KONOMALA

When you’re born into a certain way of life, and you’ve been part of certain institutions or traditions for your entire life, it can be hard to see the world through any other lens. But if by some chance you do start to perceive life differently, it can be quite an uncomfortable and slow journey as you and all of those around you feel the full array of emotions. 

That’s a bit of the backdrop of life for the church here in Konomala right now. A very real battle is taking place as God continues to enlighten our hearts and minds as to all that He has done, who we are now in His family, and what He wants to continue to do. 

Here’s a little snap-shot of an example: 
Yesterday we met as a church to study through the passage in Ephesians for this week. As we began, a sweet friend came and joined us. She’s a believer who has been a part of the church in the past, but over the last few months her husband has become more and more antagonistic towards us as a church. In the middle of our time together, he sent someone over to tell her to come home immediately. With their house being only a stone’s throw away from where we were sitting, most of us could here him angrily scolding her for having come and sat down with us. 

It hits hard after the countless hours that we’ve spent with him and his family. For months he had come and listened to us teaching and discussing truth. But now that a couple of loud members of the extended family have stirred up some trouble, it’s not worth even risking association with us as a church now. 

For years, all of our friends have been connected to a particular local denomination. Now that a few of them are viewing themselves differently than before, the family drama is only getting louder and louder. Just being seen near us when we meet is now being seen as a purposeful act of “breaking apart” the family. 

After we finished our time of studying the text yesterday, we all had a multiple hour discussion as to how we should be thinking and how we can be practically loving others as the tension grows within the extended family. 

It’s hard. It hurts pretty bad when it’s your own flesh and blood. In the past, this type of stuff has completely paralyzed almost everyone within the church. But yesterday the conversation was profoundly different. There was a depth and confidence that could only have come from God’s Spirit in us. 

Actually, before the supernatural part, the first comments were totally coming out of frustration and anger. 
“How dare he do that.” 
“That’s it, none of us should ever help him again until he lets his wife come back.” 

It was actually pretty funny. 

One of the guys just stopped the conversation after those comments and pointed to the text in Ephesians that we had just studied on the white board. He just read it plainly again and perfectly applied it to this specific situation and season that we’re in. That’s when the supernatural stuff started to come out.
Our conversation spanned the entire spectrum:
– recognition again of what’s true of all of us because of what happened in the garden
– recognizing what’s true of us now as a family of God
– remembering Jesus’ words and prayer in John 17 
– looking forward to the hope of eternity & reward 
– recognizing our own engrained, natural ways of dealing with life 
– remembering what is now available to us in Jesus 
– perceiving this struggle as an opportunity to grow together, love each other, and know Jesus even more

In the end we all left encouraged, with a renewed perspective, and with a collective willingness to step into hard things together. 

Our Family

The last few months alone in Konomala have gone by pretty quickly. Though we have had some hard things to walk through together, God has faithfully given grace in every moment of need. 

As we approach the home stretch of this season in Konomala, the last weeks have felt like they’ve happened in slow motion. It’s been a bit more of a struggle lately to love people (and each other) in the constant-ness of it all: busyness, heat, sickness, community drama, some ridiculous stuff, some boring stuff, some stressful stuff etc. etc. 

The girls have been doing great though even without their best friends around. I never thought I would say this, but having guinea pigs has been a real blessing. The girls are enthralled with their opportunity to nurture the little, squeaking creatures. 

The other night, we were eating dinner and kept listing off all of the different foods that we are excited to eat in America. 
“What are oreo’s?” 
“There is CHOCOLATE milk?!”
“They will DELIVER pizza to our door?!” 
“Does America have potatoes?” 
“I don’t know what a parfait is, but it sounds good.” 
“The bacon is crispy?!” 

Pray for us. 

Keep Praying 

Pray that God would continue opening the eyes of our hearts in the church to all that is true of Himself and of us as His children. 

Pray that He would strengthen us all with His power which is beyond all that we can imagine and is greater than anything we may face. 

Pray that we would love each other well as a church. And pray that our love would begin to draw in some of the skeptical, antagonistic people within our community. 

Pray that we would be faithful as parents to our kids: loving them patiently, gently, and wisely … always pointing them to their good Father in heaven. 

And lastly, keep praying with us as we continue to trust God to provide for some big needs in traveling and transitioning back to America.