Updated bonus to this post…
When I began blogging several months back, I wanted a header photo that included a dirt road/desert with a “journeying” type of theme. I came across the photo above and knew it was the one! Last night, while perusing photos on istock of Bolivia, guess what picture popped up? Exactly. Apparently this was shot in the Uyuni desert in Bolivia. I didn’t realize it then, but God did. How cool is our Master Weaver?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
God knows how to send a message, even when we least expect it.
I won’t lie to you friends. It has been a long nine days since my husband and son left for Bolivia. There have been moments of self-sacrifice that have seemed too much for me. Moments when I have been tempted to grow some seeds of resentment for being left behind. I knew it would be tough. Not just because of the 24/7 that would be required of me for the family who remained, but also because of the experiences I would never be able to live with my husband and son as they poured out their lives for the cause of Christ.
They were called to the much, while I am struggling to exist within my seemingly little. The ordinary never lives as vivid as the extraordinary, and for a few days now, I’ve been nursing a severe case of the mundane.
Rather than facing another night of kitchen duty, I packed the three “left behinds” into the van and headed to our favorite Mexican restaurant. The name of the local eatery? None other than LaPaz. Mid-way through our salsa and chips and quesadillas, my son’s cell phone rang. On the other end?
His brother calling from LaPaz, Bolivia. We haven’t heard from the team in eight days. They’ve been in the mountains of that country doing missional work at an orphanage. Communication has been non-existent. But now on the tail end of the trip, they are back in the city and were able to call from a pay phone. When the phone finally made its way to my ears, I heard my husband crying. He is eager to come home and to tell me of his journey.
Our conversation was brief, but he relayed a message to me that is worthy of my pen this night. As only God could orchestrate, it fits perfectly with my ponderings from the zoo.
It’s a story that breathes the witness of a butterfly.
Of moving from this…
to this…
Last night, my husband was asked to speak to the orphaned children in a service of closing benediction. He told them about Jesus and the cross and the Father who longs to call them as his own. At the end of his message, he gave an altar call of sorts. This was unfamiliar territory for these children. They were unsure as how to respond. The translator talked them through it, and once they realized what was being offered, several came forward to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Billy told me it was an Acts-Pentecost kind of moment. A people moving from a place of human abandonment to a permanent place of sacred adoption. Kingdom work found its way onto the soil of a Bolivian mountainside this week, and all heaven rejoices over the salvation of many young souls.
As I walked through the zoo with my children, pondering the animals and their confinement, I witnessed the beauty of this one creature who no longer knows the confinement of his metamorphosis. The butterfly flies free. He flies beautiful. He flies changed and unencumbered by the darkness of his becoming. His life will be short, but he will live it in the release and the lovely of God’s grand design for his life.
His old is gone. His new has come, and all because of a Father who understands that a tomb is required for the new to birth.
The story of the butterfly.
It belongs to us, for we are that butterfly, and we have been given the commission to bring God’s lovely to the captives who have yet to fly their sacred release.
They are all around us. We don’t have to travel to the other side of the world to find them. We only have to look to our neighbor. Our co-worker. Our fellow church-goer. Our family. Our friends. Our strangers and our enemies. Christ is making his appeal through us. That is a high and holy calling, no matter our seemingly little or extravagant ordinary. Whether we stay or we go, we live the righteousness of Jesus for all the world to see.
We are the closing benediction of a Calvary grace that painted love’s redeeming work on a Judean hillside not so long ago. This is the power of the Gospel. It transcends time and space to breathe current and real to those with hearts to hear.
And even though Bolivia currently boasts the snow and cold of winter, there are some butterflies who soar this night, begging the budding of Spring. Easter has come to an orphaned people who desperately needed to know that there is a Father who loves them, and for that, my friends…
I will gladly suffer my ordinary. In some small way, perhaps, I have served my portion in God’s agenda for something far greater than my little. And thus I pray,
Forgive me, Father, for thinking that my ordinary was not enough. It was my allotted and necessary portion this week so that your work could be accomplished in extraordinary measure. Thank you that I will one day meet these children. If not here, then there. Before your throne as one people in one voice shouting the blessed benediction of our forever. Holy, holy, holy are you Lord. Worthy of glory and honor and our praise forever. Surround your new butterflies with the tenderest of care, and let your beauty fly unencumbered through them. Amen.
