the ministry they didn't expect....

I remember my mom's voice when I told her about Budapest.  I was a 24 year old calling from Albania telling my parents that while I would be coming home a month early, I would be then turning around to spend the next year of my life in Budapest, Hungary. 

I wasn't finished, I wasn't really coming home.

Mom tells me she sat on the floor with the speaker phone on so that she and Dad could both listen.  There were tears in their voices when they told be that this was, 'good'.  Their voices caught when they told me they'd see me home soon.  But really, they weren't suprised, they knew before I made the call. 

In truth, they've known this was coming for probably 23 years.

Maybe not this exactly, but they've known.  You see, when mom and dad dedicated me to the Lord before God and Ventura Missionary Church, they knew that it was for keeps.  They were giving me back to the Lord for whatever He would have for me and for them.  It didn't matter if it was overseas or in the States.  It didn't matter if it was when I was married with four boys or single at 28.  Mom put it well, 'We dedicated you to the Lord, how could we ever take that back?'

So even though my ministry is at ICSB in Budapest, Hungary, my ministry is not the only one involved here.  By me coming to Budapest, Mom and Dad had a ministry of their own.  Believing God to take care of me when I was overseas for the first time in Mexico, the second time in Albania, the summer in Central Asia, the 4 months back in Tirana and the now starting my 6th year in Budapest, Hungary.  They didn't ask for it, but they've known that trusting God to take care of their daughters overseas is a faith ministry of its own.  They know that it's an important one too.  For this season, for however long I'm here, they have a calling and ministry at home that is tied to my years in Budapest.  And as I've kept coming overseas they know that they had a hand in it.  They introduced me to missionaries my whole life, we read missionary stories, even in watching Chariots of Fire they were showing me that God is not reduced or confined to the continental United States.  They showed me the world is a big place and our great big God is in that place.  As Dad said, 'if we raised you girls right, we raised to obey the Lord where ever He puts you.'  So we're going to go with that..... 

So thank you Mom and Dad:

For 'letting' me go overseas. 
For not stopping me from following and obeying the Lord when I knew that the season was right.
For trusting me.....let's be honest...for trusting the LORD in me.
For not begrudging me being gone.
For taking on the faith and trust ministry at home.
For taking the harder road of this ministry of mine and calling it yours.
For answering people at home who, 'don't know how you'd let her go'....
For enduring too few Skype calls.
For being my biggest cheerleaders.
For raising me to follow hard after the Lord.
For being my biggest supporters outside of my sister. :-)
For so much more.

For the ministry you didn't expect.