Dear Family and Friends,
We have a "Mighty God" story to share with you today. The story is followed by a prayer request to ask you to become a part of this story as you pray for two specific events that will be happening on January 24 and 25. The story we are about to share with you includes a Mom who was confused about how to parent her preteen/teen; a person who was very ill and needed hospitalization; a complete stranger who was struggling; a woman who was overwhelmed with the stranger's request for help; and a distant connection with someone in the U.S. This story is also a beautiful picture of God working through our community of believers and missionaries here in Nicaragua, as several of the people mentioned are a part of our church and missionary community (their permission was given to share this publicly). Besides involving you in this story through prayer, we would like to share it with you to celebrate our Mighty God – a God who works through the weak and struggling and unlikely to demonstrate His immeasurable glory and power. This story will take you around 10 minutes to read. Would you please take the time to read it? If your answer is "yes", grab a cup of coffee, relax, and allow me to tell you the story . . .
Lisa Van Zoest Mighty God
Retreating to my bedroom one afternoon last year, I (Lisa) pleaded with God to show me how to better parent my preteen/teen. It took me by surprise – all this emotion and expressed need to be in control. I was aware that children change physically/ emotionally/ and mentally during adolescence, but I was not prepared for how these changes would impact our kids. It seemed that there was often tension in the air; and more often than not, I was uncertain about how to respond to my kids. I felt like I needed to learn how to parent all over again.
As I sat crying in my bedroom that afternoon and asking God to show me the next step, the words "Love and Logic" came to mind. These were familiar words, as years before, I had read books related to the Love and Logic philosophy of parenting. Dan and I had used Love and Logic actively when our kids were 3 and 4 – during that season of development when they were desiring more independence just like they are right now. We had not used it as actively during their elementary years because both kids were very open to receiving instruction and guidance. I sensed that God had showed me the next step through these words and I resolved to purchase as many Love and Logic resources as I could when we returned to the U.S. during the following summer.
Within weeks of arriving in the U.S., I had a conversation with my good friend Susan who God has so often used to speak truth and life to me. I talked with her about my struggle parenting preteens/teens and she mentioned to me that she had been attending a Love and Logic workshop led by Mark Forstrom, High School Pastor and Parent Mentor at New Covenant Bible Church (Cedar Rapids, IA). This church was the place where God prepared us for our call to Nicaragua and from where we were sent. We had never met Mark in person because the church is very large and our kids were in 2
nd and 3
rd grade when we left for Nicaragua. However, we were looking forward to the time when our kids would be old enough to be a part of Mark's youth program because we had heard so many wonderful things about him and his ministry.
It did not work out for me to go to the workshops, but I asked Susan to request that the workshops be video taped the next time Mark led them so that I could take the videos with me to Nicaragua - both to learn from myself and to share with others. I then started to buy books and CDs - spending hours reading, studying, listening, and sharing what I was learning with Dan. We talked about how to apply the principles to our own family and began to parent according to those principles. We were amazed at the remarkable difference we were seeing in both the response of our kids and in our relationships with them. Dan and I also found that we could use these principles in our marriage and we now enjoy better patterns of communication with each other as a result.
Fast forward now to Friday, September 13. At 6:00 AM, our phone rings. It was Tony Thomas, NCA's art teacher asking if I could help his family by taking his wife, Phyllis, to the hospital because she had been very sick all throughout the night. Phyllis and I arrived at the hospital at around 7:30 AM and she was admitted and given an IV. It was not clear whether she would be released that day or would be staying the night so I waited in the waiting room to hear from the doctor.
While I was waiting, I read one of my Love and Logic books - highlighter in one hand and a pen in the other. I was probably a bit of a spectacle. I got up to go to the bathroom and on my way back to my seat, a Venezuelan man stopped me and asked me (in English) about what I was reading. I shared with him about all that Dan and I were learning as we use this philosophy of parenting and how it was making such a difference in our family. He shared with me that he was struggling with his 16 year old son and wondered if I could give him the title of the book because he was interested in purchasing it. He also asked me for my email address and I gave it to him. He then shared more about the situation with his son and I listened. All of a sudden, a young man who's face was covered in blood walked into the waiting area looking very confused and then he was quickly ushered into the emergency room. The young man seemed to represent many of the fears this father was dealing with when it came to the current and future welfare of his son. Shortly after this young man left the room, the struggling father looked at me and said with much authority, "I want you to lead a small group for me and my wife using this material and I can think of 4 other friends who would like to learn more about this." It was just then when he was called to see the doctor and I was left standing there feeling a bit like maybe I could use an IV too.
Shortly after talking with this man, the doctor told me that Phyllis would need to stay overnight at the hospital and Phyllis let me know that she felt comfortable with me leaving. As I drove home, my mind was spinning. It was exciting to hear that this man was so interested in learning more about Love and Logic, but I was not at all feeling equipped to lead a small group of people through how to apply these principles to their own families. The time and commitment it would take to do something like this felt overwhelming to me. And yet, I knew it was also a great opportunity and I wondered what God was doing. My next thought was how I wished the Love and Logic workshop that Mark taught last summer had been videotaped. I thought,
"If I had these videos, it would not be difficult to lead a group." Then came an idea,
"I wish that Mark could just come here and teach this." It was a crazy notion given that I have never even had a conversation with Mark. And yet, I thought that I would just email him – out of desperation – with the hope that he would consider it.
I spent some time just thinking this all through and talking with Dan and praying for God to show us if this was what He was leading us to do. Then, on September 24 at 10:21 PM I sent Mark an email with a request that he come to teach us. Mark responded on September 25 at 3:43 PM with "I would love to do this!" Dan and I were shocked. And excited. And full of praise for the God who loves to surprise and thrill us like that. It seemed so clear that God was calling Mark to do this.
