, to concur with or harmonize with. Jesus was on His way elsewhere, but He took the time to walk alongside and join with Philip for those moments. And after those moments, He offered Philip an alternative to his present path. He invited Philip to follow Him. I pondered the implications of that thought.

Jesus walked along with Philip - perhaps only He and Philip know for how long - experienced Philip's path and direction and then with no criticism, He offered Philip a different possibility. He asked Philip to take a new road and to begin following Him. And when He offers Philip the opportunity to follow, Jesus offers Philip the path of steadfastly clinging to Him, conforming to and seeking His example in both living and in dying. 

What a powerful model for evangelism! 

Possibly, God will direct me to "fall in with" someone for a time, understand their life, their world... traveling their road together for a bit before I can invite her to join me walking the "Jesus road" as a fellow disciple of the Lamb of God. I call myself a missionary. That idea certainly bears further contemplation and discernment for application! 

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How do you see this idea of "falling in with" prior to inviting others to "follow" Jesus playing out in your life?

this week's gratitude list:

(#'s 3350 - 3373) 

finally finals week is here... vacation is right around the corner!

grades mostly done and entered into the computer

a whole month off school to hang out with my kiddos, work on Elsie Mae and M&M's reading

friends gave us some white Christmas tree lights to replace the string where only the red blinking ones still functioned

a Tuscan evening

friends and Christmas doughnuts Saturday morning

Anna reading to both the K and 1st grade classes

barbecued pork in the crock pot with cornbread, corn and totally fresh, totally from scratch pineapple upside down cake for her birthday

a 12 year old who started reading Hunger Games about 2 heartbeats after she woke up that morning

new haircut

a lovely day, midweek, home with M&M ALL day!

watching Thing 2 (the boy goat) and Rebekah "fight"

purring, snuggling kitties

hearing my son should be a lawyer, which made me smile

exams written, grading keys made

students excited about math "cheat" cards

gingerbread cookies

hot chocolate with peppermint

cinnamon spiced coffee with breakfast

purging stuff

white elephant gift exchanges hilarity

looking at ticket prices and travel dates

Posts in this series:

• Returning to an Old Series... Encountering Jesus {Intro}
• A desert voice encounters Jesus {John the Baptist}
• "Come and you will see" 
• "You are... You will be..." 

Ever heard of Isabel Crawford?

Six young Kiowa braves sat on their horses, calmly watching her. All were naked to the waist. Their heavy black hair hung in thick braids, interwoven with rawhide and strips of ermine. All wore bone chestplates and copper bracelets.

Isabel pulled her team to a halt. Moving slowly to hide her racing heart, she raised her riht hand, palm forward in greeting.

One by one, the Indians guided their horses down the slope toward her and formed a semicircle, blockng her path.

"You come here all alone and you no scared? Maybe we scalp you." The leader's face was solemn.

The banks of the dry wash screened Isabel and the six Indian men from the outside world. She was truly at their mercy.

"I think maybe we scalp you now." the leader signed. He prodded his horse forward. A knife appeared in his left hand. He snatched the Winchester from his lap and placed the end of the barrel against Isabel's head. She heard the click of the hammer as it was cocked.

Isabel went completely numb. Every thought went out of her brain. The roarin in her ears rew into a crescendo as she awaited the fatal bullet. Cold chills shot up her spine. She closed her eyes and prepared to die...

A few weeks ago, Rebekah handed me a book. The cover of Light on the Mountain, by Leonard Sanders, shows the picture of a beautiful young woman and several Native Americans in the background behind her. Those words above formed the teaser paragraph on the front pages, designed to hook prospective readers. Rebekah had already emphatically announced it was one of her favorite books ever... as she handed it to me. At this point, I figured it was nothing more one of those formula-pioneer-western-romance-sort of novels. But? I'd promised Rebekah I'd read it, had the gift of some unexpected time available, and so I opened the pages to "do my duty."



Picture from the cover of
Isabel Crawford's autiobiography -
KIOWA: A Woman Missionary
in Indian Territory 

Boy, was I wrong!

