I think too often I get caught up in being a good “pilot’s wife” – especially when it gets busy. I want to do my job well so I work hard at having a weather report ready for Brian when he calls over the radio and making sure the guesthouse knows when a flight didn’t make it so that they can have a room ready for the passengers who didn’t make it into the tribe. I make sure that Brian has something to take with him to the hangar to eat for lunch and I make sure that all the missionaries have checked in for the day. I have my list (in my head) and at the end of the day, when I have checked everything off of my list, I feel good – thankful that I made it through another day and accomplished what I needed to. But then on days when I don’t get everything accomplished, when I forget to make Brian’s lunch or I am too tired to do school with Maycie, I get easily discouraged. I feel like the day was wasted and I failed to get even the simple things done. I feel like I’ve let Brian down and my kids down and our missionaries down. I get so self-focused that I miss the bigger picture! Despite the fact that Brian may have to eat Jolibee AGAIN for lunch or that I don’t know what our missionaries are doing that day because I forgot to check in with them, God is doing BIG things all around me and HE DOESN’T NEED ME!
We had our annual mini-conference with all those that serve here on Mindanao and man, what a sweet time it was! It was an incredible reminder of who God is, how big He is, and how much He is getting accomplished despite little old me. We were able to hear from all of our missionaries who work in the tribe, here in town, and even in our main office in Manila and it was just so encouraging and refreshing to hear from each of them firsthand. I was so thankful to be reminded of why we are here – it’s not to flight follow well or make sure Brian has his lunch. It’s not to homeschool the kids or even to check in with the missionaries each day. We are here because God has seen fit to bring us alongside HIS work here and to see the unreached REACHED with the Gospel! And it’s happening! We heard stories of salvation and of whole villages who want to hear the Truth; of believers who have had to flee for the lives and out of that, they’ve been able to share with other villages of the saving knowledge of Christ. BIG things are going on and I am just so incredibly thankful that I get to be a part, a very small part, of it all.