Does What We Do Make Any Difference?

In a moment of doubt and discouragement I found myself asking that question a few weeks ago.

For the past few months we have worked with a young couple that we have known for many years. Their baby was born prematurely with many health challenges and this couple and their family found themselves forced to move from their home reserve to the city of Vancouver. We tried to provide much encouragement as well as practical advise and assistance to help them adjust to life in this new environment. Life in the big and impersonal city is VERY different from the intertwined life of a reserve. The challenges were big. advice was not followed and one day all their children ended up in the Foster Care system.

It was a disappointing and painful day for all of us. I wondered after all the invested hours, "Does what Karen and I do really make a difference?" Apparently the Lord overheard my doubts and private rumblings and shortly after provided an answer.

At the same time as all this was going on, we were dealing with the news of Karen's cancer and subsequent operation. During that time our friends and family from Klemtu and Campbell River provided expressions of love and concern over and over again. The many calls, the practical expressions of care and even their initial panicked responses to the news let us know how deeply we were ingrained in their hearts. When the good news about the surgery went out, one bed-ridden friend was so overjoyed that she said she almost stood up for the first time in a long time. She had to go out and tell others, 'Karen is doing well. No cancer was found outside of the lump The doctor thinks she got it all!!!'

Our lives are their lives. Our illness is their illness. Karen's good surgery and results was their good news as well.

Does what we do really make any difference? Sometimes in the daily grind and routine, the common events and failures we wonder. But God orchestrated through Karen's illness for us to have a window of opportunity to see how much we have impacted their lives. And in the reflection of that window, we saw how much they had impacted ours as well. God's love had gone out to others and had come back in great measure.

I am thankful that in my moments of self-doubt, God deals with me graciously. I am also grateful to be assured once again, that whether I see any difference day to day I can trust that God is active in the hearts and lives of those around me. Sometimes he even uses me in spite of myself :)

A Typical Day?

Please don't ask, I really don't know how to answer that question. I know many of you wonder because you ask me that question when I speak in your Churches. I just really can't say what a typical day is like, I don't seem to have any two that are alike. It seems like I plan my day and then my day plans me. Since I can't tell you what a typical day is like maybe I will just tell you about today.

Today I am continuing on in development of three web pages (this one for ministry updates and two others for family updates and a devotional site). In addition I am organizing a committee meeting (for which I accidently sent out the wrong dates which led to the necessity of more communication), responding to emails, persuing a financial support opportunity for this ministry, mentally composing a ministry update letter, taking/making various phone calls and meeting with my supervisor for the whole afternoon. I hope to do further reading in 'How Long, O Lord" by D.A. Carson as well as begin to read/review "Where is God When It Hurts" by Philip Yancey and "Stress Fractures" by Charles R. Swindoll (The Serminator).

I also have to cook dinner (its my turn), pick up our Japanese Exchange student from school, take Ryan to and from work and attempt to appease our dog Riley's incessant requests for attention, walks and potty breaks. In my spare time I hope to....

What's a typical day like for you?