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Reopening

April 30, 2020 by Joel Potter

Do we dare hope?

First of all, if you want to WATCH this update rather than read it, we have a video version of it posted in our Facebook Ministry Group here. Feel free to watch and comment. Or you could open it up and just listen as you cook dinner or…I would say on your daily commute, but who has those right now 😉

Like most of you, our lives have undergone SO much change and upheaval these past 6 weeks. So, in some ways we didn’t want to try and draw much attention to what we’re doing right now because it’s not as if you have all the time in the world.

You all have the same challenges as us: you’re “home-schooling” your kids or at least serving as their online education coach (which mostly means you’re ad-hoc tech support for Zoom.) 

You’re either trying to also be productive and work from home as well, or hoping you have a job to go back to when it’s safe to leave your house for more than just groceries. Or even harder, you might not have a job anymore.

Some of you have lost loved ones. Some of you have had to give up weddings, graduations and other milestone events. We get it. And that’s why we’ve been quiet.

God is still at work in this world and we, the Potters are still on a mission.

But first, a little transparency. It has, honestly, been a struggle for me, Joel, to sit down each day and focus on the task at hand. Remember what that task was? I’ll just quickly refresh us. 

Our task, simply put, was to try and raise an additional $2020 in regular monthly support in this year of 2020. Or more accurately, we are asking God to move in the hearts of our friends in our community to partner with us in giving. We have always believed that it is God’s work to put that idea on people’s hearts and our responsibility to help people understand the life-changing work that we are a part of. We get to “send the invite” but it’s God who causes people to RSVP and show up.

From a human point-of-view It’s not easy work in the best of times. Imagine how hard it is during a global pandemic.

Here’s the thing though. It should be easy. It should be easy to trust God to provide for us as He has made clear that he will. It should be easy to share in all the ways we can, stories that bring what we are a part of, to life, for our community. That should be easy.

But when an easily emotional husband, dad and caregiver gets his focus off of the Father, it gets really hard! Of course, I’m talking about myself here. I’ve struggled big time these last 6+ weeks. Some days I have ideas and inspiration and then others (most of the others), I sit in front of a screen with doubt in my mind that I can encourage anyone. Add in other challenges like the ones I mentioned earlier and a few unpleasant injuries and you’ve got a recipe for discouragement and the feeling of wasted time.

The thing is, God is such a good Father. He perfectly knows how to let us, his kids go through hard times but enables us to learn so much and see his constant love. That’s been my experience. I won’t recount them here, but I can look back and see so many instances of grace and mercy to help when I had need. That’s Him being faithful to his promise in Hebrews. Let us approach the throne of grace that we may find grace and mercy to help in time of need!

Hebrew 4:16 (ESV)

So, what’s next?

It does feel with all the conversation happening about “re-opening” like we are on the brink of moving into a new period. And with that we have some optimism that we can keep going with the in-person part of raising support and building up our community. 

There is still so much we don’t know about what life in the next stage will look like. We have to be especially careful still and won’t be the first ones to embrace normal social activity. Jack is in the seriously immune compromised category so we’ll move really slowly. 

It’s our hope though, to not give into the discouragement that comes from being distracted by what all could go wrong or how we’ll never get back what we lost in normalness. It’s our hope to resume the role of being story-tellers, encouraging you all to keep your eyes on the good father and His work in redeeming people from every nation on earth.

Whether we can do it in person or via a medium like this, God knows. We just want to be faithful to use the opportunities well.

Here we go friends!

We don’t know what comes next. We don’t know when or if “normal life” will return. But we do know that the God who does know all things is with us, and is for us as a loving father roots for his kids. Let’s do what comes next, what He brings into our paths later today, tomorrow and next month with this in mind!

Would you pray for us as we “re-open”?

  1. Pray that we’ll have encouragement to keep sharing and inspiring people with how good God is.
  2. Pray that we’ll have realistic expectations of ourselves in this continued unusual time.
  3. Pray that God will continue to build the momentum that He had begun earlier this year. We had four new families join our support team and were making progress to our goal of $2020.
  4. Pray for the needed wisdom when we can plan to do things in person. Things like our postponed passport dinner with our church and other gatherings are still things we hope we can do this year. And Bethany is still waiting on the go-ahead to schedule the previously postponed redo of the failed PRK eye surgery as well as another procedure that will help her circulatory system.