Little did we know that there were even more surprises to come. I began emailing with Mark about plans for his time here. In one of his emails, Mark expressed interest in staying in Nicaragua for at least a week to spend time with the students at NCA International. We spent some time thinking through what this would look like and then planned for Mark to come the week of Spiritual Emphasis Day (SED) so that he could speak at the break-out sessions that day; attend the chapels leading up to SED; and then lead the chapel the following week. We were trying to find other ways to fill his time that week as well. But, God already had that all figured out. On October 31, I received an email from Liam Starkenburg, director of NCA, written to the Spiritual Life Committee of NCA (which is a committee that intentionally focuses on the spiritual health and progress of our students), letting the team know that the speaker we had chosen for SED was not able to come. My first thought after reading this was "God, have you called Mark to do this too?" I talked with Dan about this possibility and he said that the same thought crossed his mind after reading the message from Liam. So, I emailed Liam right away asking what he thought of Mark being the key note speaker.
That afternoon the Spiritual Life Committee met for our monthly meeting, and I assumed that Liam had received my email. So, I was planning to let him mention Mark as a potential speaker. However, he had not received my email prior to the meeting and so he opened up the discussion for ideas about who we could pursue. Luke Rosenberger, NCA's youth group leader, then remarked that he and Matt House, NCA chaplain, had been talking about Mark Forstrom earlier that day and that they felt we should ask him to be the key note speaker. How sweet this was for me
not to be the one who suggested Mark. It confirmed for me that God was calling Mark to fill this role in addition to leading the Parenting Workshop. The team emailed Mark about this opportunity and he wisely asked for a few days to pray before he responded. He responded later that he felt that he was prepared to commit to whatever God was calling Him to do while in Nicaragua.
We are asking him to do a lot. Mark will be speaking at chapel at NCA on January 22 and 23; then he will speak at the 2 plenary sessions as the key note speaker as well as during the break-out sessions on Spiritual Emphasis Day on Jan. 24. He will then be speaking all day on Saturday, January 25 at the Parenting Workshop. It will be busy, but also a rich and insightful experience for him to get to know some of our kids before he speaks to us parents/teachers/others who work with kids.
You may wonder as I end this story about what happened to the man I met in the hospital and whether he ever contacted me. He didn't. I do not have his name or email, but I do have some information that may lead me to his whereabouts. I hope to find him to share with him about how God used our conversation to initiate something that will be much more far reaching than the small group he had in mind. I pray that he will be able to join us on January 25 to learn with us about how to love and lead kids well.
We share this story with you for three reasons: 1) It is a story that we pray would encourage you as you walk with your
Mighty God. We hope you see through this story how our
Mighty God used my
feelings of inadequacy as a Mom of a preteen and teen to cry out to our
Mighty God for help. And how our
Mighty God led the conversation with my friend Susan to include the information about Mark and his Love and Logic workshops. And then, our
Mighty God used
Phyllis's illness and hospitalization to facilitate a meeting with
a man who was struggling in his relationship with his son to then ask me to lead a Love and Logic small group
that I did not feel equipped to lead. This led me to
desperately pursue someone who could help both this man and me learn more about how to parent our teens.
And then our
Mighty God led
a man who I had never even met to say "yes" to spending hundreds of dollars and a week away from his family and ministry to fly to Nicaragua to speak at an all day parenting workshop –
something he has never done before. And then to say "yes" to speaking to 150 students - preparing 9 different messages that he will be presenting (all within 4 days) at chapels, for plenary sessions, break-out sessions, and for the parent workshop
. And he is doing this with the understanding that he will be paid nothing (at least in this life).
Our God is a Mighty God who so obviously delights in working through human weakness. This is one of the things that I love most about Him. And where ever you are on the spectrum of feeling weak or strong right now, I pray that you would be encouraged by this reminder as well.
Sarah Young in her book,
Jesus Calling, says it this way as she writes from Jesus's perspective . . .
Come to Me when you are weak and weary. Rest snugly in My everlasting arms. I do not dispise your weakness, My child. Actually, it draws Me closer to you, because weakness stirs up My compassion – My yearning to help. Accept yourself in your weariness, knowing that I understand how difficult your journey has been.Do not compare yourself with others, who seem to skip along their life-paths with ease. Their journeys have been different from yours, and I have gifted them with abundant energy. I have gifted you with fragility, providing opportunities for your spirit to blossom in My Presence. Accept this gift as a sacred treasure: delicate, yet glowing with brillant Light. Rather than struggling to disguise or deny your weakness, allow Me to bless you richly through it.2) We also share this story with the request that you pray for Mark as he prepares for this God-sized assignment. He will speak on Jan. 22 from 9:15 to 10:00 AM; Jan. 23 from 9:15 to 10:00 AM; Jan. 24 he will speak four separate times from 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM; Jan. 25 from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM; Jan. 27 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM; and will meet with parents during the day on the 27th and 28th. Please pray that God would speak through Mark and that the hearts of the listeners would be open and receptive.
3) Would you also pray for me (Lisa) as I organize this workshop? And for Dan? I'm feeling very out-of-my-comfort-zone at the moment and am needing God to be strength in my weakness. In addition to the workshop, I am on the committee that is organizing Spiritual Emphasis Day and I will be speaking during the break-out sessions as well. It is also Will's birthday on Jan. 24
th and so I am trying to wrap my head around how to make his day special in the midst of all that is happening! In addition, Dan is in the midst of some important deadlines this week and will be very focused and involved with tasks that are separate from this workshop.
Thank you so very much for being a part of this story by taking the time to read it and by praying for these events. We are so thankful for you and for your prayers.
Peace to you,
Lisa (Dan, Rebekah, and Will) Van Zoest