The book tells the story of Isabel Crawford, a single lady missionary who moved onto the Kiowa Indian reservation on Oklahoma Territory, against the recommendation of her colleagues. Mostly deaf, she communicated through sign language, reading lips and a Kiowa man who agreed to serve as her interpreter. She encouraged the Kiowas to "walk the Jesus-road" while never forgetting that God had created them Kiowa, and that that fact was "very good." By God's grace and with His strength, her life, her words, her service and her consistent, persistent, gracious yet meticulous application of Scripture to daily life  penetrated Kiowa society with the light of the Gospel message. She did what no "Jesus-man" had been able to accomplish.

At the beginning of the book, she defines her approach to one of her colleagues: "I'm confident that if you approach a savage in a womanly way, he will respond with respect." Thus, it was never her goal to "preach the Gospel" or "shepherd a church," but rather to help the Kiowa learn to live and walk a new path and point him to Scripture to determine what that meant. She wanted to live in community with the Kiowa as a godly woman, and to disciple them through Bible study so that her community would also desire to walk the Jesus-road with her. After several unbelievably hard years (she experienced first hand the white man's cruelty and ignorance towards Native Americans as well as the total lack of integrity by the United States government), the impact of this approach that God had impressed on her heart was unmistakeable; several of the Kiowas had organized into a church and were determined to find (or disciple) their own Indian pastor.

I was in tears as I read the final chapter of this book. Isabel held fast to the authority of Scripture, regardless of the accepted traditions of the church. She valued immensely the cultural fingerprint of how God had created the Kiowas and recognized the many aspects of their way of life where God had already revealed Himself to them. She discovered that she had much more to learn from them than she had to teach them, once she had introduced them to the Jesus-road. She truly guided them to a salvation by faith, given by grace. For example, the greater church at that time flat out stated that an Indian who had more than one wife could not become a Christian. Several Kiowa men said that they would not become Christians because they could not abandon the women who were their wives. Isabel helped them see that even though the church might never recognize them as "Christian," they could still choose to walk the Jesus-road, believe that Jesus died for them and ask Jesus to live within them and guide them.

Because of church politics, after nearly 11 years, she was asked by her sending agency to leave the reservation. She felt obliged to resign her position because their stand was contrary to the authority of the Bible: a man-created mission organization was trying to dictate and interfere with the autonomy of a local church seeking to obey Scripture. Her final words to this godly congregation of Kiowa believers?

"For ten years, eight months, and three days I have been a white missionary to the Indians. I have thought hard and I have prayed hard and now I know what I must do. This I promise you. From this moment on, I will spend the rest of my life as a missionary from the Kiowas to the white people. I will write books and magazine articles. I will make speeches. I will do anything and everything I can to tell the world about the most wonderful people I have ever known - the Kiowa Indians.... If I said good-bye to each and every one of you, there would be nothing left of me to put aboard that train this afternoon. I know that. So I want to ask of you one last favor. Heenkey has agreed to take me to the railroad in his new surrey. My trunk and bags are already in it. He is waiting at the door of the church. I want you now to bow your heads in silent prayer. I want you to keep on praying until I am out that door and gone. It is the way I want to remember you -- praying in the church that we built together." For one heart-stopping moment, Isabel feared they would not comply. But they were only taking one last lingering look at her. The heads went down...

I cried as I read those words...

I don't often do that...

I'm certainly going to do what I can to find out more about this incredible woman. I'd encourage you to do the same. I know that I've been challenged once again to consider what it means to minister to others and share what it means to walk the Jesus-road in a foreign-to-me cultural context.

Glimpses from a Sunday Morning ~

~ baby dedication ~

~ Tim preaching, his translator behind him ~

~ Communion ~

~ Pastor Abdourahamane, Amina, and their children ~

Five Minute Friday - Light

These people are the friends of our friends and colleagues. We've met some of them... Some of these men have been to the studio to record... A few have even been to our home...Tim spent time with them when he was up in Timbuktu for a recording project. This doesn't feel like all of this is happening in some far-off, distant-all-the-way-to-the-ends-of-the-earth-place. It feels like it's happening right next door...

