All the Best Parts

Admittedly, we did not anticipate that we would be able to arrive back in Ethiopia, renew Jon’s work permit, renew our residencies and all would be smooth sailing. We’ve been working in Ethiopia long enough to know that is rarely the reality. So, there has been some frustration as we wait with our hands effectively tied.

However, for today I’m focusing on all the best parts of living in Ethiopia.

I’m cooking a lot more, so there are lots of yummy things to eat.

Fresh bread, oatmeal cookies and homemade tortillas

We love the compound where we are staying and Dawit is getting lots of play time.

Dawit tried to feed the compound tortoise a green bean, playing in the sandbox and superheroes on the trampoline

There is nothing like having time together as a family.

Daddy daughter nap time, monkeys on my back and reading time

A Quiet Tuesday

I love a quiet day. Even better is a quiet day at home. Admittedly, if I have too many quiet days at home I get a little stir crazy but a few now and again are a wonderful thing.  Yesterday, we moved out to the Christian Missionary Fellowship compound just outside of Addis. We’ll be staying here, hopefully, just long enough to finish the renewal of Jonathan’s work permit and our residencies. It is a beautiful compound with many western comforts so the main reason we want to leave is because we are ready to be settled in Chencha. It is a nice sunny day and Dawit is able to run, jump (there is a trampoline at the compound) and play with the other kids here so he is thoroughly enjoying himself. Jon is not in Addis so he is happy. Baby Girl has us and plenty of my milk so she is happy.  All this makes me happy. The peacefulness of this setting and the contentment of my family gives me time to stop and do something I should do so, so much more than I do—count my blessings. I count my family as my biggest blessing. We are all healthy and capable.  We have been blessed financially, especially when looking at our current setting and the world as a whole. We have been blessed with safe clean places to stay during our time away from our home in Chencha. We have an abundance of food and clothing. We have friends who share our passions. We have a car to use to get around the city and to drive to Chencha. And, of course my greatest blessing we celebrated a couple of days ago. I serve a risen savior who paid the price for my sins. Taking time to actually write out just a few of the ways the Lord has blessed me has given me great peace today.

A view from the compound

Dawit playing on the trampoline (he is in the Spiderman costume).

 

Melessen (we returned)

We’ve made it back to Ethiopia. Actually, we’ve been back just over a week. Although, in some ways it seems much shorter, in a lot of ways the familiarity makes it seem like we never really left. We’ve been able to plug right back in and even though we aren’t in our own space yet we are quite comfortable and enjoying getting back in touch with everyone. Jonathan has started the process to get his work permit renewed. Please pray that it will be as cut and dry as it seems it should be. After we get Jonathan’s work permit renewed we can renew our residencies and get residency for Baby Carter. After all that work is finished we will be able to head down to our little house in Chencha. It will be so nice to finally be able to settle into one place, even if that place lacks most of our western conveniences. We’re all looking forward to setting up house and getting our little garden started.

Carter has been making friends and charming everyone.

Dawit got to have some fun with his washable markers. He is Ironman with a mustache.

Carter’s “old fashioned’ sleeping arrangement. It works perfectly.

Who wants injera?

A Little Math Lesson

I’ve been back in the states for a few weeks now. I’ve been able to catch up on all those things that we miss while we’re in Ethiopia. In other words, I’ve eaten lots of good ol’ southern home cooking. In Ethiopia we’d call it our “cultural food”. Grits and gravy are hard to come by in Ethiopia.

Besides food I got a special, unexpected treat earlier this week. Fishing is probably the thing that I miss most while in Ethiopia. God blessed me with beautiful weather and a friend with a boat last Monday. We did a lot more fishing than we did catching, but that didn’t bother me a bit. I was just happy to be on the water with good friends.

I could go on and on, but there’s something more pressing on my mind. Recently we’ve had several people interested in donating to us and our ministry, but unsure about what they should give. “What is a normal amount that people give?”, “How much do you need?”, or “What amount would make a difference?” are the common questions that we receive. We often stumble as we try to answer, because there is no easy answer and these aren’t really the right questions. There really is no way for Jess and me to answer these questions. So in an attempt to answer the intent behind these questions I am going to give you the Jonathan Bridges philosophy on giving. This applies to any charitable giving whether it’s for missionaries, churches, or other ministries.