Copyright © July 2008 – Elaine Olsen. All rights reserved.
Oh, Elaine that is such a great word. Thanks for sharing so that I could join in with you to praise our Lord Jesus.
Your son and husband are “continuing to make it known” as Jesus specifically called out to God…
isn’t that wonderful!
I’m excited to hear your son’s perspective on what he saw and learned from his time there.
Dad and son time is sometimes hard to come by these days and I’m sure your son will never forget it.
John 17:24
“Father, I want those you gave me To be with me, right where I am, So they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me, Having loved me Long before there ever was a world. Righteous Father, the world has never known you, But I have known you, and these disciples know That you sent me on this mission. I have made your very being known to them— Who you are and what you do— And continue to make it known, So that your love for me Might be in them Exactly as I am in them.”
Wow!! What great news.
Your mundane is what allowed the men in your family to experience the extraordinary. What a joy to know that you played a part in that.
The old has gone… and the new has come. This is still a miracle that I stand in awe of.
Thanks again for sharing with us. You are a blessing.
Lynn
wife
please go read the comment I posted “On the Back Side of Eleven”
Can´t do more; Bolivaian PC keyboard very hard to work with and a lot of peoplle are waiting to use it.
Sorry I have not ben able to read about your zoo adventure. Love from LA Paz, Bolivia and Jesus Christ Billy
From the vantage point of this lofty 60ish place I can look back, down and behind to say that the least in my life has been the greatest. I didn’t always know it then; but I sure know it now. Thus I have come to relish the very things that at one time felt so insignifcant.
Kathleen
Elaine, His life and beauty are flying free through you. His Words through your pen are changing lives…maybe not in Bolivia, but across computer screens around the world. Your life is far from “mundane” my friend. Your life displays the miraculous surrendering of a daughter of the King! Thank you for giving us the honour of watching you fly!
Soaring with Him,
Joy
Elaine,
I was blessed by your story, and your husband’s heart for missions. I pray that you will have a blessed time waiting for him and your fam to return.
katiegfromtennessee
What a wonderful opportunity for your hubby and son. I pray one day that we could take our boys for a vacation-with-a-purpose trip like this.
And then there’s you, at home…your keyboard flowing with words that flow with such beautiful rhythm that we who read are caught up quite easily to soar even for a short time..thank you for the Divine respite…
Bless you Elaine…your words on the comment you left me moved me to tears of joy but as I began to read your words here, I was partially feeling burfened and had a sense of urgency to run to you (or in this case the comment box)
and tell you, it's because of YOU
at home handling what you perceived as the little(wrongly)that others (husband & son & group) are/were able to do the MUCH! I know you feel left out but when he returns you will share in the MUCH because of you holding down the fort. I can sense you have a heart "to go" and "reach" but your reward comes by how you bless and inspire with your words
right here through this ministry.
The dangers of a mountain mission
takes alot of team work and prayer! Without that those precious children would still not know Jesus Christ and how to come forward for an altar call which is totally foreign to them. But we are all learning. The fields are white, the harvest is near! It's the laborers that are few. But it takes MUCH from MANY to accomplish the GREAT COMMISSION! I'm so glad that you finally received a much awaited call and that they were able to find a place and had a chance to make such a call. Believe me it is very frustrating when we are not able to remain or be in touch with those we love with commodities that we take for granted when they are not available, they seem like necesities and we recall that our words say that our total dependence
is on God…so we need to DEPEND and Trust in Him! Our time will come! Your scripture and words are most inspiring! La Paz means PEACE and how appropriate that their destination and yours is Peace for the Journey! Your words of your pen
and that glorious conclusion tell me that you have a GREAT part in this mission! Your prayer is heard!
