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Wednesday, November 30

A new direction

Hello once again.

I'm back on the blog, hopefully for awhile. I've been wanting to write more than the occasional Facebook status to update people about our life. Some things seem too personal and heartwrenching for public perusal; but I feel the need to have a place to show others our life with honesty. Not to try to impress or even provoke sympathy, but so that we can all sit back together with anticipation and watch God work.

Since the last post, we have been keeping a sporadic blog via Avant Ministries at http://www.avantteam.com/wehrley/. There you will find some posts about life in Bolivia, some health issues I dealt with there (endometriosis) and then it kind of leaves off.

Let me fill you in:
We had plans in order for a short return to the United States during the Hebron Seminary's Christmas break so I could have surgery and seek care for my endometriosis. Then I got pregnant. A great way to put endometriosis on hold for awhile!

We made our planned trip to Oregon, but then hit a snag. We didn't receive our needed re-entry visas to Bolivia. The Bolivian Embassy needed more paperwork from us. So, we hurriedly rescheduled our flights, filled out more papers, paid more money and then, once again, we were not granted the visas. This time their requirements included more paperwork from the seminary in Bolivia. The time was too close to my delivery date and we had to wait for our daughter, Elsie-Mae, to be born before reapplying again.

After Elsie's birth in May we found out that all of the many ways we had worked on for getting the needed paperwork from the seminary or another sponsoring ministry in Bolivia would not work. It would take a year of continuous work and extra money for the seminary to "register" and get the documents in order for our successful visa application. After so many months of struggling, waning financial support and being in limbo, Adam decided that the door for us to return to ministry in Bolivia was closed. Our family and our sanity were falling apart and we needed to move on.

It has been a time of fear and trust.

Of craziness and peace.

Of scraping by and of plenty.

We are still looking for full-time family supporting work for Adam. We have settled in Beaver, Oregon next to the church I attended throughout my college years. We are blessed with wonderful friends, both here and in Alaska. We are enjoying being close to family for the first time in our own home.

I wanted to start writing here again because of one main thing. It was the topic of a sermon given the first Sunday of Advent.

Hope.

It's been easy for us to lose hope over the past year. Hope that we would return to ministry. Hope that we would get this job, or that one, or even hear back after sending off so many applications.

With the coming of Christmas, I was reminded that I am not to live like those who have no hope, but to be ready to give a reason to all that ask about the hope I have.

So, here it is: My hope is in Christ. He alone can provide for us so mysteriously, miraculously and lovingly. He has provided for our every need through our poverty. And I don't just mean finances, or food or clothes. He provided a way out of my sin. A way to be justified when I face a just God and have to give an answer for my sin.

My hope is not only in Christ--my hope IS Christ.