He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins. “I tell you the truth,” He said. “This poor widow has put in more than all of them. Luke 21:1-3

First we have to rethink some basic assumptions. It is important to remember that God’s ways are not our ways and this includes the way we do math. When we give to God’s work one plus one does not necessarily equal two.

I’ll give you an example from our own supporters. We have one supporter who gives $15 per month. There is another supporter who gives $300 per month. According to standard accounting practices we’d say that there is a big difference in these gifts. However, according to God’s math these amounts are equal. I know these supporters well enough to know that each gives prayerfully, according to what they have, from a cheerful heart, “as he has decided in his heart – not reluctantly or out of necessity”.

Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8

So you see, it is impossible for us to answer these questions for an individual giver. In doing so we may be making a grave mistake. If we suggest too little we may rob a giver of a full blessing. If we suggest too much we may place an unnecessary burden on a giver.

God is the one who must answer these questions. For the gift to be effective it must be decided between the giver and God. The first step is to prayerfully review your budget with God. If you are truly seeking to glorify Him and increase His kingdom He will bless the intent of your heart by giving the right answer. Don’t focus so much on the actual dollar amount, but the answer that God gives. I must warn you, though. The answer will probably cause a little discomfort. God will likely require some sacrifice, stretch your faith a little, and ask you to give up some things for Him.

Jess and I have seen personally over the past few years that when this formula is followed the amount given is exactly the right amount. God knows what we need more than we do and He has promised to supply our needs while we faithfully and dependently serve Him. He has faithfully supplied our every need and I have absolute faith that He will continue. The fact that many people have been burdened with a desire to support us is a clue that our needs may be increasing in the near future. This makes sense with a new baby coming in just 2 weeks and some expanding ministry opportunities in Ethiopia that Jess and I have been discussing lately (We’ll be revealing these as they firm up more).

If God has placed a burden in your heart to support our work, or any other ministry for that matter, don’t just impulsively start writing checks. First check with the one who sets our pay scale – God. In doing so He will bless your gift and ensure that we have all we need.

His Work

photo by Dan Fuller

I sat the other day watching clouds drift above lofty mountain peaks. Great shadows created an ever changing picture show against the wooded slopes and the cultivated valleys. Chencha right now is a patch work of green. Each farmer tends his own small plot according to his own habits and presumptions. The result is masterpiece of green. I saw a plot of the almost iridescent green of barley seedlings not yet six inches high. Beside it the dark verdant green of knee high wheat sways in the breeze. A little further on is a subtle green covered in a dusky golden haze as heads of barley begin to mature.

One field in particular happened to catch my eye as I soaked in the scenery and sunshine. I was a bit annoyed that my attention had been pulled from the grand view to the small ordinary scene. It must have been movement that caught my attention. On the far side of one particular field I saw a man walking somewhat deliberately. I could tell immediately that he was a farmer. He was of small stature, but with a rugged look and obvious strength in his shoulders. I noticed, after every ten steps or so, that he would give a quick, almost imperceptible glance over his shoulder. There hidden by the knee high grain a small dark object bobbed along behind him.

Finally, as the farmer turned the corner on the side of the field facing me I saw the items he sought. Several stout logs lay along the side of the field where a tree had recently been felled. As he came to beside the logs, the bobbing object came into view. It was a small boy of maybe four or five years old (it’s hard to say since children here tend to run a bit small compared to ours). Upon rounding the turn he hurried to where the farmer, who I now considered to be the boy’s father, stood. There were a few words and some gesturing between the two, and even though I was out of ear shot and they spoke a language I don’t know, I knew the context of this short conversation, having had nephews and my own son utter the excited phrase, “Can I help, can I help?”

Before the father could so much as bend a knee the boy, in the speed and enthusiasm of youth, was down clutching the cumbersome load and straining with all his might to lift it. The log didn’t so much as quiver. Then, as I perceived a slight smile and a chuckle from him, the father hoisted the log, boy still attached, onto his strong shoulder, turned and headed back the way he came. The boy clung to the log, facing his father, dangling in the air and giggling as he swayed to the rhythm of his father’s pace.