Watching our kids play, a friend and I were talking this week about current events in our part of the world, and I don't exactly remember the context, but this verse (or a similar one) came up: 

"It behoveth me

to be working

the works of Him who sent me

while it is day;

night doth come,

when no one is able to work"

 John 9.4, Young's Literal Translation

It is Easter weekend... Good Friday...

I wonder if they wonder why all of this, this, this or this is happening?

I do.

I wonder where all of this is going to lead.

Has the night come, is it descending on this part of the world?

And I wonder at my self-centered muttering over an inability to sleep (the lights - and fans - were out at our house, but on all around) instead of thanking God for the reminder... and the gift of sleepless, quiet time to fall on my face and pray.

"While ye have light, believe in the light,

that ye may be the children of light.

These things spake Jesus, and departed,

and did hide himself from them."

John 12.36

I cannot begin to speculate. Is this "the night" coming? Is Jesus "hiding Himself" for a time?

I'm thankful that my All-Knowing Father knows, that He is good all the time, that in Him is Light and no shadow of turning... and that I don't have to know all the ins and outs of this story because I try to trust completely the One writing it. 

I'm thankful I do know Resurrection Sunday is imminent.

I'm sure our Malian brothers and sisters are thankful for that truth, too.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are interested in reading up on these current events, most of the links (except in the first pararaph) are different, individual links. They do not represent our exact views of/on the situation in all cases (not that we'd claim to be experts... or even particuarly knowledgeable), however they are a place to start if the Lord should lead you to pray.

If you believe the Lord is asking you to give or to help tangibly in some way, contact me directly.

What's in a name?

"My heart is full of praise that one so insignificant, uneducated, and ordinary in every way could be used to His glory for the blessing of His people in poor persecuted China." (Gladys Aylward)

Gladys Aylward is one of my heroes.

Really!

I've been thinking about her this week - probably because I have a friend who makes me think of her. This friend has been coming with me every week, helping me teach a literacy class for the past few months. She doesn't speak the local verbal languages... but she's very fluent with languages that speak directly to hearts. Mamata (the oldest lady and most faithful student in the class) and those who live in her concession call my friend "Everyone's Friend..." The other day I think she told me (my Zarma isn't all that great - but it is improving) that getting to meet my friend has been a gift because Mamata doesn't just call her "Everyone's Friend" like everyone else. Instead, she gets to call her "My Friend." And she does. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard her use my friend's name...

So why does that make me think of Gladys Aylward?

I'd never heard of Gladys until 10-15 years ago, when I stumbled on an old Ingrid Bergman movie titled The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. It was the Hollywood-ized version of Gladys Aylward's amazing adventure, striking off on her own (after being rejected by a mission agency who said she didn't have the education, skills or ability to serve as a foreign missionary) to live life in rural, mountainous China ministering to the poorest of the poor under the most unbelievable circumstances.  Even with its inaccuracies and departures from the real story of her life, it recounts the story of a mighty woman of faith who touched the lives of everyone around her. I immediately tracked down a biography to find out the real story!

So much of her story captivates my imagination... I wish I could be a missionary like her. But the part that totally captures my heart is when she is given her Chinese name by those all around her. Her Chinese community called her “Ai-weh-deh,” or Virtuous One.

Just consider some synonyms for that name:

• Honorable One
• Irreproachable One
• Gracious One
• Compelling One
• Persuasive One
• Fruitful One
• Approved One

That was her testimony. That was how she reflected God and His glory to the Chinese people...

I've also thought about the fact that she considered herself so un-extraordinary... and yet those to whom and with whom she ministered felt very differently. Virtue and virtuoso come from the same original root - a virtuoso is one who demonstrates masterly skill and excellence... God's grace grew her into a masterful servant of both the Most High and the "very-est low..."

I think of and am challenged by her story and example~ just as I am every time I see my friend here, a dear lady who reflects enthusiastic, joyful friendliness and a genuine love for people. That has been clearly evidenced by the name the people in Mamata's concession have given her.

It also leads me to prayerfully ask:

What name am I known by?

&

What name, some day, do I hope to be known by?

How about you?