We Wait

Today I would like to introduce you to Ingrid, a fellow missionary mum. This mum is a little different from the other one's who have shared on the blog so far, as I have never actually met her. Like many other of my readers, she found The Missionary Mum while searching on the internet. She is married to a Brit, has two sons and they are currently preparing to move from New Zealand to work in the highlands of Papua New Guinea as a family. Right now they are in a time of waiting for visas, just like us. Ingrid also writes her own blog at Jeans and Pink Jandals. 

For many the call to the mission field is a call to sacrifice, isolation, hardship, blessing, faith, and patience. Some I know have prepared and waited years and years to go after they were called. Some wait for Government departments or visa’s for months, in our case for a pitiful 5 months and it feels like torture. December 2012, we were called. January 2013, we visited. February 2013, we were invited and said yes, and now we wait. 

We live in a state of limbo. Drawn to a place we want to be, a place we believe God wants us to be, yet still having to live our lives in the country we call home. And still we wait. Our mission agency policy isn’t to pay bribes, they feel called to be counter cultural to the corruption that exist within this developing country. And I agree, in theory, but in practise, I just want to get there. I don’t want them to pay bribes either, but this waiting is hard.

As we started this year, we were so full of excitement at what this year would hold, and after months of not hearing anything, and knowing this tick we are wanting from the government is only the first of many, the excitement is waning. Our expectations went from 8 weeks to get there, to months and months of excruciating waiting. Our friends who have been there, smile and tell us this is good training for life in a developing country, learning patience, understanding corruption, knowing nothing happens in a hurry. This is our training ground. 

With our call still fresh and our excitement waning, I searched in my concordance to seek what the Word of God said about the word ‘wait’. What I unearthed was food for a hungry soul and hydration for drying lips.

• Psalm 27:14 Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! 
• Psalm 37:7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! 
• Psalm 38:15 But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. 
• Psalm 62:5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.
• Isaiah 40:31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
• Habakkuk 2:3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end--it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

Our call is to obedience, and as the Word says, we wait for the appointed time, we can trust as the LORD is the author of time. Just because we are to ‘fret not’, be patient and hope in Him, doesn’t make it easy, it only makes it do-able.

If you are a missionary mum and would also be interested in contributing an article, please contact me at beckwithsbigadventure@live.com