Let’s never think ourselves so important to believe that God, our Father, actually “needs” us to help Him with His work.

Does He desire for us to obediently follow Him wherever His work may be? Yes.
Does it warm His heart when we eagerly ask to take part in His work? Surely.
Does it bring Him great joy to find us trying with all our might to accomplish a task with Him, despite obviously being far too feeble?
I believe so.

However, as I reflect on this work that I am doing “with” my Father I find that it is my Father who is carrying the load and me with it. I find, that rather than helping him accomplish his work, I am as much a part of his work as anything else.

“Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.” John 15:4-5

“We should never lose sight of the higher aspect of our work – that of obedience to God, of bringing glory to His Name, of gladdening the heart of our God and Father by living and serving as His beloved children.”                             J. Hudson Taylor

The Missionary’s Wife

Yep, that’s us. April 28, 2001. This picture represents a lot of things for me. It is a memory of our wedding day, obviously. But, it is also a memory of the day I became a wife, a role that has changed as much as we have in the almost 12 years since. I can honestly tell you that on that day neither of us had any idea the path that the Lord would lead us on. The foreign mission field was nowhere on our radar. And for me, melding the role of wife and missionary is still something I’m getting used to.

Quite often I’m referred to not as a missionary but as a missionary’s wife. I haven’t quite been able to understand why that is. Jonathan often jokes that I’m too American and “feminist” and that it isn’t meant as an insult. Trust me, I never take it as an insult, but I also don’t want to be discounted. Which leads me to what I am learning to be one of the most important parts of being a Christian, missionary, wife and mother. One thing that has slowly (mainly because I’m hard headed) become revealed to me about being a “missionary’s wife” is humility.

In years that Jonathan and I have been married, I  have always been the talker, the social butterfly. Not just in my marriage but over all. Even as a child (maybe it is the role of the youngest) I loved to be the center of attention. It is a difficult transition to move to the seat behind while my husband and my child take center stage. As I continue on my Christian walk I think I’m getting a better understanding of the “imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:4 HCSB).

The reality is that I have to humbly accept that this life is not my own, I belong to the Lord. I have to live according to His will and though it is a day to day struggle with self, I do want the richness of what the Lord has for me, even if I don’t fully understand it. I also belong to my husband and in doing so I should seek to put his needs before mine and bolster and support him as he seeks to live out the will of God. When I became a mother my life and needs shifted once again to meet the needs of my children and to do all I can to assure their growth physically, mentally and spiritually.

I have to tell you, I had no idea on my wedding day the full weight of what marriage really meant.  And, in turn, when we moved into full time foreign missions I had no grasp on what the life of a missionary’s wife would really look like. I’m learning slowly to humble myself and be satisfied with all the value of my work, quietly.

He leads the humble in what is right and teaches them His way. Psalm 25:9

Skipping Town

A little over two weeks ago, we skipped town. I told a few folks, but for the most part we knew we’d be heading south and that was all that mattered. If you ask Jon he will tell you that there are no redeeming qualities about the big city. I, on the other hand like a hot shower once and a while. He doesn’t really care if he has the creature comforts or not, but he and I can agree that the air in the city is dirty and that it just isn’t the country.  So, on the afternoon of May 23rd, we loaded in the car with our friend Misty Bodkins and followed a van of other friends (John and Celie Ozier and Shad and Ainsley Berry) down to Yetebon, just outside Butijira to visit Project Mercy (http://www.projectmercy.org) .  After spending two days there, we loaded back into the car to continue south another 6 hours to Chencha. In Chencha we spent some time making plans for our move and enjoying some greenery and clean air. Dawit was ready for grass and horses (that is seriously all we heard about on the way down). Here are just a few quick glimpses at our time enjoying the beauty of rural Ethiopia.

This donkey at Project Mercy was incredibly patient. Dawit thought it was so cool that he got to sit on the donkey. He also sat/rode in the cart.