Be blessed as you continue in hope and bless many with your PEACE!
What an incredible report from your husband and son! Praise be to God!
Isn’t it something how this sheds a whole new light on the mundane? Imagine the outcome for those sweet souls, were you not willing to live in the ordinary for these days…
No doubt you can’t wait for their return. Continued prayers for you and them…
Blessings,
Tracy
P.S. Imagine too, were it not for the mundane, we could have likely missed out on this amazing series of messages inspired by your day at the zoo! = )
P.S.S. Just read about the photo for your site…unbelievable! (smile)
Elaine,
This post was just precious! The Lord does work in marvelous ways!
And never, ever assume that just because you have not gone to a foreign land on a mission trip and are doing you regular “at home” Mommy work that it is little in God’s sight! Remember the song…”Little is Much When God is In It!”
God bless you Friend!
Marilyn in Mississippi
I too sometimes suffer from the “ordinary” way that God seems to use me……I sometimes wonder what good am I actually doing with this “little”……Then He impressed upon me the story of the feeding of the five thousand. An ordinary little boy offered an ordinary lunch….but with that ordinary offering, God did the extraordinary! Amen? 🙂
That story offers me comfort, God knows what He needs from me and where He needs me to be to do it. He wants my faithfulness in the ordinary and for me to leave the extraordinary up to Him.:)
2 Corinthians 5:17 is the verse that God gave me for the time of healing in my marriage. Some days I would get down and depressed or even angry over some past incident that happened in my marriage, but with that verse God would remind me…”Your husband is not the same, you are not the same, your marriage is not the same….because it is new in Me!”
I would repeat the verse over and over when the enemy tried to taunt me with memories of the past.
I loved this post, Elaine.
God Bless,
Amy:)
Faith Elaine,
I am always so touched by your words. What a gift you have to touch a heart! I cannot wait until you are reunited with your loved ones and get to look into their faces as they share the stories that will change so many things for them. What an amazing experience they must be having. And I love these words: “I will gladly suffer my ordinary. In some small way, perhaps, I have served my portion in God’s agenda for something far greater than my little. And thus I pray.”
Thank you for blessing me, friend.
Oh, Elaine, that was beautiful. Thank you for your honesty of heart! Never doubt that what you are doing by ‘holding the fort down’ is extraordinary!
Mary and Martha were minding their own business at home when Jesus came to them to visit! They could have thought ‘well, at least the disciples are called to something ‘big’ while we sit in this dirt floor shack baking bread.’
But in the very midst of the seemingly mundane, our God shows up in bug ways…when we are willing to look for it!! I am praying for you, friend! Be blessed today!!
And I must say how incredible of God to weave together all these ‘little things’ to show you He sees you right where you are!! hugs!!
Elaine,
May you enjoy a blessed homecoming with Billy and Nick. I know you cannot wait to hold them and know they are home and alright. I look forward to hearing of each of the teams experiences. Love you!
Absolutely tooo amazing about your blog header picture! Only God…only God!!!!!
Dear Sis – sometimes a David needs a Jonathan. David was a king, but just the same Jonathan is highly esteemed among anyone who has heard of David. For me, being a Jonathan has become a way of life… but I have to tell you that I’m darned good at it… and I can tell you are, too!
wifeforthejourney:
I am still in prayer for the children who responded to that altar call. One of the things that has made coming home hard is knowing that I will not be able to have any more “hands on” discipleship opportunities with those children. The faith is so tender and new in the remote little village of Tacachia. They have not had any substantive church presence until the Children’s Home was started one year ago. There is a whole village (small, maybe 200 people) who seem to view the faith with a New Testament kind of “new-ness.”
More than anything, I want to see the first seeds of the Gospel take root in this far away place – and to never take for granted the Lord’s desire to be known, wherever we call home.
Love you!
Billy