Life is filled with ups and downs, good days and bad days,
moving forward and moving backward. And while it would be nice to see continual
forward progress in the kids and families that I work with, and in my own life,
that just isn’t reality. We are all human. The ebb and flow of ups and downs in
life is a part of humanity, as is the continual struggle of making decisions
that propel us forward, push us backward, or keep us stuck where we are. And
while we can pursue continual forward motion, I am convinced that we will never
be completely free of life’s mountains and valleys until we reach the other
side of paradise.
While these ups and downs can be quite frustrating, I think
they can also lead us into further humbleness as they teach us to give grace to
ourselves and others and leave us in awe and wonder of God’s perfect, faithful
constancy in contrast to our fickle inconsistency. It also frees us to see our
present circumstances from a new perspective—to know that our current valley or
mistake isn’t the end of all things or even all that important in the grand
scheme of things. Rather, it is a chapter in a much larger story that will end
in the perfect plateau of complete joy.
So when Mario misses Bible class again or when Jorge comes
home drunk after promising to quit or when I lose my patience and say
hurtful words, I can continue in hope knowing that this is all a part of the
messy, complicated process of being restored to who we were created to be. I
can celebrate the mountains and not be consumed by the valleys because of the
grace and mercy that our constant God lavishes on his fickle children.
So today I celebrate with Wendy, who is starting her own
business, and Perla, who made the honor roll, and Jose Luis, who is a leader on
his cultural dance team at school. And I join in prayer with Adriana, who is
struggling to find motivation, and Yolanda, who feels trapped in a hard
situation, and Leydy, who is struggling to pass math. Praying that God would
give me and my fellow Back2Back staff members the patience to walk with them
through the valleys and the mountains til we reach that perfect plateau.
In addition to continuing to pray for the hills and dips of
Back2Back’s work in Mexico, I also ask that you would join with me in praying
for my future. As I think about how I will be finishing up my Master’s program
in 9 months and begin looking at what the future may hold for me, I see a blank
page of both uncertainty and opportunity. I want to be wherever I can best seek
and serve God but am not sure what that practically looks like. While I am
unsure as to where I will be and what I will be doing after graduation, I feel
called to continue working remotely with Back2Back until then by continuing to
supervise a Mexican case manager and consult with staff on big changes we are
making to our process of working with the families. An additional $2,500 is
needed for me to continue this work through December. I would like to invite
you to be a part of this work by financially partnering with me and would love
to talk with you more about this. If you are interested in financially
partnering with me in this work, you can visit https://donations.back2back.org/and specify that you would like the donation to go towards staff support and
place my name in the donation memo box. Thank you so much for considering this
and for all of the ways that you support me. I am so grateful for all of you.
I pray that you would see God’s presence clearly in the
mountains and valleys in your life right now and that you would be comforted in
knowing that you never walk alone.