The ladies working on sorting this corn probably never expected to have such an excited “helper.” Or to have such a large audience. @ Project Mercy

Dawit is enjoying his reward for being a “super hero.” The girls accidentally locked their bedroom door and there was no key. We lowered Dawit (the only one who would fit through the small opening) through a bathroom window onto the toilet. He stepped down and walked through and unlocked the door. It is amazing how cheese crackers can motivate. Before the cheddar bunnies were mentioned he didn’t want to go through the window. Look at the enjoyment on his face! @ Project Mercy

Dawit really enjoyed playing with the cushions for the sofa and love seat at the guest house in Chencha. We had to build several towers.

It is hard to believe that in March these chickens were the little chicks peeping in our living room. Now they are all about 2kgs (4lbs 7oz).

Dawit and Tarekagn are discussing the finer points of poultry production. Dawit is pretty serious about chickens.

The new hatchery building. Just like the chickens, this building project has grown immensely since March.

Dawit found the creek and of course had to splash. We were prepared with rain boots, we just didn’t expect he’d get quite so muddy.

Right now we are quite the attraction in Chencha. There aren’t a lot of foringies (white people) that spend a lot of time hanging out in Chencha. We’re praying that once we’ve been there a while the “paparazzi” will die down.

I don’t think this sheep knew what was happening. Dawit just knew it was fun!

We hiked up to the waterfall in Chencha. Dawit had a blast throwing rocks in the water and we all enjoyed the beautiful view. (not the best photo but it is difficult to orchestrate our entire group) Misty is on the far left along with Britta who flew down to enjoy Chencha for a few days.

Excitement and Anticipation

I just received a call from Tarekegn, the manager of the farm in Chencha. He called to ask me to arrange for the shipment of more feed for the 300 hungry chicks that I brought to the farm a few weeks ago. He also reported that the difficult excavation for the new hatchery building has cost us some time, but is almost complete.

I am back in the big city after spending the past two weeks in Chencha on the farm. It was such an exciting time! This trip marked the true start of the hatchery project. We now have the beginnings of a new hatchery building, 300 chicks thriving at three weeks old, a confident and encouraged staff, and a community that is excited and praising God for what’s going on.

Chicks

When we planned this grow-out trial I didn’t realize the full significance of what we were planning. I knew that it would be important, but I was only thinking within the context of our own project and its staff. However, I never realized how important this might be for the community there.

We picked up the chicks on April 13 and brought them home. That night Dawit was so excited to have 300 baby chicks staying in our living room. He pulled up his chair and insisted that we read books to the chicks. Bright and early the next morning, Jess helped me load up the chicks in the car and off I went to make the 9 hour drive to Chencha. Upon arrival in Chencha we had only lost one chick. The rest were tired and thirsty, but after a night of rest they were bouncing off of the walls. Three weeks later, to everyone’s amazement, they continue to thrive. Our primary poultry technician, Tadese, now has lots of experience feeding, watering, and vaccinating young chicks. The guards have worked out the kinks for operation of the new generator, which is essential to keep the chicks warm on the chilly nights when the power is out. Our farm managers, Tarekegn and Aregahegn, have figured out how to organize the farm to help protect the chicks from disturbance and disease.

This trial was intended to be small and to primarily benefit the project and its staff. However, it has turned out to be big for the community on an emotional and mental level. We took something that was firmly planted in the realm of impossibility and made it a possibility. As we were planning this trial literally everyone discouraged us, saying that it was impossible to ship day-old chicks to Chencha. I persisted knowing that every year millions of chicks are shipped around the US without incident. Of course, I knew that it would be much more difficult here, but not impossible. So we prayed and just went for it. I thought that it hadn’t been done simply because it hadn’t been tried. However, I came to find out later that it has been tried multiple times by the government and several large organizations without success. Every time they have tried to ship day-old chicks to Chencha they have all died in transit. Ours is the first batch of chicks EVER to make it to Chencha alive. So the nay sayers had good reason for their doubt, but we had one thing on our side that the others didn’t, God!  I believe our chicks are the most prayed over chickens that the world has ever seen.