Is there anything else besides pray that YOU can do?

☑️ Join the The Potter Mission Community…
You bet there is! If you’re not a part of our Facebook Ministry Group, GO and JOIN, please! Head to our group and make sure you’re a member of it if you’re not already. 

☑️ Partner with us and help us reach our financial goal…
Our goal is to raise an additional $2020 in regularly monthly support by the end of this year, 2020. If you want to be a part, head here!

Filed Under: The Potter Mission Tagged With: coronavirus, Family, Ministry, pandemic, prayer request, reopening

More Posts:

« Is Missions On Hold?
Remain [Guest Post] »

The Potters…

are missionaries helping every people group around the world have the chance to understand the gospel and have access to a thriving church. We are serving with the International Ministries Office as it assists Ethnos360 and its Global Partners.

joeldpotter

To “tend a loved one in decline” - part 3 Fai To “tend a loved one in decline” - part 3

Faith becomes sight.

It’s not totally an accurate way to describe this moment, but it comes close. I think it’s intended to describe the moment when a Christ-follower passes from life on earth to life in the presence of God and the things held in faith no longer have to be believed in, but can simply be experienced with certainty.

For me, this is a lesser but similar moment. Today we settled Lynn into an assisted living facility that seems to have been sweet and perfect provision from God at just the right time. And after 11 full years, the moment was right. When we made the decision to invite Lynn to live full-time with us, it wasn’t just practical and economic as we looked at moving from Michigan to Florida. It was also a commitment to care. We saw a distant moment when we wouldn’t be able to care for her and would need to seek outside help. But like the frog who hangs out in the pot of water as it heats up, we had no idea how the increase in water temperature would affect us.

About five years ago, when Lynn had to give up working outside the home as well as driving, we entered the stage where the heat began to turn up. I want to unpack this more in another post but to keep it simple now we knew we were heading into a time in life where there would be some setting aside. And that meant we were exercising some faith that one day we might be able to pick up those things we were setting aside.

As the last five years passed and the cost of what we set aside grew, so did the hope that one day we would be relieved.

That day may have been today. But the sight looks like an empty seat at the dining table, the notification sound that makes me jump to help someone back in bed, the sudden space in life to do things like work a full day…but those things feel weird today.

#caregiving #longtermcaregiving #caregiver #alzheimerscaregiver #everymomentholy #tendingalovedoneindecline
This weekend, we celebrated some milestones. Both This weekend, we celebrated some milestones. Both my Dad and Lynn, Bethany’s Mom recently reached 75 years. 

That’s a big deal, right?!

I didn’t know this at the time, but in the picture with “Mom” looking at the camera over the cupcakes, that was a long moment in which she and I held eye contact. I genuinely thought it was something special. 

It turns out that this morning, we found what we think will be a safe, comfortable, home-like and loving assisted living facility where she is able to move in very soon. This is one of the biggest answers to prayer in recent years for our family. Caring for her for the last 11 years, even though it hadn’t always been as hard as the last few, has cost us. The Lord enabled us to pay that cost but it has cost none the less. 

That moment locking eyes with her means a lot though. 

I have to also recognize the tender gift that my Dad has exercised as he and my Mom have cared so often for Lynn. His ability to gently draw her out on a walk in the neighborhood or to sit and sing a hymn with her, has blessed more than her. 
______
#tendingalovedoneindecline #everymomentholy
We just posted a big Year in Review post on our bl We just posted a big Year in Review post on our blog and to the email list. As you know, a whole lot of life happened in 2022 and it's likely that 2023 will be no different. We'd love to fill you in. 

Take a look at it on the blog OR you can listen to it. Listening is a super-simple way to keep up with us when you can't read. Like while you're taking the kids to school or walking your pup. 

You can find links to LISTEN or READ at my profile site.
______
#thepottermission 
#yearinreview
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