Parents' Pain

Over 40 years ago we left the US for service overseas, taking one baby and many hopes that we would be able to serve God fruitfully. 28 years later we returned (I had always wondered when the time would come for a one-way ticket back to the US), with four children already back here, all either in college or married and working.

What had it meant for our parents to see us go, knowing they would seldom see their grandchildren (at least not as often as is usually the case)? And what does it mean for the parents of workers we often help send to rather risky places?

I found out this week. Well, I knew already, because we went through this with a daughter not quite six years ago, and with our oldest daughter and her husband and family three years ago, but it all hit us again like a ton of bricks.

Here's what I wrote a few years ago in a forward to a booklet that our son 'Stephen' authored:

Stephen Jordan (pseudonym) made a commitment to serve for one year in a staunchly Muslim country.  He went out prepared for the task at hand.  What he was not prepared for was the very positive response he, and others like him, received.  The following pages relate a short-term experience that, in the meantime, has led Stephen to embark upon what may well become a longer, life-long journey to some of the most neglected people groups on earth. . . . .

As a mission leader, I am greatly encouraged by the evident call of God upon Stephen’s life.  As an American Christian, I am enlightened in many ways by Stephen’s experience, because it helps me not only to understand what Muslims believe, but why they believe it.  And as a father, well, I fear sometimes for what Stephen’s calling may mean for him and his young wife and (future) children, for Stephen is my son.  But my wife and I have been immeasurably enriched by seeing the fruit of our prayers, and much more those of Stephen’s grandparents, as well as those of his wife’s parents and grandparents. And we continue to pray that God’s Word may go forth to those who have had so little chance to hear it.

On Tuesday, 'Stephen' and his wife 'Joy' flew with their three little boys again to a 'staunchly Muslim country'--one that is often in the news these days. This time it's long-term, and we won't be seeing them very often.

I'll admit; I cried. I probably will more than once again. They lived with us for three and a half months, finishing graduate school work, doing orientation with ReachAcross, and waiting on visas. I'm used to the patter of little feet in the morning, and the youngest sitting close by me in the early hours, gurgling sounds that one-year-olds do. 

Tears will always be close at hand. But then I remember:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. . . .

When we let go of our children, it is only a shadow of the One who bore all pain for us.

So even in tears, I'm so very grateful. 

US Director