As I prepared to leave Chencha I sat down with the staff and stressed that they should take extra special care of this batch of chicks. If this trial were to fail it would be no big deal to us. We’d just try again and correct any mistakes, but this trial has grown bigger than ourselves. The people of Chencha are hanging a lot of hope on it and we can’t let them down.

Hatchery

The second big objective of my trip was to oversea the groundbreaking of the new hatchery building. It was so exciting to see that first shovel full of dirt. This was the culmination of over a year of prayer and planning and the contribution of thousands of people through the Chicks for Change Campaign. There before my eyes it was finally becoming real.

I must give a lot of credit to Tarekegn here. I really wasn’t needed for much. He had arranged everything in advance. I mostly just gave a nod at each step as he asked for my approval.

Our conversation sounded a bit like this:

“This is the site we’ve chosen for the building.” (Tarekegn)

“Looks great!” (me)

“The materials are scheduled to arrive tomorrow.”

“Good Job!”

“The builder is ready. Can he start tomorrow?”

“Of course!”

I stayed through much of the difficult initial excavation for the building. The clay soil is dry and rock hard due to the drought. Everything is done by hand with shovel and domma, a special digging tool that is kind of like a mattock. In spite of the long, hard days no complaints could be heard from the workers. They were happy to be able to bring a little money home each day. This is one of the most immediate benefits to the community. Fourteen men and women who would otherwise be unemployed now have steady work while the building is built. Then there are the 8 guys who worked to deliver the materials for the building, as well as, the business owners who employ these people. This is a big boost to the local economy. Of course, the biggest boost to the local economy will come once this building is completed and we can help local farmers start producing poultry.

  

Next steps & Prayer needs

Now that everything is moving along in Chencha the next big step for me is to finish the work on my home made incubator. Initial testing was successful. The next step is to finish installing the egg racks and do a real test with real eggs. If we have a successful hatch then we are off to the races.

I only have a week left to finish up the incubator and start the testing. Jess will have to monitor the eggs for the first couple of weeks. I am taking a quick trip to Uganda on April 9. I have to make this trip to complete the process for my work permit. However, I’m really excited that our friends from Water for All are working there now. The two weeks that I’ll spend in Uganda should be productive, kind of like a short term mission trip. I’ll be helping dig wells and brainstorming some community level agri-business possibilities. The downside is that I’ll be leaving my family again while I travel.

After Uganda I’ll start the arrangements for importing breeding stock for our hatchery. The hatchery building is just a first step. Good breeding stock is critical to the hatchery operation. We have teamed up with the International Center for Poultry to get some really great stock. These guys have done an excellent job selecting their breeding stocks and I’m really excited about this partnership. In the coming months I’ll be filling you in more about what the International Center for Poultry does. In the mean time check them out on the web at www.centerforpoultry.com.

Prayer requests are mingled all through these lines:

• Everything going on in Chencha and on the farm
• traveling mercies and more family separations
• bureaucracy issues, especially about my work permit

I’m back with my family in the city after a very successful trip to the farm in Chencha. I arrived in Chencha to a staff and community that were excited, but at the same time skeptical and hesitant about what was about to begin. Just a few weeks later attitudes have changed. Now there is just excitement and anticipation about what lies ahead.

Daily Battles

I’m sitting in our unfurnished salon (aka living room) and surveying the state of things and I’ve realized that the little patches of chaos in various corners of the room are indicative of how I feel. I’m not going to act like our move to Ethiopia made life this way, I think I’ve always carried a bit of disorder and chaos with me. But, the move certainly hasn’t helped.

In one corner…

I am a student again. I didn’t realize until I became a student again at 33 that I have always been a fairly poor student. Don’t get me wrong, I made good grades, especially in college. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t wait until the last minute to do things and I certainly didn’t make my studies a priority. In the twelve years (that hurts just a bit to say) since I graduated from college my habits as a student haven’t changed much. I’m easily distracted from my studying and it takes a long hard push to get me to actually sit down and study.

In another corner…

Dawit is 3. Need I say more? Looking around the room most of the items strewn here and there are Dawit’s, left from a morning of play or even a previous day of play. Dawit certainly adds to the disjunct functions of my brain. All parents have been there, you are in the middle of a task and then a little voice asks you to get something or play something or sit down so he can play with your “ball hair” (Dawit currently is a fan of my quickly pulled back buns). Unlike my study time which is a small little voice in my mind urging me to sit down and look over notes, Dawit is mobile and thus he and his inquisitiveness can follow me from room to room and demand my attention.

In another corner…

Not many people can say that they have two homemade brooders and a homemade incubator sitting in their living room. I should consider that a privilege, right? In all seriousness, I am pretty excited that I have a working incubator (that is currently running, though empty) in the main room of my house. It actually makes me a little sad to know that in a few days those things will be heading down to Chencha with my husband. The husband part makes me really bummed. The start up of the hatchery has created it’s own exciting kind of chaos for me. Jon has spent many hours making and tweaking his designs and so in someways he has added to my muddle. If he is working I try to occupy Dawit which means that all other things come to a halt (or I overflow the washer).

In the last corner…

We have a mess of a computer workspace taking up the last corner. That mess may just be representative of me and my current relationship with technology. I have a love hate relationship with technology. I don’t think I’m alone. I love that I can hop on Facebook and see what friends and family are up to in the states. However, often times, knowing what is going on makes me miss home and family more than I already do. Facebook, more often than not, just makes me feel left out of all the stuff I enjoyed about home. Then there is e-mail. I always feel behind on e-mails (and blog posts) and then when I do catch up on an e-mail or two if I don’t get a response I usually feel forgotten. I’ve been battling that feeling since we left. I have to remind myself that whether internally or externally most people have a “messy computer area” and snarls of their own.

Despite these battles and the fact that there are multiple pairs of my child’s underwear lying on my living room floor ( just glanced again and noticed them) I know I am so blessed. My nature and this world sometimes tries to make me forget that. Is my kitchen currently full of dirty dishes? Yes. Do I need to eek out some study time? Yes. Did I loose one of my baking pans to the incubator? Yes. Do I have a God who loves me? Absolutely. Do I have an incredible family? No doubt about it. Am I living in a place filled with hidden glimpses of beauty and grace? Right now, I wouldn’t be anywhere else.

Our salon (living room) on a typical day in my life.

Troubled

Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? Job 2:10

A year or so ago my buddy Ern forwarded me an email excerpt from an interview with Rick Warren. In the interview he said several interesting things about the troubles we face in life. I want to share a couple here before I go on.

 We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on, and no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

One of our present challenges is learning a difficult language. However difficult it is there are many things that I like about Amharic. One of those things is how it views trouble. For instance, if I catch a disease, in English I would say, “I am sick” in the same way that I would say “I am Jonathan Bridges”. We claim that sickness as a part of ourselves. We also “catch the disease”, as if we are actively pursuing it, or “I am in pain” as if we are swallowed up by it. In Amharic sickness and pain are viewed much differently. They simply use the term “Amemagn”. There is no great translation of this to English, but it carries the idea of “the sickness is affecting me”. Notice the difference. The sickness is viewed as something external to the person.

We have a few problems swirling around us right now, immigration issues, bureaucracy, culture stress, illnesses, etc. It is important how we view our troubles and our blessings. We can be easily consumed by the trouble in our lives if we allow it, but that’s our choice. God has given us everything that we need to overcome, but we have to be willing to fight.

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Psalm 9:9

I have developed a new analogy for life based on these observations and my present living conditions. (Of course, this works for me, but you should take it with a grain of salt, as that’s all that most cute analogies are worth.) I am viewing life as compound. Within this compound are all of God’s promises and God’s blessings. Lurking around outside of the compound walls, like thieves, are all of life’s troubles. They are trying to find a way in to rob me of my blessings. Occasionally one of the troubles finds its way in and I have to fight against it to get it out of my compound. Each time I overcome one of the troubles my wall gets taller and stronger.

Mr. Warren also said, “You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.” This is not to say, “ignore it and it’ll go away”. Instead, he is acknowledging that we are all here for a reason and we were made for a purpose, the primary one being to glorify God. Let’s keep our attention on this and simply let the problems be a vehicle to glorify God all the more.

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33